If Only They Could Talk

I can be a bit slow when it comes to trying out other people's recommendation and this book is proof of that. My boss lent me this book after I lent her Teacher Man. You're going to love this, she enthusiastically beamed.

I'm happy to report that she is absolutely right. After 5 months of letting it sit still on my shelf, I picked the book up a few days after first Syawal.

If Only They Could Talk follows the journey of veterinarian James Herriot in his first year on the job. It was it first (and last) job fresh out of college, serving the agriculture community of North Yorkshire in the 1930s. He was hired by Siegfried Farnon, an experienced and dashing fellow practitioner. Siegfried had earlier bought over the practice and was running it with his younger brother Tristan.

I'm not sure if it's Herriot himself or the folk of North Yorkshire, but it seems as the place is never short of amusing stories, in and outside the farmyards.

In one story, Herriot was called to examined a sick cow by a very sceptical farmer who watched his every move like a hawk. Herriot, struck by nervousness, proceeded to take the cow's temperature by inserted the thermometer in the animal's rectum. He only turned the other side for only a second, and saw the thermometer had disappeared inside the rectum. I was cracking up as I imagine the look on both Herriot's and the farmer's faces.

Another particular story that still makes me laugh every time I recall it is about an old man who worked a caretaker for a wealthy widow's little pig. She named the pig Nugent, after her uncle. The old man couldn't properly pronounce the name Nugent, probably because of his accent. So whenever Herriot came to attend to the pig, the old man would ask, "Has you come to see Nudist?"

(If you don't know what a nudist is, do look it up. :D )

There are also stories of his boss and his boss's brother. Siegfried, despite being a top-notch veterinarian, has the tendency to be forgetful sometimes. Meanwhile, Tristan is more laid back, maybe too laid back for his own good. On several occasions Tristan even had been fired by Siegfried (like the time he lost the chequebook). But after some time had past and Siegfried being the forgetful person that he is, the brothers went on to work as usual, as if Tristan was never fired.

Herriot writes frankly about his successes and failures. The charm of the book lies in his optimism when times seemed bleak and his willingness to write of his blunders and failures. It's hard not to root for him whenever we find him in tricky situations.

According to ulama, some Prophets were trained by Allah as shepherds before they were given their first revelation. This is because working with animals can be a humbling experience, as evident throughout the stories.


In the US, this book is collected together with the second one (It Shouldn't Happened to a Vet) as All Creatures Great and Small. I disagree with the renaming, as it downplays the humourous feel conveyed in original titles. I feel the same way about the new cover, but you be the judge.

(UPDATE: Actually the renaming was an idea by Herriot's own daughter.)

Herriot has written a total of 6 books in the series. I'm slowly making my way through number 3, Let Sleeping Vets Lie. In this one, we get to see how Herriot pursued his future wife, a local farm girl who shares his love for animals.

As Herriot pondered at the end of of the book, if animals do could talk, what would they say about us humans? Well, if the the farm animals of the Yorkshire Dales could talk and read, they'd probably be telling us to go on and check out Herriot's books.

I checked my SMS inbox and found a message from an unidentified number

It reads,

Assalamualaikum Mak.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri - Maaf Zahir Batin - Eid Mubarak

These last few weeks have been crazy for me. My schedule has jumbled up and I haven't got my haircut yet. And the Municipal Council recently tore down my usual roadside barbershop, God knows how I greatly dislike going to a new barber, especially one I'm not familiar with.

Anyways, my sincerest wishes that our efforts for Ramadhan will be accepted, and that may this Aidilfitri brings much blessing and happiness to us, our families and all Muslims, insya-Allah, amin.

Special thanks to those who sent me cards, I'll try my best to reply. Take care, people.

Wondering...

I saw this in a special episode of Honey and Clover called Chapter F, and thought how this one frame seems to mirror the state I'm in at this of point in life... the sky, the wind, hair that needs cutting, the mind lost in thoughts, wondering...

Have a great Ramadhan, everyone.

All Over but the Shoutin'

At one point in my life, I did something that something regrettable. I stopped reading.

I won't go into details. It's suffice to say that I lost a lot precious learning opportunities during that time, and that is one mistake I sincerely believe no one should repeat.

