12.4.07

Help Find Yin!!



This is 5 year-old Muhammad Nazrin Shamsul Ghazali. Fondly called Yin, he went missing after visiting the Sogo Complex in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman on March 31.Yin had gone to the complex with his father, 34, and mother, Nur Amizah Ahmad, 25. Nazrin was with his father in the men’s department store when he disappeared.
On Friday, Nur Amizah viewed Sogo’s closed-circuit television footage for the first time, showing Nazrin walking confidently out of the complex. In the 17-minute footage, Nazrin was first spotted at 2.48pm when he played near the escalator on the second floor. He then followed the crowd and took the escalator to the ground floor. About 3pm, he was seen walking towards Jalan Raja Laut. Nazrin was wearing a grey-boxed short-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans at the time of his disappearance.

Until today, Yin is still missing.

His father Shamsul Ghazali, from Medan Klebang Restu in Chemor, Perak, has offered a reward for information on Yin and can be contacted at 012-5090451.

Note: Our hearts and doas for the parents. Moga-moga Yin selamat dan sihat dan dapat ditemui. As a parent I empathize with them. We went through quite a similar traumatic experience many many years ago at Sunway Pyramid. We were in a shop browsing through the shirts and what not when suddenly we realized Arissa, then 3 year old, had gone missing. Both Yan and I thought we would die that instant. Luckily, we found her a few minutes later. We we so traumatized then that we went straight home and did not venture into any shopping malls for almost two years thereafter.

7.4.07

Pesta Main Air


Scene 1

I'm a person who would not come near any public events, with the exception of a Pesta Buku, of course. So you won't see me at events like Jom Heboh segala. Suffocating ler.
Anyway, that's going to change as I'm currently in Langkawi attending the launching of National Water Festival. I came yesterday (Friday) with Marilyn. Yesterday, we spent our day at Pantai Cenang where most of the events are being held. I'm writing this entry at a media centre in Dataran Lang where the official opening of the festival will be held in like 15 minutes. Lucky me as the media centre siap ada Internet connection and yang penting sekali ada air-cond. Very me.
Anyway, tak kenal maka tak cinta. I'm here and actually the atmosphere is not bad. Very meriah. I guess you have to be present to enjoy and soak in the fun of any events. Beat watching it over TV, anytime. So, next I guess would be Konsert AF. Yeah right!
The Pesta Air yesterday was a lot of fun. And this evening later ada Mawi and Anita Sarawak.
I'll post the picture (by Marilyn) later. Didn't bring the camera le pulak.
Anyway, now I'm going out to the tapak pelancaran. I'll update later on...

Scene 2

Okay, the launch was successfully done. Very the RTM with long boring speeches. Why these VVIPs need to deliver long boring speeces during events like this is beyond me? Bukannya ada orang pay attention pun. Anyway kalau opening macam ni tak sah la kalau tak disusuli dengan persembahan kebudayaan and hiburan. Jadilah kan untuk ganti missing the Konsert AF number 4. Sapa yang kena sembur dek Ogy malam ni ya? Dalam pada boring-boring tadi, I decided to become a judge for the persembahan artis. Here's my take:

Mawi (Perempuan): Mawi, kalau macam ni ler awak nyanyi, malu tau jadi juara AF. Apasal awak nyanyi mesti tengok lantai. Awak tak hingat ke penonton yang ada kat sini?

Anita Sarawak (Celebration and Seksis): Mintak maaf ler Kak Nita, saya sikit pun tak faham apa yang Kak Nita nyanyi. Kena improve diction ni. Dan kalau nyanyi, boleh tak jangan over-over. Kena faham apa lirik agu.

Datuk Ahmad Jais (Cenderawasih): Maaf Datuk. Datuk kalau nyanyi boleh tak jangan jalan merata-rata. Rimaslah. Nak jalan kena ada sebab, bukan main suka aje.

David Arumugam (Sampaikan Salam): Dey, apa masalah awak? Tak dak tenaga! Malu saya tengok.

See, very Ogy-based punya comment.

5.4.07

Maafkan Saya!???

Dulu-dulu masa zaman secondary school, my young brother has this group of friends. Very kamceng one. About five or four of them. And one day, one of the friends father passed away. When they met this friend, the others offer their condolences macam ni: "Maafkan saya!" (as in "I'm sorry" macam orang putih selalu cakap). Lepas sorang-sorang cakap macam ni.
Bila dengar citer ni, I was tergolek-golek gelak. I asked my brother: "Apasal mintak maaf lak?Kome dah pergi murder bapak dia ker?"

28.3.07

Cakap Perak!!

Sebagai orang yang asalnya dari Perak, I speak the Perak dialect at home. Unfortunately, unlike the Kelantanese or oghang Penang , Kedah or Perlis, the Perakians somehow leave their dialect at home when they venture out of the state.

We somehow embrace the bahasa baku or bahasa KL more easily than our Penang or Kelantan neighbours.

