Nadirah

Salam all... this is not an entry dedicated to anyone by the name of Nadirah. Tak ade kene mengena dengan yang hidup ataupun mati. hehehehe...I've mentioned in m previous entry that i'll be watching a play by Alfian Sa'at at KLPAC right...well here is the review of it.

First of all i must say that it is an AWESOME play. The story line, the issue that was brought up and the value it was trying to portray was heart felt and emotional. But be warn, it's only for those who are open minded and who are not quick to judge for it can be sensitive to some people for it address issues on religion and the cultures of the two countries. If you asked what is the message from the play? I would like to quote the writer himself, when one of the audience asked him he said;

" If I want to convey a message i wouldn't write a play. Thus its unfair to say what was the message i was trying to convey. I have no answer to that question." :)

Anyway i'm sure all of you is dying to know what Nadirah is all about right. Let me first tell you about KLPAC ok. The venue where the play was held. We arrived at Sentul KTM around 8:20pm and the play starts at 830pm. We were supposed to collect our tickets half an hour before show. No doubt i was panic. I was like if they start already how ar? sure they wont let us in one. Now if you guys are a play lover you would definitely know that once the play had started you are not allowed to enter the theater until after the interval. It's different from watching a cinema. Plus when we googled the map of the place it states there 3 mins drive to the place. But when the taxi driver drove it seems like eternity. You know the when-you-are-late feeling. Like suddenly the traffic lights seems to be taking too long and you expect your taxi driver to be your hero and drive like a F1 racer. It was a long drive in. When we arrived at the entrance of the landmark, it reminds us of Fort Canning. No joke people it really looks like one. The building was...was...well old but nice kindda  buildings.

Pictures are from Google. hehehe.. We were in such a rush that we didn't get to snap pictures. Sad but true.

Anyway we were not late as when we arrived the previous show just ended and they just open for the next seating. Phew...it was lucky we were not late for there were no interval. It was a 2 hours play.

Now here's the real deal. The play itself. Ok...*drum roll*

Nadirah is a play about cross-culture, religion and society. It was written by a Singaporean (*waves...hehehe proud moment jap) It was 1st staged in Singapore in 2009 and again in 2010 (missed both for i was not in Singapore). It is now staged in Malaysia for the first time. Therefore this is it's third production. 

Play Synopsis

Nadirah is the popular and articulate Vice-President of her university's Muslim Society. She convenes inter-faith meetings where students talk about how they should respect one another's spaces. 

Nadirah is also the product of mixed marriage. Her father is a Malaysian Malay and her mother is a Singaporean Chinese who had converted to Islam. One day, Nadirah's mother tells her that she's going to re-marry. To a man who's not a Muslim.

Nadirah's best friend Maznah, believes that everyone has a right to happiness. Her senior, Farouk, however, is outraged and urges her to do 'the right thing'.

How does Nadirah make peace between various religions in school when she's having the same problems at home? Can mother and daughter worship different gods?

Will love or faith prevail???

"Funny, insightful and moving, Alfian Sa'at's award-winning NADIRAH wrestles with the complex issue of religion by grounding it in a story about a quirky family and the ties that bind."

A little insight of the play. The writer 1st wrote Nadirah in 2009 with inspiration from two sources.
1) Yasmin Ahmad's film, Muallaf, which dealt with interfaith understanding.
2) Nadra (a.k.a Maria) Hertogh tragedy that occurred in Singapore.

The Cast:

• Neo Swee Lin as Sahirah (if you remember the comedy series of Phua Chu Kang than she's no alien to you. She's the granny in PCK ) 
• Patrick Teoh as Robert
• Redza Minhat  as Farouk
• Farah Rani as Maznah
• Ani Juliana Ibrahim as Nadirah

 My Opinion of the Play...

I have to say that this is the first time i watch a play where there is no stage. The audience were seated at the perimeter of the rectangular room. The center of the room was left bare. For the cast of cause. It was a small room and therefore i felt really engage and involved with the play. The stage manager did a brilliant job. Love how organised each entrance and exit of the cast and the change of scenes was done briefly.

My favourite character is Maznah played by Farah Rani. I really love how she looks so natural and acted damn well. Everything that comes from her seems real  and professional. For the fact that she was limping throughout the play for she literally "break a leg" for the play, she did a wonderful act. She plays as Nadirah's best friend. The scene that i love the most was during the question and answer session she had with Nadirah. Now that scene is thanks to the playwriter himself of cause for the wonderful, honest lines. But the way Maznah carried it out was awesome. I'm not quite in favour with Nadirah's character. I don't quite feel her in the play. I felt like she didn't reach out to the audience. Macam kaku sikit. But still a job well done for it was not easy to play such a role. There's always room for improvement what, right? :)

Another scene i love would be the talk between Farouk and Robert. How they relate soccer to religion. Believing in two different faith and how it was portrayed in a very subtle manner was an eye opener for all who came.

I'm definitely not gonna reveal to you the ending of the play. Go watch it and feel it for yourselves. muahahahahaha....

