Birth and The End of Life

as we laugh and clap our hands to the birthday song, as we make candle cake wishes and tear out the wrapping paper off our presents, we must stop to think - we're not only getting older, but that we have survived another year.

we live to see another birthday. syukur!

* * *

and with that i would like to wish a happy birthday to my sis-in-law, mr. khairul's youngest sister - sofia shereen on the 4th of august.

sofia and her nephew khaleef

we celebrated her birthday at tgif, ioi mall where she wowed the 'crowd' with her hot rendition of taylor swift's 'love story'! clap! clap!

* * *

moving on to another birthday kid - it's haqeem syukran - turning 6 on the 6th of august!

haqeem is

• cucu kedua haji podin
• yong's second son
• and our second nephew

we're celebrating his birthday at a seafood makan place, courtesy of haqeem's aunt, kak yong mislia. happy birthday, aqeem and jangan makan kek banyak sangat!

* * *

yasmin ahmad. gone too soon.

i read in a blog that after her demise, too many people wanna share their stories - how they met her. how they knew her. how they saw her. how they're touched by her work.

this is my story.

i saw her during a talk on film (i can't remember the title of the talk), along with afdlin shauki and the animator of malaysia's first cartoon - sang kancil. i was working as a magazine editor back then covering the issues brought up during the talk. i came prepared with critics on 'sepet', because - i did not like the movie.

no, it's not the berkemban scenes. or the grooming each other atas tangga scene. or harith's kain pelikat terlucut scene. yes, it's 1malaysia. yes, the rare inter-racial relationship subject. bravo. but some other scenes and speeches just don't seem natural to me. but ah, i'm not here to comment more on her movies.

i want to express my regret of not staying til the end of the talk, to actually approach her and tell her how much i love her advertisements. i was in the midst of early pregnancy with baby khaleef and was suffering the dreadful all-day-sickness. i left early. dang it!

but i remember i loved the way she spoke. the sultry tone of voice. the sharp near-brit accent that was non-pretentious. her intonation soothing, and her enunciation was on the dot. she was humble, obliging and all-smiles. i knew then how lucky it was to have been graced by her presence.

yasmin ahmad flanked by her *stars* umi qazrina and tan hong ming

i admit, i'm not a fan of her movies. but i am still in awe of her advertisements, watching it for the uptenth time. there was even a little envy of her masterful creativity - her unique way of seeing something extraordinary in the littlest things. how she could make me cry with simply telling the brief tale of an indian boy remembering the merdeka moment.

her message of racial harmony and family values will live through her many great works. i will miss her magic touch during merdeka and other major festivities as i waited - and i will miss wondering what would yasmin bring us in her advertisements this year...

enjoy my fav of yasmin's advertisements. al-Fatihah!