Tuesday, March 31, 2009

One in a million

Last week Kee Thuan Chye paid a visit to UPM but I was very unlucky! He came on Monday, 12-2 and unfortunately at that time range I can’t make it. It was due to my commitment towards Putrafm. Yes I became a trial deejay for UPM’s radio station. You don’t want believe it? Up to you but this is what Dr Edwin called as jealousy. Hehe.

I felt quite frustrated because I was really eager to meet him (This is because for this whole semester I think only his play managed to make me eager to continue reading until the end). I think I did not mention that I read other story eagerly am I right? If I did please consider I was bluffing. Hehe.

I think Kee Thuan Chye is one of the Malaysian that truly Malaysian. Through his story I can see how he sees our Malaysia and spoke out his opinion honestly. I really want to ask him some questions such as who inspire him to write in a first place? How he perceive everything that he saw and convey it through his writing? Does he ever got any threat such as ISA detention or been charge in court because of his story that he wrote? Yes his writing in the play “The swordfish, Then the concubine” was quite controversy but interesting. He tells no lies but truth and that was the reason I really wanted to meet him.

From what I heard from my friends he was a humble person that has a sense of humor. Really open minded person and love sex very much! Haha. Kind of crazy person I think! I really hope one day I can meet him and ask him everything that I really curious to know. If you read his story and background you will find that he is really a Malaysian. You can only find person like him one in a million, or maybe billion. You want some proof? Here let me tell you something, he is a Chinese but his children’s name are Soraya Sunitra Kee Xiang Yin and Jebat Arjuna Kee Jia Liang. So Malaysia isn’t it?

Friday, March 20, 2009

The story of Oedipus The King and Anwar Ibrahim??

When I was in primary school around 1998 our country Malaysia learned a shocking news. Our Deputy Prime Minister, Dato’ Anwar Ibrahim had been caught by authority because of ‘so-do-my’ with his driver (which I can’t remember his name). That news gave a big slap to Malaysian people and it almost causes a great havoc to our country. At that time I was still small and know nothing about what happened around me except for one thing. Politics!

Wherever and whenever I went to any ‘warung kopi’ or mamak stall I will see a lot of politician and it was confusing because at that time I wonder why ‘mamak’ who is politician made a ‘the tarik’ for me? Now when I grow up I fully understand what happened back there.

I felt sorry for Dato’ Anwar Ibrahim but I don’t know whether he was guilty or not(but the latest trial I heard he was not guilty actually). I rather make myself an exception for this case because I can’t see any evidence. So better be silent and pray may God show us which side is right. Anyway I felt sorry for him because when he was accused for ‘so-do-mice’ he was a Deputy Prime Minister and almost become a powerful man in our country, Prime Minister!

I felt like fate was fooling him around. After 10 years after that he only managed to prove himself not guilty in court BUT he was IN prison for that all ten years. I don’t know was that a politic game or the case was real but I know one thing, he been fool by fate!

When I learned the story of Oedipus Rex I found out that both of these men have a similarity. Fate loves them so much and loves to play with them. For Oedipus Rex, he was such a pity king. He was born as a prince that going to become king but when the Teiresias told his father that he going to kill his father he was thrown out of the country when he was still small.

The funny part is later in the play he will still kill his father accidentally and married his own mother without realize that queen was his mother. Fate sometimes we can’t change it even if we try really hard to do so. When I learned about this story I notice his fate was similar with Dato’ Anwar Ibrahim.

Sometimes fate can be funny and cruel don’t you think so?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

15 minutes play + interesting for Dr Edwin = Shakespeare!

You feel eager to know why I wrote that equation for my topic? Can you imagine when you become a student in 2nd year degree in Chemical Industry and your assignment for that semester is you need to come out with a great formula such as nuclear formula? That was sort of the situation I been through.

My first assignment for this subject was I need to write a 15 minutes play and if I want to get a good mark it must be interesting. Interesting for whom? Not for you for sure. It must be interesting for Dr Edwin. You think it was easy? No! For me in Literature he can be compare with Roald Dahl. You should meet him. Not outside the class because he will be nice but you need to follow his lesson. He is a strict but indeed a great lecturer. He wants the best from his students and to do so he will squeeze everything out from you. Hey stop! Am I talking bad about him? No! Please don’t think that way. It was a compliment plus a little bit of complaint to myself. So back to business.

When I knew that I need to write a play I thought it was easy because I can write any kind of story when I was in a mood (I can’t guarantee you it going to be a good story). The assignment can be in a group of three, pair or individual. I choose to do it alone because I don’t really like when people edit my work and the story change totally. It can only be done if my group full with people that has a crazy idea but most of them already has their own group so I thought it was okay for me.

I was right when I said it going to be easy because I managed to find my mood to write a play but the difficult part was when I need to submit my draft to Dr Edwin. I was anxious that he will reject my story and found it boring. Thank god he didn’t think so. The only thing he commented me was I need to rewrite later part of my play. After I discussed it with my friends they said the ending was too quick and simple and “some of my dialogue sounds stiff” (This was a comment from Dr Edwin’s tutor, Mr Harold, Thank you sir for your guidance!)

Then I edited the story and made it longer but I hope it still a 15minutes play not 15minutes and 5 seconds. After I done it I gave it to my friend to help me to check my grammar. Yes I admit my grammar is not very good and I’m still learning so don’t put your expectation too high on me.