Ouh they were using a book titled RUMI in the play. Now i'm going to hunt for that book. Let me just leave you with a quote frm RUMI

Lots of Love
    ella

Cousin Getaway (part 1)

Hola... How's everyone doing? Its a beautiful Sunday afternoon, although it looks like the clouds gonna cry soon but it's still beautiful. Wanna know why? For I, together with 3 other friends, will be watching the play Nadirah later tonight at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center!!!! weeeeee...it's been soooooooooo long since i last watch a play. Will write the review for you allz after that ya. hehehehe...

Well the purpose of this entry this time round is to give you the long over due entry on my Phuket trip with my cousins and sisters. As usual thanks to Marriot Vacation Club for the opportunity of another vacation. And since my Mum works at a school canteen and can't take off to join us for our holiday this time round so we decided to drag our cousins along. So it's a Cousin Getaway! hehehehe... Parents takde so it's time to PARTY!!!!!!! :)

All of you must have known by now that my bro-in-law works in Phuket right. Our check in date was on the 25th of August (yes the 1st weekend of raya, hahahahahah, Orang sibuk jalan raya kite merayap sampai ke Phuket!) But we left Singapore on the 24th evening for the tickets were cheaper than if we fly the next morning. So once we reached Phuket, abang Illyas fetch us and straight for dinner. Da kebulur babe. Bro drove a pick up truck and unfortunately for the guys it starts to rain on our way home so.... mandi hujan la budak-budak tu. Sampai apartment semue menggigil. Kesian... hehehehe... 

Ouh..ouh...once we reached the apartment we were greeted by three cute kittens. So damn cute. Macam nak gigit. Don't believe me...look at this...

All ready to get on the plane. Selamat hari raya all. hahahahaz

Off and away we go...

Destination reached :)

We were that hungry.... hahahaha

can we still find this in Singapore???? 

The view from my sis apartment 

We had to check in the next day at 3pm. When i first booked for the place it states there Villa. So when you hear the word Villa you'll think of a one unit house right. So imagine how blur we were when we check in they say "please proceed left and your VILLA is on the fourth floor" we was like fourth floor????? Satu villa share dengan orang lain ke? Blur abis i tell you. Actually it's like an apartment la. hahahahaha... but we were not disappointed or anything for the apartment is gorgeous!! As usual we go gaga over everything. hahahaha... jakons gitu.

Feeling like a boss...

The Polka dots

Orang sibuk check in diorg boleh posing eh..

The complimentary... can you see that they shaped the towels into an elephant head? Cute right... :) 

The leaving and dining room

Fully equipped kitchen ok

The Guest room a.k.a the ladies room.

The master bedroom a.k.a the boys room. Menyampah.... this room is bigger la but we cant possibly have five girls on the bed right. so ya we were forced to oppt for the guest room. :/ 

Hahahaaha...we decided to chill at the apartment for that day. And prepare for the fun packed activities tomorrow. Catch the next entry to know what we did ok. Bye...

Lots of Love
    ella

Cuti-Cuti Raya

Salam to all. October is gone and welcome November. :) Two more months and it's exam time. :/ Far from prepared for it. Assignments are still undone for i just don't know where to start. I have all the info i need for the assignments but every time i want to start writing.... my mind will go blank. Tak tahu nak tulis ape. Masalah betul la. If only ideas for writing my assignments would flow like when i write here. hahahahahaz

 Anyway i wanna share with all my eiduladha days right here in Malaysia. Yup i didn't went home for eid celebration. My roommate and I choose to stay here to celebrate our eid. At first we wanted to experience raya at kampung. But unfortunately the friend that we intend to follow didn't went back to her kampung as well. So we are stuck in KL. Thank God we have our Ustazah Ani (who used to be Zakiyyah's form teacher during her first year in Indonesia) who stays in Gombak. So on Thursday afternoon around 6pm we left the hostel for Gombak. We took the Rapid KL. The journey was like travelling from Clementi to like maybe Bugis. We arrived at about 645pm and Ust Ddy  was supposed to fetch for us from the station. However we waited and waited, from it starts to drizzle to heavy rain to drizzle and finally the rain stops, still no sign of Ust. Tried calling Ustazah Ani but we couldn't get through. We panic no doubt. Yela just the two of us stranded at the station, heavy rain some more. It was a cold and chilly night ( mcm setting cerite hantu pulak, hehehehe) and luckily infront of where we were seating, there's this stall by the taxi stand that sells what we first thought was Yong Tau Foo. Since da kesejukan, and the smell of the food makes us want to taste it, i went over and asked whats the price like. It's RM1 per stick. Took 5 stick and after she boiled the stuff she puts in on a plate and pour 3 sauce, Chili, tomato and satay sauce. Wow....something new for us. The taste definitely did justice to the smell. It was yummy. We waned to go for second round but paiseh like that. 5 stick was alot la. hahahahaha... So finally Ust arrived at around 730pm. When we reached Ustazah's house it was almost 830pm. Played with her kids and we went to bed soon after we ironed our clothes for solat eid the next morning.