Getting back into the habit wasn't as easy as I thought. I realised my reading speed had declined greatly. I used to finish one or two books a week. Now a book every few months is enough reason to climb to the top of the nearest hill and yell, "Yeah!!!".

When I was struggling to become an active reader again, I resorted to friend's bookshelves. My long time bro profar loaned me a couple of John Grishams, and I got my first glimpse of the so-called beautiful South. From those pages, places like St. Louis, Biloxi and Baton Rouge became familiar sounding.

And after a long time apart, I felt like I was summoned to come back and visit. This time it would be Alabama, and the voice calling me was Rick Bragg's.

If you have very little idea about life in the South, then All Over but the Shoutin' is a good place to start. But it won't be a happy start. This book may cost you a few boxes of tissues. This is the story of Bragg's childhood, and what it's like to white, and poor.

White poverty is somewhat a taboo subject in America. Most people tend to think that white, Caucasian folks as affluent people or at the least well-to-do. In reality, poverty does not discriminate. Like many who struggled, the Braggs did everything that they could to go on living. This book will also change what we might think about living in poverty, and that it often never as what we imagine.

Bragg went on to carve himself a career in journalism. He started covering sports and local stories, went further to the big name papers including the New York Times. His shining moment came when was able to get his mother to New York (she disliked the idea of travelling so far at first) and witness him accept the Pulitzer Prize. The proud look on her face, the mother of a simple reporter man from Alabama, meant more to Bragg than the prestigious award itself.

If there's one thing the writer wouldn't want readers to forget about his book, it would be his mother's great sacrifice for her three sons. She went 18 years without a new dress, while she cleans and irons other people's clothes, and starved herself so her boys could eat.

There is no doubt Bragg is a gifted writer (the Pulitzer was rightfully awarded, IMHO). I enjoyed the book tremendously. Having to put it down after finishing it felt like having to reluctantly say goodbye to a bunch of people you've grown to like, because the express bus home is leaving in half an hour's time.

Selamat mengimarahkan bulan Ramadhan

Kata orang bijak alim kita, bertemunya kita dengan Ramadhan bermakna Allah telah memilih kita untuk termasuk golongan yang akan mengambil manfaat daripadanya. Insya-Allah, sama-sama kita buat yang terbaik, moga-moga kita dikurniakan rahmat, keampunan serta kemerdekaan yang telah ditawarkan.

Amin.

Empty email inbox (you gotta try it!)

I use GMail as my main email account. GMail has a couple of feature that I love, and one in particular is Archive Mail.

This feature makes your GMail looks as if it has at least 2 separate sections. One is the Inbox, for incoming mails. Two, the All Mail, where all archived mails are stored.

Here how it works:

1. I read the mail that arrives in the Inbox.
2. If I wish or need to read it again later, I could Label it (to make finding it later easier) and save it using Archive Mail.
3. If I do not wish to read it anymore, I simply delete it.

The result is a clear Inbox. If there's nothing coming in, I'm greeted with an empty one. Since I don't get emails a lot, at most I will get is a bunch. The system helps me eliminate unread mails.

No more staring at 400+ mail in my Inbox (that's in my other email account, yet to be cleared into an empty Inbox). And that, my bro and sis, is why you gotta try this.

(Anybody knows how to make this system work for Yahoo! Mail?)

"Don't you want to be like them?"

I have the privilege of knowing a friend who looks up to the ulama' the way others look up to footballers or rock stars or mangaka. He once showed a memoir by a well-respected alim and I was surprised that such book exists. Needless to say that this alim's life and mine are like day and night.

And then my good friend asked me, point-blank, "Don't you want to be like them?"

I was lost for words. Nothing crawled to mind.

For me it isn't a question of "want to or not?". It is more of a "possible or not?" question.

May Allah bless the alim for his patience. His upbringing was harsh, but amazingly he was grateful for it. He was 'reminded' by Him on several occasions about his mistakes in ways I don't even believe I could take.

And till this day I'm still looking for my answer...

Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories

Rashomon is a movie by the legendary Japanese director, Kurosawa Akira. In the movie, a traveling pair of husband and wife fell victim to a bandit. The bandit was caught and an investigation was launched. But as the criminal, the victim and the witness describe their point of views, the story becomes very complicated as some of the details given begin to contradict. A more recent film which also uses this storytelling technique is Hero, starring Jet Li and Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

Psychologists have borrowed this idea to describe how people who went through the same experience may have different views and understanding of what happened. Known as the The Rashomon Effect, this concept highlights the subjectivity of how people perceive things. The different views may contradict one another, but they are also plausible at the same time.

I haven't watched Rashomon the movie, so I guess Rashomon and Seveteen Other Stories is the next best thing.


Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories is a short story anthology by another master, Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Rashoman the movie is in fact based on two of Akutagawa's short stories, Rashomon and In a Bamboo Groove. Kurosawa adapted the story of In a Bamboo Groove as the movie's plot and Rashomon as the movie's setting (somewhere during the Heian period).

Akutagawa is revered as a master for good reasons. One of it is his ability to write about the many periods in Japanese history. O-Gin touches upon the Genna period, when Christianity began to spread on Japanese soils. The Story of A Head that Fell Off — an amusing tale of mortality and repentance — takes place during and after the Sino-Japanese war (fought in order to win Korea). The final part of the book contains Akutagawa more autobiographic and contemporary pieces, like The Baby's Sickness, his struggle between a successful father and an accomplished writer; and Life of A Stupid Man and Spinning Gears, are haunting and melancholic self-accounts that were published posthumously. One story in particular, Hell Screen — about a despicable artist obsessed with painting scenes from hell and ending up paying dearly for it — simultaneously frightened and delighted me.

I did have some doubts about reading something classical like this book. Maybe it is my misplaced idea that classics, especially a foreign one, may be overwhelming wordy. Instead, the book surprises me with its clarity and humbleness. It is anything but lofty. Akutagawa beautifully crafts every story like a finely prepared sushi.

The translator and publisher are also to be congratulated for a job well done. The notes that accompany the stories help clarify many of the references and lend a sense of intrigue to the stories.

Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories proves to me that classical works are to be discovered, not feared. They say classical works are in league of their own, and personally I believe that they are different in the way they approach things. In our kinetically-charge generation, everything is delivered dizzying fast (blog is one ironic example). Back then, things that come out from people's mind were well-put and rarely rushed. Sadly today, the art of conveying ideas across elegantly is a dying one. But fortunately we still can learn from the earlier minds.

Bowling in Inkscape

At one time I directed a lot of my focus on mastering Inkscape, the wonderful, open source vector graphics editor. But things didn't pan out as planned.

Inkscape isn't as intuitive as I thought, which is not a bad thing. It's just that it's a tool with a learning curve. Figuring out how to use it means spending time trying its functions and features, and not by guessing which one does what.

I took the latter approach got disappointed. Inkscape seemed easy at first, but frustrations took over as I couldn't find the way the things I want. For example, I tried to create a magazine-style layout using it but the final output was not sharp enough and the size ended up wrong. I abandoned Inkscape for some time, thinking of giving up entirely.

But later (can't exactly remember when but about months later), I gave Inkscape another try. I was bored and I tried some things that I never tried before, like using paths and nodes. The result is the above: the bowling pin.

Yes, it looks like sketchy, amateurish at best. But it is a badge of courage for me. I played around with nodes and paths, something that scared me back then, when I thought Inkscape wasn't as easy as I would like it to be.

I took a leap of faith. It was scary, like it should be. It's a good reminder for myself that the scary possibilities are sometimes the ones that change things for the better.


A bit about the bowling pin. Initially it was a round shape converted into a path. In path mode, nodes can be added. Nodes can be manipulated to give an object the shape or curve we want it to have. For example, I added nodes to the circle to form the neck of the pin. It's a fairly simple manipulation, but I wasn't successful at manipulating paths and nodes before and that caused a lot of the frustrations.

Now I'm less scared of Inkscape. It takes time to learn it and I'm willing to give whatever it takes to get it working.

(The bowling pin is blue because one of the first bowling pins I ever saw were the plastic toy ones that my father bought me when I was wee lad. It had other colours too. And please never invite me to go bowling, because like virtually all other sports I'm just awful at it.)