Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Perginya seorang sahabat

This was supposed to be posted on Thursday, 15 April 2010. I only managed to send it to my ex-High School mailing group on that day.


Hari ini seorang lagi sahabat saya telah pergi bertemu Allah swt. Satu hari nanti (entah bila yang telah ditetapkan walaupun kita tidak tahu) kita juga akan pergi. Arwah meninggalkan seorang balu dan empat orang anak (2 perempuan dan dua lelaki) yang tua baru lepas mendapat keputusan SPM yang cemerlang dan yang bongsu di darjah enam.

Arwah Abdul Rahim Aini bersama saya dari tahun 1971 hingga 1972 (rasanya) di asrama Melaka High School. Selepas itu beliau dan beberapa kawan saya yang lain telah berpindah ke asrama Bukit China (better known as ABC) where they apparently had more fun than those who remained in Jalan Chan Koon Cheng, like me.

Abdul Rahim that I remember was one of the most jovial friends around. Dengan selambanya dia akan membuat sesuatu atau berkata sesuatu. Saya tidak pernah ingat yang beliau pernah marah. Selepas sekolah menengah saya telah putus hubungan dengan beliau tetapi saya pernah bertemu beliau di JPJ Padang Jawa sekali untuk meminta pertolongan beliau menyelesaikan masaalah dengan pendaftaran kereta saya. Kali terakhir saya berjumpa arwah ialah pada 20 Oktober 2007 semasa saya dan beberapa rakan menziarah beliau sempena Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Ketika itu beliau baru menjalani pembedahan di kepala.

Dibawah ini saya tampalkan (betul ker translation paste?) entri blog saya sempena lawatan tersebut yang berkait dengan arwah.

Abdul Rahim Ani bertugas di JPJ Padang Jawa. Beberapa bulan yang lepas, tahap kesihatan beliau telah merosot. Walaupun tidak terasa sakit, beliau mengalami pandangan berganda dan lemah otot sehingga tidak berupaya menampung berat badan sendiri. Dengan bantuan seorang jiran, beliau telah menjalani peperiksaan doktor di Hospital KL pada awal September 2007. Beliau disahkan mempunyai ketumbuhan di bahagian otak. Pada 26 Sep 2007 beliau telah menjalani pembedahan dikepala untuk mengeluarkan ketubuhan tersebut. Alhamdullillah, pembedahan tersebut berjaya. Semasa pertemuan kami beliau nampak ceria dan tidak dalam kesakitan. Cuma otot masih terasa lemah, kata beliau. Pandangan telah pulih. Memori beliau juga masih baik, malah banyak cerita-cerita lama terutama semasa beliau "membantu dan menemani" Norjihad masih dapat beliau ingati. Cuma ada perkara-perkara yang berlaku baru-baru ini agak samar buat beliau.

Satu perkara yang saya agak terkilan ialah apabila Rahim memberitahu kami bahawa beliau telah mengambil keputusan untuk berhenti kerja. Saya kurang bersetuju kerana saya rasa beliau patut teruskan bersama Kerajaan yang mempunyai banyak kemudahan jika beliau terus berkhidmat. Saya pasti beliau akan diberi tugas ringan sekembalinya beliau ke pejabat. Pada pendapat saya, semasa beliau mendapat tahu beliau mempunyai ketumbuhan tersebut beliau merasa yang beliau tidak lagi mampu bertugas lalu membuat keputusan berhenti. Saya berharap ada sahabat atau saudara beliau yang dapat menasihat supaya Rahim memikirkan kembali keputusan yang telah diambil. Kita yang telah lazim bekerja, jika tiba-tiba duduk dirumah akan mudah ditimpa kemurungan dan tahap kesihatan kita akan terus merosot.

Walau apa pun, saya dapat lihat, lawatan sahabat-sahabt pada hari baik dan bulan yang baik ini telah memberi kecerian kepada Rahim. Malah isteri beliau menyatakan kepada saya bahawa memang Rahim nampak gembira dengan kehadiran kami. Beliau berharap kami akan kerap datang untuk menziarah Rahim dimasa akan datang. Walaupun saya tidak berkesempatan untuk berkawan rapat dengan Rahim dengan lebih lama semasa di MHS (sebab beliau dan ramai sahabat lain berpindah ke ABC) saya mempunyai beberapa episod menarik bersama beliau yang saya rasa ada antara sahabat yang lain juga masih ingat dengan jelas. Tetapi cerita ini tidak patut dinukilkan disini. Takut nanti menjadi bahan bukti :-)

Walaupun bersedih atas kehilangan seorang sahabat, saya gembira kerana beberapa sahabat masih dapat meluangkan masa menziarah beliau hingga ke tanah perkuburan pada siang tadi. Sdra Ghaffar Baba dan isteri datang dari Melaka.

