My Youngest, the Joker.

Thaqif - 2 yrs old.


Thaqif - almost 1 yr old.


Thaqif - a baby.

Again and again, we keep coming to the same phrase - time sure flies. I felt that it was just recently that I gave birth to my youngest. But pejam celik, pejam celik, he is now 2 years old. Very active. And at the moment trying very hard to imitate people and improving his vocabularies. Once I was on my way to my mother’s and he was sitting at the back in his new car seat (we had to buy a new one because the old one cannot hold him anymore – he managed to get out of it), and I heard him singing ‘boya, boya, boya, boya’ like the advertisement on TV. Boya here means bola or ball. Hmm...

And there was this one time when he wanted his book and it was on top of the TV. He had said ‘mak, buku! ’, but I kind of thought I would be able to ignore his request. I just finished tidying up and didn’t want him to make a mess anymore. So, I pretended not to hear. Then he looked at me and he seemed to be thinking for a while when suddenly he uttered the word ‘atas.’ Seeing his determination, I finally relented and he got his book.

The latest incident was at Ani Sop Utara in Bangi. My husband and I decided to bring him out for dinner. And he was so happy in his baby seat waiting for the food. The moment the young server came to deliver our food, he kept repeating the word ‘makacih ye..’ everytime the boy put down the food on the table. The boy seemed a little bit hesitant. Ye lah kan, how actually to respond to this small boy who thanked him continuously and excitedly.

Well…I am sure to enjoy all these while I can. Because going back to the phrase, time is flying and before I know it, he’ll be going to school, and he won’t be so attached to me anymore. He will have his friends, his teachers, etc. etc. etc. He will even have his secrets. Sob! Sob!

I am a Teacher.

Time flies, classes completed, semesters ended. I have always enjoyed my task as a teacher. Considering the fact that I never wanted to be a teacher when I was small because both my parents were teachers, this comes as a surprise to me too. It is refreshing to be able to share knowledge with my students and hopefully one day, they too would share their knowledge with somebody else. My joys of teaching normally came from the interactions I had with my students, the knowledge gained from them. I always believe that what make a good teacher are always the students. I enjoyed it when students challenged me with questions, when students participated in the discussion. And I treasured the input I got from my students. I always have. I took pride when they learned something in my class and I took pride in their successes (even though my role in their successes probably is very, very small). I appreciated the positive verbal and nonverbal reactions shared during class time. They didn’t necessarily have to get an A to gain my respect. Because for me MBA is not about scoring, MBA is about learning. When students graduated from MBA, they should be able to carry the MBA qualities with them. Knowledge is power. And with great power comes great responsibility.

With teaching, I cannot run away from awarding grades. It’s part of the parcel. But it saddened me when students, upon receiving their grades put the blame solely on the teachers for not guiding them well. And yet they were the ones playing with Facebook while I was teaching, they were the ones talking while I was straining my voice so that the others could hear, and they were the ones remaining passive for the whole 14 weeks (some didn’t even bother to come to class). Sigh. For me grades should be earned and not given. Good grades will have to be paired with serious efforts and determinations.

Still, I apologize if in the course of my teachings, I fail to carry my tasks as expected. As a human, perfection is out of the question. But I can always pray for a near perfection one day. Insyaallah. Thank you for those who have been supportive in my classes all these while. Thank you for giving me a chance. A wise man once said that we will learn something every day if we pay attention. Be observant.


You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. ~Clay P. Bedford

I Love You Mom!

Nowadays I don’t get to write in my blog as much as I wanted to. Most of the time my heart yearns to write. But things keep coming onto my lap with invisible messages such as ‘Urgent,’ ‘Deadline – Yesterday,’ etc. Most of the time, I am caught between my responsibilities to my employer, my students, and my family. And I forgot about my responsibilities to myself.

Come to think of it, it’s quite hard to juggle both (work and life) especially when we live in a society that is prejudiced over the role of husbands and wives. A wife is expected to multi task. Even though a wife also contributes to the family’s income, that part more often than not is left out. All the society sees is whether the wife keeps the children neat, cleans the pots and pans, prepares the home cooked meals, etc. etc. etc. On the contrary, a husband is expected to be the breadwinner. Expected. Therefore, when you have one that stays at home and takes care of the children..boom! All sorts of negative perceptions pop out - queen controlled, submissive. And you know what hurts the most? It doesn’t matter whether staying at home is a choice of the husband or not. It doesn’t’ matter that the wife works or not. The fault still lies on the wife, for not allowing the husband the freedom he so deserve.

As for the wife? What then? She works, she contributes, she delivers children, she does the household chores (as much as she is able to since she’s working), she takes care of the children when they are sick, she even takes care of the husband when he is sick, and the list goes on and on and on. Infinity and beyond. Doesn’t she also deserve the freedom once in a while? Still, when she spends time with friends, they say she’s a bad mother, a terrible wife.

The funny thing is that, we often talk of moving forward. We talk about change. Seriously, what change is possible if our minds are still governed by traditional thinking? I think it’s about time that we open our mind. A little bit of justice is most welcome. A little bit of appreciation for the sacrifices that wives all over the world had endured all these years. A simple thank you should be enough. After all, it takes two to tango in a marriage. And it takes the whole society to march towards victory.


“We live in a cynical world. A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors.” Jerry Maguire, 1996.