And yet I still use bahasa Perak whenever possible – not that it is that hard to understand us macam dialek Kelantan that can leave many of us still stumped.

Anyway, mine wasn’t that heavy an accent as even I was growing up, we speak moderate Perak dialect. It means that ours are not as heavily accented as spoken by, say, orang Parit or oghang Kuale (Kuala Kangsar). I guess this is also due to the fact ramai orang Jawa, Ghawa, Dagang, Cina dan India di kawasan tempat saya membesar.

Seperti lain-lain dialek, selalunya kalau orang luar attempt to bercakap Perak, memang tak menjadi. Pelik bunyinya. I must say, even my daughters pun kalau cakap Perak pun agak pelik bunyinya.

One primary rule of dialek Perak ialah selalunya bunyi “a” and “i” akan bertukar jadi “o”. Such as air jadi ayo, gambar jadi gambo. And then most of our “r” will become “gh” such as orang jadi oghang.

Satu lagi orang Perak suka buang bunyi ..ng kat kat hujung perkataan. Contohnya kunen, anjin, kelinkin, dan kamben – which means kuning, anjing, kelingking and kambing respectively. Tapi ada juga yang still retain the “ng” such as panjang, gering dan a few more. Confuse kan? Only orang Perak jer tahu bilamasa nak guna ..ng.

Selain itu panggilan untuk orang yang lebih tua jugak ada yang very specially Perak such as Yeop, Chor or Lop to refer abang paling sulong ataupun Yong untuk kakak sulong. Untuk yang bongsu, instead of Su we call them chu.

Here are some of the dialek Perak that most people in Perak use ---

a. Teman dan Mike (as in mee ker):
This is gantinama aku dan engkau. Apparently masih ramai yang menggunakannya di Perak, especially kat belah-belah Parit dan kawasan sekitar. Tapi seingatnya, perkataan teman itu sendiri selalunya diguna-pakai oleh kaum lelaki dan among friends sahaja. Correct me if I’m wrong. Kalau among family members, selalunya kita guna nama atau panggilan diri sendiri Zul atau Yop dan segala to replace aku. Masa kat sekolah dulu, my friends and I use “aku dan kamu”. Dan selalunya orang perempuan tak guna gantinama teman ni. Or jarang sekali.

b. Kome: Bermaksud awak semua. But use this only with your friends or to address those younger than you. Never ever use this to address orang yang lebih tua. Among us Perakian, kome is a rather crude gantinama actually.

c. Kume: Bunyi lebih kurang sama ngan kome but kume (koo me) means kami. But somehow only lidah orang Perak jer yang boleh sebut this word perfectly sbb otherwise ia akan kedengaran seperti kome.

d. Sembei: Pasir halus (kadang-kadang kita orang panggil pashior)

e. Geghotak: Titi atau jambatan

f. Tak Mandang: Tak Ada

g. Bela: Baiki. Dulu sekali masa kat universiti, I went to my friend Halim’s house kat Sungai Penchala and ayah dia tanya “kenapa lambat, Mior?” And I answered: “Saya pergi bela motor dulu tadi , pakcik.” Then he looked at me satu macam ajer. Yeah, right, I’m a sicko having an affair with my motorcycle.

h. Lotor: Lontar. Hari tu Wancik (my aunt) suruh Mai (my cousin who grew up in Shah Alam) “lotor” kunci dari atas ke bawah. Mai tengok jer kat Wancik, tak tau nak buat apa, sebab tak paham.

i. Gebor: Selimut

j. Ngetor: Mengeletar (like shivering)

k. Tumpo: Kalah

l. Dedor: Ala-ala nak demam.

Dan banyak lagi, nanti lah duduk sembang ngan Mak serta my aunts WanCik and Chu nak compile lagi dialek Perak nih.

26.3.07

In Conversation – The Family

More conversations at home:

Babak menyakat anak….

Alia: Mak, boleh tak tolong cakap kat bapak jangan usik-usik Alia lagi dengan budak F…… tu? Alia tak suka lar!
Mak: Mak boleh cakap kat bapak. Tapi masalahnya Mak pun suka Alia ngan dia….
Alia: Oh! Tidaaaaak! Kenapalah ada parents macam nih….

Babak cucu blur….

(Ini masa Opah Kampar demam panas masa Chinese New Year. Demam agak teruk sampai meracau-racau dan cakap pun ada sikit repek-repek – maklumler demam tak kebah2)

Opah K: Opah ni agaknya dah nak mati dah kot Asma.
Asma: (diam jer)
Opah K: Orang kata kalau dah dekat ajal hidung jadi kembang. Hidung Opah kembang tak Asma?
Asma: Bukan hidung Opah memang selalu kembang ker?
Opah: (Terkedu kejap!) Orang kata kalau nak mati, cuping telinga pun jadi mengelebeh. Telinga Opah ni dah mengelebeh lah Asma!
Asma: (Diam jap tapi lepas tu…) Ya lah Opah, betul cakap Opah!