a fleeting stay ...

Morning rush hour in Shinjuku. More halal facilities in Japan now. Japan is becoming Muslim friendly as I discovered during my visit to the Land of the Rising Sun in November to attend the 30th anniversary of IATSS Forum in Suzuka. Prayer rooms at airports and halal eateries in Tokyo make it easy for Muslim visitors to enjoy their stay there. This wasn't the case when I was there 10 years ago. I would love to see prayer rooms in departmental stores and more halal cafes but the existing basic facilities will do for now. My visit to Japan last month reinforced my conviction that one can practice Islam anywhere. My search for halal began when our group landed at Nagoya Airport around 7.30 am mid-November. Entrance to the Gandhi, a halal restaurant. I was happy to find it. Our bus to Suzuka Circuit Hotel, our home for the next four days, would only arrive at 3 pm, which meant we had several hours to savour the cosy airport. As I  surveyed my immediate...

  Dec 31, 2014, the last day of the year and the end of my one year stint at The Rakyat Post , an online news portal. Educational is the best way to sum up my year at The Rakyat Post. Leaving your comfort zone is intimidating at first; it has a steep learning curve. But now I wish I had done it sooner and the whole exercise reaffirms my motto: “learn, learn, learn”. Einstein was spot on when he said, “Learning is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it”. When I left the New Straits Times to join The Rakyat Post on Jan 3, 2014, I didn’t know what to expect. Nelson Fernandez, also known as Mohd Ridzwan Abdullah, had invited me to join him at the website this time last year. Nelson Fernandez at his office at The Rakyat Post He was charged with assembling a team to provide content for the portal. And I am glad I said yes. Switching from traditional journalism to online journalism is challenging, as anyone who had m...

If you want to know about staying healthy during Ramadan, The Rakyat Post has a piece on how to achieve that while fasting. Click here . Image courtesy of gulfnews.com

It has been a year since my last post. It is time to be active again.  Muslims across the world will observe the holy fasting month of Ramadan this weekend: for Malaysia, fasting begins tomorrow.  The ninth month of the Islamic calender is special to all Muslims including me.    I invite readers of this blog to get to know Muslims during this holy month. Here are the links to previous postings on Ramadan.

Guest blogger and journalist Jehan Mohd mourns the loss of sense and sensibility in the days leading up to what is turning out to be Malaysia's biggest general elections yet . The circus is back in town, nope, sorry, it's just the latest general elections around the corner. Where have all my cat videos and baby pictures gone, or rather, what has happened to all my friends whose cat video and baby picture posts used to fill my Facebook (or, simply FB) wall?   Instead of the varied interests and quirks that make them individual people, they seem to have been overwhelmingly swept up in election fever. Granted the build-up to this general election has been incredible — people have been anticipating an announcement of the dissolution of parliament leading to the event since last year. When parliament was dissolved last month, suddenly everyone (or at least the ones who load status updates regularly) was talking about the elections. Election fever is her...

"You Aboriginal people, you don't exist in this country, you don't even have tickets." Who said this? It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. This link was posted by Distinguished Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin on an online forum.

As this is Labour Day, I want to reflect on a four-day week scenario. The shorter week with Fridays an extra day off will mean more me-time for me. I want the extra hours for myself to do something for my own enjoyment: read a book, visit the shops or catch a movie and enjoy an ice cream. I find it difficult to do these things now because of the five-day week, from 10.00 to 18.00 or longer. The weekends are usually reserved for maintaining contact with family members. Working shorter hours would be a dream come true for me. Is that a viable proposition? This article argues the need for a four-day work week. Enjoy your holiday. For Labour Day history click on the following: * Annual public holiday * Wikipedia

Experts say parents are a child's primary role models but teachers are equally influential. Sadly, educators tainted with scandal have cast a shadow over people's high expectations of the teaching profession long before this website began posting reports of misbehaving instructors. There must be some way to improve the situation.

It is reasonable to assume that Malaysians are familiar with these individuals who were aspiring politicians in their younger days. Today they often court controversy; there's never a dull moment when they open their mouths. "I am not young enough to know everything," says the great cynic Oscar Wilde with heavy sarcasm. Did these political figures think they knew everything when these photos were taken? Malaysia has the answers.This photographic montage is courtesy of Curi-Curi Wang Malaysia.

I saw the following article on Facebook. Is this for real or a satire on existing sentiments? An Islamic city council in the Indonesian province of Aceh, which follows Sharia, has banned female citizens from passing gas. Sayyid Yahia, mayor of the city, told media that a ban was needed, as farting does not go well with the Islamic values of modesty. “Muslim women are not allowed to fart with sound, it’s against Islamic teachings,” he said. Meanwhile, the Indonesian Feminists Association told local media they will attempt to block the smelly law as they deem it discriminatory. Click here for the full story.

I will not reveal the location of Pasar Karat -- the market for tacky and not-so-tacky trash. Until this morning I wasn't aware of its existence. Many people know about it but the street vendors don't want any publicity. I promised these hard-working individuals -- both locals and foreigners -- that I would not make trouble for them. They readily admit that they are unlicensed traders. Kuala Lumpur City Hall has denied them business permits despite repeated pleas. But the mart has been around for nearly 50 years, according to some old-timers, and 35 to others. Meanwhile, real bargain hunters join the throng in narrow alleys and pavements regularly. Somehow they are able to separate the worthless items from the valuable ones. The less discerning consumers visit the bustling bazaar to get cheap things. As I discovered during this morning's walkabout, there is something for everyone here. Daily trading begins at 5.30am and ends before 10am when entrepreneurs in the area sta...

Niiya celebrated New Year's Day with a sense of foreboding that 2013 would be a sad time for her. And the tragic events of the first three months indicated that her misgivings were justified. First, she lost her beloved sister to cancer. Then, her sister-in-law had to undergo an operation to save her spine. Later, she learned that her former superior had battled cancer for four years before succumbing to the dreaded disease last week. A beloved cousin brought news that her husband has third stage liver cancer. Death seems inevitable. Who's next? Nobody could predict death. People joke about it, pass cynical comments and offer views on the subject. The only certainty is that sooner or later it will come for us. The following passage puts it aptly: “It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it h...

Guest blogger and journalist Jehan Mohd contemplates a misunderstood genre of literary delights   My love affair with comics began at a tender age — so young that I cannot recall exactly when I picked up my first comic book.  I do, however, remember what it started with — Archie Comics .   Archie Comics played a strong role in my growing up years and continue to be a dear friend.   My two elder sisters were also fans of the series and a trip to the bookshop or a book fair would usually include the purchase of a comic book (or two, or three). I also read other comic titles such as Bananaman , Garfield , Asterix , Tintin , Beano — later Calvin and Hobbes , which also became a firm favourite — and whatever comic strips were in the newspapers but I still ended up going back to Archie at the end of the day. As an adult, however, the affair with the comic book world became more of a guilty pleasure because, after all, “it’s kiddie stuff”. ...