Lobo's Lessons

In the wake of my grandmother's passing, I begin to reflect on a few things... It has been three years since I had gone back to the land of my father's ancestors... Three years since I had kissed the fresh breeze of its morning sky... Three years since I had gone back to Kelantan. I had always felt at home there, waking up in my grandmother's house, or even my aunt's house. Waking up to the lilting sounds of the Kelantanese dialect - a musical language, whose beauty is apparent to all, but whose true meaning can only be appreciated by one born of the tongue, or in my case one who is half-born to the tongue. I remember there used to be a time when a sense of calm and happiness would engulf me as we crossed the borders into the Kelantanese lands... My affinity with the land and its people... My paternal tribe... Yet at the same time, as much as I felt at home there, there was still a sense of alienness, that I was still not a part of the people, as much as I ha...

A couple of months ago, when my parents moved house, I saw the biggest collection of stuff I had ever set my eyes on. Old stuff, new stuff, used stuff, unused stuff... You name it, they had it. And it all had to be moved... It was then that I said to my wife these words: "We're lucky. When we move it's going to be much easier, cos we don't have that much stuff..." Boy... Was I soooooooo wrong... Two weeks of pain...packing. One day of pure agony...lifting and sifting. Unending torture...unpacking. Pain...Agony...Torture... But at the end of the day, the best feeling one could ever have. I now have a spacious, beautiful house To call my own... :)

I wish to convey my most heartfelt sense of gratitude and appreciation to everyone who has given me strength and comfort throughout this difficult time. May God bless you all...

The vigil is over.   From Him we come, and to Him we return.   Al-Fatihah for my late grandmother. May Allah take her soul into His care...

Being hospitalised changes you. You are no more the same person after spending an extended period of time in a hospital bed. I should know... I was warded for almost 2 weeks. Every day asking the Almighty "will I make it through this?", and praying, every second of the day "Lord, please help me through this... I want to see my beautiful wife, my darling little boy, my loving family..." These thoughts streamed constantly through my mind, like a litany for the forsaken... And though its OK most of the time for me, there are certain times when the phobia overtakes me...   And this is one of those times... I am now in the hospital ward, keeping vigil for my grandmother, who may very well be on her deathbed. Just half an hour ago, I relieved my father, who had been by her side for hours...His mother...the woman who was his world...who brought him and raised him in the best way possible... I walked up to my father, clasped his hands and kissed him on the...

Inspiration... It comes to us in many different ways, in many different shapes... Some of us search high and low to the ends of the Earth looking for it. For some it just comes when we least expect it. And for a few lucky people, it comes and visits quite a few times throughout their lifetime. For me, one of these rare moments came from the most unexpected of places, in the most unexpected of times... Venice, the City of Romance... Its lush waterways and canals enticing every single soul that sets its eyes upon them... A magical wonderland, with the Renaissance lingering in the very air that the city breathes... Venice...the City of Romance... And me nursing a broken heart, which I had left behind somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland... Irony at its finest... It was summer, and summer in England was nowhere like summer in Italy. We were roasting in the sweltering heat, sweat continuously pouring down our foreheads... My cousin and I had arrived in Venice for a couple of hours, and we...