Finally I managed to complete my play that I reflected from the youngsters nowadays. The process was fun and sometimes it can be full of tense. I wrote the story for tertiary level because the story has some word and part that was not suitable for secondary student. More like story for 18years and above. It was about a man that has a perfect life and very good with his social life until he ignore the common sense of human. He will learn his mistake when something happen in his life. For me it was an interesting story but I didn’t manage to get interesting from Dr Edwin. It is okay for me because I felt satisfied with my play but I really admire some of my friend who got interesting comment from him. Their story was so nice and creative. Maybe they can be compare to Shakespeare one day? Who knows. Good luck guys!

Good teachercreative set induction.

In this semester our class needs to do microteaching for our assignment (Don’t you think we have a lot of assignment? Please tell me you think so). Last semester my group already done microteaching for the subject Teaching Of Short Stories and it was sucks because of Dr Edwin’s tutor who I really don’t want to mention in this blog really gave us trouble with his confusion teaching. Luckily this semester we got Mr Harold who was quite interesting even though sometimes can be very moody. Oopppsss!! Sorry!! My badmouth never know his limit. No insurance at all.

This semester we need to do microteaching on drama so we need to choose any drama that we had learned or from the book ‘Now Read On’ and teach the story to our own classmate. My classmate will be my student, teacher and my evaluator. Hahaha. It was funny I think because I can see how my friends going to teach their student in future. One thing I knew for sure, some of my friends were like having two characters in themselves, one as teacher and one as normal human being. It really amazed me at first but now I can cope with it.

One thing I learned from my previous lecturer was if we want to attract student’s attention and activate their schemata we need to prepare a creative set induction. Therefore as the first part of this assignment we need to present our microteaching in tutorial class which being conducted by Mr Harold. I choose a play which I haven’t learn yet because I think it is going to be challenging for me (after sometimes I think I was an idiot because it going to be tough for me to analyze the story by myself).

Dance Like A Man by Mahesh Dattani was a play which I chose for my microteaching. Why I chose that play? Because of the word ‘Dance’ really attracted me to explore the story. I love dance and I thought the story must be about dancing. So for my set induction I prepared a movie clip from ‘Step Up 2’ and showed it to my class.
The movie was really cool and I love the story.

Then I asked some of simple question for my classmate that later I can relate with my pre and while reading activities. They gave a very good response but Mr Harold corrected me because one of my questions sounds stereotype. It sounds like this “Do you think the girl in the movie clip looks like a prostitute?” Thanks to him I realized my mistake and know what I should do in future, more careful in constructing questions.

Well at least I managed to attract my classmate’s attention and they love the movie clip. This microteaching really helps me in preparing myself to become a teacher in the future because by doing so I can practice my teaching skills and discover what I should and shouldn’t do in teaching. Something that I realized in teaching was if you want to be a good teacher that can attract your student you need to come out with a creative set induction because it was the early part of teaching. Don’t you think so teacher?

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Eliza-Birth

Do you guys know who is Elizabeth the first? You may say that Elizabeth is your first daughter or your friend’s daughter or maybe your pet which you name Elizabeth and it is your first pet in your life. For someone who is a bit knowledgeable maybe you will say Elizabeth the first was the queen of England.

Yes! You are right! She was a queen of England and this time I’m going to write about her. Why I suddenly want to talk about the lady (she didn’t get marry so I can call her lady…well pity on her..feel very sorry…) who already under the ground for a long time?

She actually was a very significant person in England and important for their history. Last few weeks my class and I had to watch the movie (even though we stopped at the middle of the movie at the first time because my lecturer really pissed off at that time with us. Why? Can’t tell you!) about Queen Elizabeth the first(Elizabeth the Golden Age). It was an interesting movie. Seriously you guys have to watch it if you want some inspiration in improving yourself.

Can you imagine a woman who is very tough (I meant in a spiritual way okay?), brave, kind, wise and have some style used to live in this world? The more surprisingly is she was a Queen of England! Yes! The ‘Virgin Queen’! ( she entitled it because she never manage to get marry)

In this movie I found out that she fall in love with Walter Raleigh but her love never been reply. At first she really depressed and angry but somehow she managed to get through it and made a good decision. She put aside her personal matter for the sake of her beloved country, England.

You want to know what happen? Why her love did not get a reply? How she managed to get through it? What happened to England back there? Watch the movie and you will find the answer

The Chosen Prophet

When I was asked by my drama’s lecturer Prof. Dr Edwin Malachi Vethamani to read Oedipus Rex, I felt so down because I knew that task will be difficult for me. Can you imagine a millennium guy like me reading an ancient text? It is going to be tough and I knew I will sleep every 5 minutes when I start to read the story. Well the good news is I am going to have a bedtime story!!

Surprisingly for your information, I started to like the story when I studied the play because I felt attracted to the character in the story. This story evolved around the main characters such as Oedipus Rex, Jocaste, Creon and Teiresias. The character is the strength of the story.

One of the characters in the story which is Teiresias really amazed me. Let me tell you something about him. He is a blind old man that been cursed by Goddess Athena. Why he been cursed? Who was him before he blind? Eager to know?

When he was young he was a normal guy who one day accidentally saw Goddess Athena bathing while he was walking around. Such unlucky man he was. He had been cursed by Goddess Athena and turned blind. To make it worse when Goddess Athena knew that he was innocent she cannot take back the curse so she gave him a gift.

He became a prophet!! When he became old, Oedipus looked for his help. Oedipus wanted to find the murderer of King Laios so he needed the prophecy from Oedipus. There are other two interesting different tale on how Oedipus been cursed blind but had a gift to be a prophet.

You want to know the other tales? Well you need to work for it! Good luck! ;-)