Engku Iman is a Malaysian artist. I love her artworks, I think it's great to see a local artist who is brave enough to challenge the norms of our narrow-minded society. Here are some of my favorite artworks of hers:

Werewolf in every aspect is a poetic song. 

The piano arrangement is nothing complex because the poetic lyrics play the major part of the song. To strengthen the powerful essence of it, she adds the sound of screaming children to coexist with her singing towards the end of the song. 

Werewolf is the song to end a relationship for good. In the first verse, she points her finger to her partner by singing “I could liken you to a werewolf, the way you left me for dead,” but later she raises her hands up, understandably as an act to be the mature one, to partially take the blame as she continues with “But I admit that I provided the full moon.” 

The relationship itself is an unfixable tragedy, albeit the partner is initially known as a ‘super guy’ and together they are akin of ‘a wishing well and a bolt of electricity’. 

But, she has a full awareness that it would be an illogical act to perpetuate a relationship where neither wants to love anymore, and she sings “Cause in the end, I’m a sensible girl I know the fiction of the fix.” 

She knows there’s nothing good can be done to fix it and there’s nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key.

Listen to the song below:

Alienated

Who I am is underappreciated.

I said, come, dance with me

This place is too colourful for us to be so standstill

Dance to my song – I wasn’t always this happy

Dance to our song – I was never this free

I’d like for us to dance and dance and dance till we pass out

If that’s okay with you. I want everything to be okay with you.

But you exuded boredom to my face

And suddenly I was a star without its glow

My head was filled with rage

I worked too hard for these dance steps to be forgotten

Your face looks familiar – like a useless man I am destined to avoid

I knew I deserve a better dance partner.

Slowly I isolated myself away from you,

But my foot is still tapping though

Under the spotlight, I am alone on this dance floor

Swirling my way through the song

My body moves to his soothing voice

My hair jumps along to his fancy riffs

“Yoouuu are noooot tooo blaaaammme foooorrrr.” I know, T.

Make him leave me alone.

Black never look so bleak

And in rainbows, I never felt so well.

I am in the wrong place but at the right time

I could leave and I could be a quitter.

Everyone around me walked away when the music ends.

So I hit replay,

And I knew I want to dance again.

This poem is originally published on Eksentrika, written by me.

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on the 3rd of March. 

The purpose of celebrating this day is to to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

For 2016, the theme chosen is "Critical Minds for Critical Times: Media’s role in advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies". 

The activities held are forum and presentations by the students from various universities such as Universiti Selangor, UiTM and also Taylor's University. 

For the forum, the panelists are Steven Gan, the Editor in Chief of MalaysiaKini, Annete Gartland a journalist of Changing Times Media Ireland, Sharaad Kuttan of BFM and Dato Ahmad Izham Omar the Chairman of CMCF.

Varium et mutabile semper femina. Maksudnya wanita itu sering berubah. Ramona cuba hadamkan erti ayat yang dipetik daripada puisi epik tulisan Virgil. Sukar untuk dia mengaku bahawa sebenarnya dia tahu akan ayat tersebut daripada album terbaru Laura Marling, bukannya kerana dia membaca puisi Virgil sendiri.

Tapi bukan itu masalahnya di sini. 

Ramona melihat konteks ayat dari puisi tersebut dan cuba mengaplikasikan ke atas dirinya. Terlalu banyak perkara yang sudah diubah dan bakal diubah, dan oleh kerana ketidak puas hatinya terhadap diri sendiri dan orang sekeliling maka perubahan itu merupakan suatu perkara yang pasti. Pasti berlaku. Pasti berubah. Untuk menjadi yang lebih baik. Untuk menjadi yang terbaik. Untuk diri sendiri, bukan untuk orang lain.

Ramona berjalan perlahan menuju ke meja belajar di mana komputer ribanya telah tersedia. Lagu-lagu dari album Tidal lantang dimainkan, dan Ramona benci akan Fiona Apple yang seperti tahu apa yang dia harus tempuhi dalam hidupnya sekarang. 

Baru sebulan dia ditinggalkan J untuk perkara mustahil untuk difahami. Ramona sukar untuk faham mengapa J sanggup meninggalkannya sementelah terlalu banyak perkara yang mereka sudah kongsi bersama. Maka perubahan itu dirasakan perkara yang mustahak untuk dilakukan. Jadi mana harus Ramona mulakan?

Perubahan fizikal merupakan jalan paling klise untuk seseorang yang baru sahaja putus cinta. Potong rambut. Kuruskan badan. Buang baju lama dan habiskan duit untuk beli baju baru. Ramona ialah seorang wanita yang klise. Namun terlalu banyak aspek luaran Ramona yang mengingatkannya kepada J. Lantas, fizikalnya diberi nafas baru. Tiada lagi rambut yang diwarnakan ungu sewaktu mula perkenalan dengan J – menurut J warna itu mengingatkanya kepada Ramona Flowers pada fasa pertama dalam filem Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Yang tinggal kini hanyalah rambut pendek yang bakal diwarnakan hitam semula, dia cuma perlu cari masa untuk cari pewarna rambut yang sesuai. 

Ramona lihat ke arah kucing yang sedang tidur nyenyak di atas kaunter dapur. Kucing pemberian J sewaktu ulang tahun pertama. Kucing yang tidak punya nama, lalu kucing itu terusan dipanggil ‘meow’. Kucing itu seharusnya dibuang jauh dari hidupnya jika dia betul mahukan perubahan. Jika dia betul tidak mahu ada kena-mengena dengan J. Perlahan-lahan kucing itu dikejutkan dari tidur dan diletakkan di luar rumah. Jika kucing itu datang balik, Ramona menganggap kucing itu memang milik dia. Jika tidak, Ramona harap kucing itu faham mengapa dia menghalaunya keluar dan tidak akan datang kembali.