Marilah kita sama-sama memaafkan antara satu sama lain atas apa yang telah kita lakukan semasa muda kita dan marilah juga kita sedekahkan Al-Fatihah kepada saudara kita yang baru meninggalkan kita. Al-Fatihah.

p/s: Saya dimaklumkan oleh Sdra Rosli Sanusi bahawa Pengarah JPJ telah menolak perletakan jawatan arwah Abdul Rahim Ani Oleh itu isteri beliau berhak untuk mendapat pencen arwah.

Monday, April 12, 2010

MRSM Sports



We were in Penang the last two days visiting Aizat at MRSM Kepala Batas. We wanted to buy him new glasses as he has managed to break the frame of his existing glasses (again).


When we arrived and called him, he said he was at the stadium. Apparently he is taking part in the northern region MRSM athletics meet of which his school is hosting this year. Aizat is representing his school in the 100m and 4x100m events. When we arrived we managed to see a few events before the finals of he 4x100m event.

Well, his quartet did not fare very well. I can see his school is not well prepared. He only managed to use his spikes (on loan from the school) in the morning of the event. He was not properly attired for the event. The fact that they managed to get in the finals was good enough and we are proud of him. Aizat won the 100m race in his school sports day. So he is the fastest man in MRSM Kepala Batas for 2010.


There were quite a number of MRSMs in the northern region so there were quite a large number of participants. But I can see that sport days nowadays are a far cry from when I was in school. Those days we take great pride in the sports day and all participants took them seriously. Now, I guess it was done just for the sake of carrying it out.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

A Date with the Doctor

I had a date with the Doctor today, six months after my last date. I must say I have been in pretty good shape the past few months. I was quite excited to go to this appointment for one main reason - I wanted to know how I fare after not taking my medication as instructed by my doctor.

Just before my last appointment the doctor tried me on a few drugs to take care of my cholesterol problem. Actually my cholesterol level is not high, it is just that my "good cholesterol" level is too low. The drugs tested seemed to do a good job on me and I was put on a permanent dose. However, I later read that this drug had some side effects, so I decided not to continue after 2 months.

So today was D-Day for me to see what happened.

I had fasted so that I could take the blood test. My appointment was at 10:45 but I was at the hospital at 10:00 to take the blood tests. As usual, the lab was full of people and I only managed to do my tests at 10:30, no way the doctor an get the results by 10:45. So, after the tests I had my breakfast.

I met the doctor at around 11:30am.

Doctor: Have you been taking your medication?
Me: Yes Doc, however only for my BP i.e. Norvasc
Doc: What about for your cholesterol?
Me: I stopped after 2 months
Doc: Why?
Me: I read there is side effects for taking the medication
Doc: Of course there is side effects but there is also side effects if you do not take the medication. Let us see your results, and he proceeded looking at the results. Your BP is okay but your cholesterol is back to the previous levels. The good cholesterol is less than 1 though the bad cholesterol is not too high at 5.6. Your fats level is too high to make the other readings meaningful.
Me: Doc, is there a way I can increase the good cholesterol without taking medications?
Doc: Yes. You have to stop being a Malay
Me: ???
Doc: You see, we Malays take a lot of santan, deep fried food, eggs, salt, seafood and the rest. If you can survive on salads and boiled dishes without rice then there is no need for you to take your medication.
Me: Ok Doc. Give me my prescription.
Doc: Don't worry. I'm giving you a low dosage. I myself am taking a much higher dosage.
Me: Ok Doc
Doc: I'm only giving you 2 weeks ration. After that you go and buy them from your GP or at the pharmacies. At this hospital everything is so expensive. I'll see you in four months.
Me; Thanks Doc. Asssallamualaikum.



I paid the bill of RM360 and pick up the 2 weeks medication and resigned to the fact that I'm stuck with another two types of medication for my daily diet.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Ungrateful

I'm feeling so ungrateful. There are groups of people who said they are fighting for my rights but I'm not in any mood to appreciate what they are doing. On the contrary I looked at them with utter contempt and disgust. How dare they classify me as needing the crutches that they think I desire?

To be fair, their intentions can be justified. If only their track record has proven otherwise. There is nothing wrong with trying to help those who are in need, in fact it is incumbent upon all of us to do so. But what they say is not what they do. How do you explain the presence of so many needy people after all these years while at the same time the chosen ones keep getting richer and becoming billionaires?

I have a feeling they are using me as an excuse to enrich themselves. In the process I will be labeled as the one depriving others of their rightful share of the pie while they are the ones actually laughing all the way to the bank.

Who are they? They are has been pseudo leaders who cannot even win an election on their own. They are the ones when in authority took advantage of the situation to enrich themselves and their ilk without having to work. And now they want to claim to be fighting for me and if I refuse their help they are going to call me ungrateful. So be it. I'll be the ungrateful one so long as I am not in any way associated with these opportunists.