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This blogspot is a medium to share my thoughts and adventures apart from promoting my books. Below are the books which have been written or authored and published by myself.


"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Mencari Diri dan Erti".

ISBN 983-42031-0-1, Jun 2006


"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Membela Syiar yang Asal"

ISBN 983-42031-1-x, May 2007


"Berpetualang ke Aceh: Sirih Pulang ke Gagang?"

ISBN 978-983-42031-2-2, November 2007


It is interesting to note that while these books were written in Malay it has gained enough attention to merit being part of the collections of the American Library of Congress and National Library of Australia. Look here and here.


While the first three books were published by my own company, the fourth titled "Rumah Azan" was published in April 2009 by a company called Karnadya with the help of the Malaysian national literary body Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. It features beautiful pictures along with stories behind selected mosques which could be related to the history of Islam and the Malays alongside the formation of the Malaysian nation. Look at the article A collaboration of old collegemates - the book "Rumah Azan".


My fifth book "Ahlul Bait (Family) of Rasulullah SAW and Malay Sultanates", an English translation and adaptation of the Malay book "Ahlul Bait (Keluarga) Rasulullah SAW dan Kesultanan Melayu" authored by Hj Muzaffar Mohamad and Tun Suzana Othman was published early 2010. Look here... My 5th book is out! Ahlul Bait (Family) of Rasulullah SAW and the Malay Sultanates... . For more information check out my Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU.



Like my fourth book "Rumah Azan", the sixth book "Kereta Api Menuju Destinasi" is also a coffee-table book which is published by the company Karnadya with the cooperation of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (the main Malay literary body in Malaysia). Coming out January 2011 it features pictures and stories on the adventure travelling by train to all of Peninsular Malaysia along with the interesting places which could be reached this way.


My seventh book "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah" in turn is a coffee-table book which is written, editted, designed and has pictures taken by me. Coming out of the factory October 2011, this book which combines family history with history of places such as Singapura, Johor, Batu Pahat, Muar and in fact the history of the island of Java and England has been reviewed with me interviewed live in the program Selamat Pagi Malaysia at RTM1. Look at the article Siaran langsung ulasan buku "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah" dan temu ramah di Selamat Pagi Malaysia. Some selected contents have been featured in Sneak peek "Jejak keluarga Yakin : Satu sketsa sejarah".


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The "Berpetualang ke Aceh" series of novels could be obtained in e-book form. Enter http://www.e-sentral.com/, click general novel and go to page 4. You can also type the word "Aceh" at the search box. Or click straight Book 1, Book 2 and Book 3.


Thursday, May 07, 2009

Reunion of SMSJ (Johor Science School) batch SPM 1987 in Melaka
















These are pictures I took at a recent reunion cum family day of my old school mates from the Johor Science School in Keluang, better known as Sekolah Menengah Sains Johor or SMSJ. We first entered the school in 1982 but are generally known as the batch SPM 1987 students because that was the year we took the all-important SPM examinations for secondary school students which would determined our course later in life, at least as to what universities would we qualify for. Although I was kicked out of the school in 1986 for discplinary problems, I still took the exam in another school in 1987. In 1987, I made a brief visit to SMSJ and that was the last time I saw almost all of my schoolmates ( a few would later study at the same college, a few I met later while studying in England).

Whatever, in general it's been 22 years since I last saw the lot of them. The recent reunion held on Friday 1st of May at a resort in Melaka was an eye-opener. It was my first reunion with them since leaving school and the second mass reunion for the whole group since they conducted one back at the school in 2004 or 2005 or so. I must say a lot of thoughts and memories raced through my mind during the reunion lasting well into the night and on to the next day and beyond. One can't help being nostalgic upon the memories of growing up together starting at the tender age of 12 in a boarding school were we got ragged, beaten up by seniors and such but yet still cerish everything as the bitter-sweet trails and tribulations that make us tick. Good night! :]


Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Remembering the "A" Level college days. The radio station at 51C

A pix from the article Views from on top a telecommunication tower in Muar... The story is in Text for Views from on top a telecommunication tower in Muar...


