HAPPY DAYS!

May peace be upon you.

I've been wrapped up doing translation which seems to be an endless effort. It gives 'Lost in Translation' a whole new meaning to me.

You know guys..sometimes even a mundane and boring work can be rewarding. It's how you look at it.

So today I decided I want to be happy.

 No matter how much work we have, how much problems burden us, how things don't go our way. Decide to be happy! Most importantly make someone happy today.

Buy a cup tea/coffee for a stranger, give a bouquet of flowers to your wife, give hugs to your friends, and to the old lady that pass by your house every morning...just give her a smile and say hello.

Giving doesn't need to be monetary. Giving is actually happiness.

I LOVE EXOTIC FRUITS!

      

May Peace be upon you.

It's the fruit season in Malaysia. Durians, rambutans, mangosteens can be seen almost everywhere especially sold by the roadside.

When I was a kid my family and I will usually spend our school holidays in my kampong (village).
The name of my kampong is appropriately known as Kampong Seronok. Directly translated 'Seronok' means Fun.

My kampong is in fact a really fun place to be. Well, when i was kid anyway. We didn't have to buy these exotic fruits. They were free. The only thing is you have to go and find them.

My late aunt lived in our old ancestral home. At that time, there was no electricity, no gas stove and the bathroom was outside the house. We went to sleep early since there was not much you can do without electric lights. But the nights were filled with my aunt's bedtime stories.

                       This is not my real ancestral house...but you get the idea how it looks like so many, many years ago. Now it is a brick house.

She would tell me a whole chests of stories which I would treasure for the rest of my life.

During the durian season, I would follow my aunt to the fruit orchard before dawn, when it was still dark, searching for the beautiful, pungent fruits. To people who do not know... you cannot pluck durians. You have to wait for them to fall on their own sweet time.

And why do we have to find them so early in the morning...? Simply because, any later, all the fruits would be missing. Durians are prized fruits, known as the king of the fruits, they could fetch quite a handsome sum of money.

Armed with just a torchlight, we would search for the fruits on the grounds under the durian trees. My aunt would say, "If you want to find durians, follow your nose not your eyes."

                                                            DURIANS

To me durians have a lovely,unique smell but to some especially foreigners, the smell is so strong that they even describe them having the same smell of a sewage?!

Another fruit that perhaps the young generation would not know is 'keriang'. A boy in my kampong would invite me to join his 'gang' to find this fruit.

 We had to go across the cemetery grounds where my dad was laid to rest. and climbed the hill and at the edge of the jungle we could find the 'Keriang' trees. I have no idea whether somebody planted them or they were wild fruit trees.

The fruits are deep purple in colour and if you're eating them, make sure you're not wearing a white shirt because the stain will stay forever...

                                              KERIANG/ KERIAN FRUITS

The Keriang fruits taste sour yet slightly sweet and bitter. Well... I had a great time finding them with my friends. This fruit is not popular nowdays, perhaps unknown to many youngsters today. What a pity because it is such an exciting, beautiful fruit with  a real exotic taste.

 

THE PRECIOUS THING IN YOUR LIFE

May peace be upon you.

Late one night, a man came home from a long tiring night working. When he arrived home the only thing on his mind was to rest and go to sleep before he started work all over again tomorrow morrning.

But to his dismay, he found his young son not asleep yet. He scolded his son and told him to go to bed.

Instead the boy asked him,

"How much do you make per hour, dad ?"

The question made the man angry.

"What? Non of your business, son."

"Oh! Come on dad, please tell me...how much do your boss pay you for one hour?"

Tired and thinking that his son will get off his back if he answered  the question,

"$100 an hour. Are you satisfied!?"

"May I borrow $50. I pay you back when I have the money."

The man was furious.

"You have the nerve to ask me for money! Do you know how hard I have to work everyday to earn that money? And you're going to use that money on some useless things. You go to bed right now, young man!" Ordered the man angrily.

The young boy marched to his bedroom gloomily.

After some time, after his anger subsided, the man started to think, and said to himself,
"What on earth does a small kid like him want that kind of money? There must be something more to this.."

So he decided to go and ask his son,

"Son, are you still awake?"

"Yeah..dad."

"I'm sorry I scolded you just now. Here's the $50. What do you want to do with the money?"

Gratefully the boy accepted the money and almost at the same time he took a few crumpled dollars under his pillow.

When his father saw this, he started to get angry again because he thought he was right that the boy just wanted to buy some useless expensive toy but before he can say anything, the boy said,

"All this money is for you, dad." He handed all the money to his father.

"Why? What for?" said his father bewildered.

"I would like to pay for one hour's of your time, dad so you could spend that time with me. I really miss you dad..."

The man hugged his young son with tears welled up in his eyes and just realized he was too busy with his work that he forgot the most precious thing in his life.....