Was up bright and early for as usually i will have problem sleeping in a new environment. We prayed subuh and got ready for solat Eid. We went to University Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIA), where Ustazah is doing her Masters in Education if i'm not wrong, for solat eid. The feeling was like when i was in Mecca. hahahaha... why? because all there was international people from various countries. Be it Europe or Asia all come together for one purpose, to worship The Creator, The All-Mighty, The King of all Kings.... ALLAH S.W.T. It was a wonderful sight what more when the kutbah was said in three different languages. In Malay, Arabic and English. So the international right. :) love the feeling when i was there.

Ustazah Ani & her cute son, Nawar.

Zakiyyah and I after solat Eid. :)

Us after solat eid together with Ustazah's friend. 

 Done with solat eid we went back to Ustazah's house and waited for a few of her friends who happens to be my form teachers when i was studying in Indonesia. It was a wonderful feeling being able to see them all again after like two years since we last saw each other. They are all married with kids now. It's funny when once they were like a mother, a sister, a friend to us when we were far from home. And after so long they are now all married with kids. It indicates one thing that we are old  all grown up now. hahahahah.. Aunties already. :) We went to UIA again later in the afternoon to meet up with the Ikatan Keluarga Pondok Modern  (IKPM) Malaysia for they sacrifice a few goats and 2 cows for eid. We reach just in time to EAT!! hahahhahaaha... the guys did the sataying of the meat all we just went to eat. Baik punye anak dara kan.

Yummy right. Just look at the spread of satays. :) Perut kenyang hati senang mata pun ngantuk la kan. hahahahahha.... PBG betul kan. Since Ustazah needs to meet her friend at Ampang Point so we have to make a move as soon as we are done eating. Da la datang tak tolong pape balik pun tak tolong kemas.... ish..ish..ish... teruk betul la kan. But what to do...we were in a rush. We took a cab back to Gombak for Ust   needs to send ustazah to Ampang Point later. We knew he needs to rest after driving around the whole day so as not to trouble him any more we decided to just get a cab to the train station.

Have you ever made an impromptu decision? Like when you already know where you want to go but all of a sudden u decided to make a pit stop? Well that's what happen to us. :) We were tired no doubt. Just wanna reach hostel as soon as we can and rest.
But.... 
on our way home, in the train i saw these two, tall, brightly lighted building. It's like they are waving to me and say "come stop by for dinner" and so i ask Zakiyyah. "Zak wanna stop for dinner at KLCC?" She turn, stared at me like as if i was mad and than she smiled and nod her head. "ok jugak" was the reply i got. hahahahahahahaha.... i love my roommate!! Off to KLCC we went. We had Bakso for the night we were at Gombak and Pempek (it's a Palembang originated food). It was haven on earth to be able to taste this food agian. hahahaha...so for the night we decided to go western and conclude our raya meal at Secret Recipe with cakes and Caribbean style fish fillet. No rendang no ketupat no lemang for raya this year. hehehehe

Now our raya celebrations don't just end here. We continued our raya celebrations to the next day. Wanna guess where we went? Ok i give you clue ar... they have snow and forest of lights. :) Any idea where? hehehehehe....

None other than Icity.

I was so amaze by the beauty of lights and mini game rides available there. It was really...really...really nice. I don't know how to describe the feeling when i was there. The Snowalk was so much better than snow city i tell you. It's much more bigger and if you can stand the coldness you are most welcome to stay in there as long as you want. :p The ice sculptures are amazing plus the lights and display there and the slides yes people slideS not slide ar. There were about 3 slides if i'm not wrong. Be a kid and took all 3. hahahahahaha.... We were freezing cold but we still refused to leave the area until our hands got numb (cause we act tough and not use any boots or gloves).

One advice for all, bring your own gloves and boots ok cause boots rental is RM 10 per boots and its the yellow Phua Chu Kang boots so if u don't mind having pictures of you in that boots while you are on holiday than by all means rent the boots there. If you do mind (like us..hehehehe) than either you bring your own boots or...feel and embrace the ice at your feet. As for the gloves..they don't rent it, you have to purchase it. If you wanna feel what snow  fight is all about than do get yourselves the glove ok. Don't be like us...touching the 'snow' with our bare hands and later complain that our hands are numb. Smart us. :)

Defrost with some coffee and had our dinner at Old Town White Coffee. ;)

After we did our maghrib prayers we went into the forest of lights..... No words to describe just pictures for you to enjoy and see.

There are more pictures actually, but if i were to put everything here, you might just have a problem to view it  hehehehehe... We were so engrossed with the lights and rides that we forget about the time. By the time we reached the KTM komuter station at Padang Jawa it was too quite and the ticketing counter was closed. Aiks...Panic ready. How to go home???? Than there's these very nice local chinese couple that told us that we can enter if we have the touch and go card. Lucky for us our student matrix card is also our touch and go card. hehehehe... but the next train will only arrived in about 20 mins time so we had to wait.

With that, wishing all Muslims a belated selamat hari raya haji. hehehehehe... 

p/s: i know i been saying about the Phuket trip with my cousins and sisters right. Well... will put that up real soon ok. :) 

Lots of Love

     ella