Time for another installment of "Remembering the "A" Level college days". I'm sure many of the roomates from 51C still remember our radio station broadcasted from the room. In fact I believe most of Batch 7 of PPP/ITM "A" Level college would remember it as attested by a comment in the article Remembering the "A" Level college days. Damansara Utama where the cool days started! saying: "Jeez... I remember climbing on top of the roof of our blocks just to get clearer reception of your illegal radio broadcast! heheheheh...... err....". The comment came from a girl whose room is at least 200 metres away from 51C. That should give some idea how popular was the radio station then.

OK. I can't remember exactly when the station was started... but I think it should be within the first six months of our tenure at the college in Damansara Utama. What I do remember was the engineering boys in 51C (I was a math student remember while the rest of the room was shared with prospective law students) especially Mangor and Tonga were experimenting with some home-made circuit using a circuit-board and some components when they realised that they could use it to transmit radio signals which could be picked up by any normal radio. So it's only natural we should find a way to make the signal stronger... just strong enough to transmit and cover the whole blocks of dorms.

At first it's just us playing around with a home-made microphone attached to the apparatus while some of us at the other end of the room tried to pick up the signal using small radios. From the normal banter as fillers for the transmission, we started making up stories and advertisements just for laughs. Soon we told students from other rooms about our little experiment and they too tried to pick up the signal from their radios. Within a short space of time word started to pick up and soon enough even the girls at the foremost end of the dormitory blocks were clamoring for regular broadcasts.

So it started being a regular daily event... if I remember correctly, come night time many would tune-up their radio to hear our broadcast. Mango being the main "engineer" behind the project would maintain the apparatus up to need while Tonga played the cool regular deejay. While the rest of us would interject once in a while and sometimes play deejay too, kudos goes to Tonga for being able to maintain a smooth program which consist of friendly talks and banters, made-up advertisements for fun and the most popular, songs on request.

Between the 15 to 20 of us 51C guys, there's enough cassettes of popular song collections to keep the game going for a long time. It came to a stage where many boys and girls would send request of songs with accompanying messages on papers for us to air. While the session of playing songs would feed enough fire for the college gossip machine - as in who is interested in whom, who is coupled with who and such - for me the real fun was in conjuring up made-up story-lines to fill in the slots. And among these were the made-up advertisements which often had the college talking about it for days and so on.

Too bad I couldn't remember many. Remember, that's why I'm writing pieces under "Remembering the 'A' Level college days", because I'm trying to remember what I've forgotten from those days. But I do remember what was supposed to be an interview between the US sprinter Carl Lewis and his Canadian arch-rival Ben Johnson. Played by two of us from 51C (I can't remember who) it started with some arguments as who was supposed to be the fastest man on earth before the two 'sprinted' down our dorm to settle the score once and for all.

It was a huge pleasure to write and conjure up little scenes to fill up the slot. I remember doing a little parody on an advertisement for what was supposed to be a brand of washing detergent. Remember, on television they often have the part where a brand X is first used for washing to dirt to little avail... and then the promoted brand is featured to clear all unwanted stains in no time. So we had our own 'advertisement'... as usual brand X managed to clear just a bit of the dirt. Then came our brand of 'choice' and voila, every dirt was cleared in a jiffy... in fact everything was cleared including the clothing itself. For with the clothing totally eliminated, so goes the stains! Get it?

Anyway with that I close this installment of "Remembering the "A" Level college days". Another comment in Remembering the "A" Level college days. Damansara Utama where the cool days started! said that while the radio station started illegally only to die out naturally after it was legalised following a visit to our room from a college lecturer, what I do remember was the whole activity was actually stopped when the college guards came rushing into 51C... looking for me after I ran through a girls' dorm and that would be part of the next installment. Cheers! :]