Oh ya, tiada lagi nama Ramona. Nama itu identiti teragung seseorang, dan selama ini dia telah menggunakan nama yang diberi oleh seseorang yang tidak lagi bermakna dalam hidupnya. J memanggilnya Ramona kerana nama itu mengingatkannya sekali lagi kepada Ramona Flowers, karakter wanita yang menjadi idaman setiap lelaki yang sudah menonton filem yang dianggap cult classic itu. Nama sebenarnya ialah Mona. Mona itu elok. Mona itu lebih baik daripada Ramona. 

Secara luarannya Mona kelihatan seperti baru dilahirkan ke tubuh baru. Namun bukan seperti proses resureksi yang sering dibayangkan di mana jiwa nya merupakan jiwa baru. Jiwanya terasa masih kelam dan sesat. Sesat dalam perjalanan untuk mencari dirinya yang telah lama hilang. Mona terasa rimas. Rimas akan persekitaran yang mengongkong dirinya daripada terus keluar untuk menjadi diri sendiri. 

Mona sedar bukan semua perkara yang dibawa J ke dalam hidupnya perkara yang sia-sia. Malah, J berjaya membentuk Mona untuk menjadi seseorang yang lain dari asalnya. Mona menyentuh rambut barunya dengan perlahan. Tiada lagi warna ungu yang menarik perhatian orang ramai sewaktu mereka keluar bersama. Tiada lagi saat di mana Mona berjaya mencuri perhatian ramai orang, terutamanya lelaki, dengan cara dia membawa diri. Secara tidak langsung, Mona terasa seperti bukti sahih bahawa Manic Pixie Dream Girl itu wujud. Walaupun personaliti kegemaran kebanyakan penulis filem lelaki itu bakal dimusnahkan perlahan-lahan, Mona akui dia mula rindukan karakter yang dia bawa dengan jayanya sepanjang dia bersama J.

Sekali lagi fikirannya bercelaru. 

Penyesalan perlahan-lahan mula masuk ke fikiran Mona. Mungkin terlalu awal untuk dia melakukan sebarang perubahan. Mungkin tangannya terlalu pantas menggunting rambut sendiri, walhal dia selama ini suka akan rambut yang unik itu. Mungkin terlalu awal untuk dia buat mixtape yang dipenuhi lagu sedih yang ditujukan untuk diri sendiri. Mungkin terlalu kejam untuk dia menghalau kucing itu keluar. Mona membuka pintu. Kucing itu sedang menyambung tidurnya di depan pintu. Lega. 

On 15th April 2017, CMC members attended our first ever Team Building camp. This camp was held at Latto Charok, Janda Baik and held for two days.

They were around 40 people and followed by CMC advisor which is Miss Zakiah. The point of this camp is simple, to let us the CMC members get to know each other well so we could cooperate better in the near future for the upcoming events.

To be frank, I didn't want to go to the camp initially mainly because I am not an outdoor person and I haven't been to a camp for so long. Three years, to be exact. So when I first arrived here I had many negative thoughts inside my head, mostly about how badly I want to go home.

But as time passed by I realised I was having so much fun with my new friends. We did countless activities that not only test our communication skills but also our cooperation as a team. We also cooked together, which is something that I didn't expect us to do. We slept inside tents, and through this experience I learnt about how to survive in the jungle and out of the busy city life.

During our second day, our only activity is jungle trekking. It was a tough journey for me to climb all the way up because it was slippery everywhere due to the rainy night. But each one of us successfully made our way to the top and pampered ourselves with the breathtaking view of waterfall. It was a challenging experience, but a memorable one as well.

I thoroughly believe the objective of this camp, which is to get to know each other and strengthen the bond between CMC members, is achieved successfully. 

Yesterday my family and I went out for shopping and basically just have lunch together, like we usually would do. We often go to Quill City Mall, which is located 15 minutes away from our home. Quill City Mall is a decent mall for everyone, especially for family, to have their hang out cause it's cozy and the stores are great as well. But most of all, it's a nice place to have your meals with your family cause it has lots of restaurants that everyone has heard of or seen recommended on the internet.

We went to Secret Recipe. We've had our meals here many times before, albeit we knew the price are quite high but we still go here anyways for unknown reasons. Maybe because we really enjoy the Mac and Cheese with prawn. We often order the same thing every time we go here. 

We also ordered Chicken Cordon Blue, which is a chicken chop except when you slice the chicken into pieces, it's filled with melted cheese. It is served with fries and salad, which are a good combination to me. We also ordered Beef Lasagna. Frankly, I never liked SR's Lasagna perhaps because it looks oily to me and the propotion is kind of small. But I enjoyed the taste nonetheless.

But what I like the most about Amcorp Mall is a bookstore called Book Xcess. Book Xcess sells books at wholesale price, and many of the books are pretty new in the market too! I haven't been here in a long time and yesterday I finally did. I saw a Haruki Murakami book which costs only RM17.90, whilst other bookstores like MPH and Kinokuniya sells it for RM80! It's sad to me that not many people acknowledge the existence of this bookstore that's definitely worthwhile for book lovers to visit. If you enjoyed the annual Big Bad Wolf sale, then you'd definitely enjoy Book Xcess and you can visit it daily too. Both Amcorp Mall and Book Xcess are definitely hidden gems!

BY FARHIRA FARUDIN

“Rachel and I have separated. After 23 highly creative and happy years, for various reasons we have gone our separate ways. It’s perfectly amicable and has been common knowledge for some time.”