Bonnie & Clyde

Just had my performance appraisal today.

I’m thinking of the best, perfect one word equity (LOL) to described my feelings right now. I feel like....

Angry? Very.

Sad? Getoutttahere. (I’m not crying, am I?)

Betrayed? You bet.

Disappointed? Hell yeah.

Exhausted? Most definitely.

...

...

...

...

...


I think I’m gonna settled for SORHAI.

It should be the Bee Hoon. The one i had in a food court near my office for breakfast.

My body flushed it out probably an hour later; and continue flushing, non-stop. Like a Mega Sale, everything must go.

I text Bonnie for comfort, telling her I L** S**. Her reply always seems to make things easier.

That's whenever this happen, it always remind me of her.

I m not the warmest guy around. Despite i treat every single ones i call friend with sincerity, i seldom put in the effort to keep in touch. I know relationship needs effort to maintain. However, i too, believe true friendship's beyond time and space.

Today i just got a call from a friend i didnt see for near to a decade. She told me she'd just given birth to a boy 2 weeks ago; feeling bored staying home. Hence the calls to all her old friends.

We had a short talk, a very pleasant one. She told me quite some stuff about her family and marriage and son. It really cheered me up.

Before we hung up, i thanked her for the call and told her that the call's brought some good memories and happiness to my otherwise usual-boring Tuesday afternoon. I told her i would call her some other time, this round i would make the initiative.

"Yeah yeah, i know you. Clyde, i know you too well," she laughed.

Perhaps she's right. After putting down the phone, i realised i dont even have her phone number.

Had a rather ‘interesting’ weekend.

We took mom and aunt out for a Saturday dinner instead of the usual Sunday lunch. Reason being mom wanted to visit an old friend, which we did. She is a 87yo friend of mom’s and they are somewhat related. Grandpa and her uncle were sworn brothers. She later married a Malay man, who in turn adopted 4 kids and some of them married spouses of different races. I always stereotyped my Muslim friends for being conservative and traditional, but this family, a family of Datukship, pleasantly surprised me with their pride of having mixed heritage! :)

Anyways, back the main plot... after 2.5 hours of chit chatting and polite servings of excellent home made cakes and dodol, we had dinner and drove home.

My aunt realised something was wrong when the gate was missing the usual padlock and all the lights and fans in the house was switched on. We didn’t enter but dialled 999 and alerted the police. They arrived after 10 minutes. 2 of them told me to enter the house to which I replied, “Saya sendiri masuk???” Jokingly they said he would be close behind.

True enough the whole house was ransacked. Drawers everywhere (even the kitchen) were pulled out and the contents emptied onto the floor. After much poking around, my aunt announced her costume jewellery was missing. Mom, on the other hand, was in high spirits as her real jewellery in a velvet pouch was placed on her bed. Obviously the thieves forgot to take it. 2 bottles of 10 yo wine was also missing from the cabinet. What a blessing!

We went to the police station to make a report and we heard a neighbour from an adjacent road, was robbed around the same time too. However, they were not as lucky. Their laptops, cameras, hand phones, cash and jewellery was stolen. Thank God nobody was home so no trauma. After that we had to wait for the official photographers to take pictures of our house. Clyde and I went home to get some spare padlocks for mom and finally went home a little after 3am.

Next day we bought some more locks and forced mom to choose curtains, which she has been most adamant about for the longest time. I believe visibility led to the break-in and curtains would somewhat deter the thieves if they are unsure if anyone was home.

Mom, I insist and I’m not sorry.

Anyway, who in their right of mind would wanna rob 2 elderly women?? I hope the thieves feel like the idiots that they are when they try to sell the fake jewellery. I hope the cork rotted in the wine bottles. I hope they get diarrhoea after drinking it.

Most of all, I hope their mothers get robbed too.

I’m surprised at how happy and relieved I am to be home. As soon as we touched Malaysian soil, Clyde and I took a taxi straight home. I unpacked while Clyde drove out for a hearty Malaysian brekkie and tapau-ed BKT for me. BKT, oh how sweet art thou!

I just realised my car is available to me 24/7. My friends are at a distance of setanak nasi. My warm, cosy bed, my PS2, my little TV and DVD set, my dearest Astro, My spacious, clean bathroom, my walk-in wardrobe, my chatty colleagues, my lunch outings with them, my little cubicle, my desk lamp, our colour printer, our beloved designers and producers, the clean malaysian air, 4-lane highways, bigbigbig shopping malls, pasar malams, MIL’s soup, my favourite Thai massage place, my regular beauty/hair stylists, my bland Chinese stir-fried vegetable dishes, beef, pork, duck and crab dishes, belaccan chilli, endless Chinese 8-course dinners, DVD pedlars, calls at local rates, free laundry and cleaning services from our maid, etc. I know I missed all things familiar, but I didn't know I missed them sooo much.

Amen! :)

Today I missed India too but mostly the shopping bit. I feel they have got so much to offer as their main attraction (street shopping) is the best I have encountered, knocking Bangkok to 2nd place on my list. Sight seeing is brilliant too, if only the government can turn the country around and make it more tourist friendly.

Now this, this is what I came here for. The ultimate bait. How can I leave the Indian soil without taking a look at one of the seven wonders of the world, the monument dedicated to love, built over a span of 22 years and accountable for an unrecorded amount of deaths??

The Taj is actually a mausoleum and not a mosque, although it does look like one. Built by Shah Jahan for his second wife Mumtaz Mahal, the white marble dome is much more rounder compared to the regular mosque because the Mugal wanted it to resemble his wife’s breast! Aaahhh... bet you didn’t know that! Madame Mumtaz died from childbirth, her fourteenth actually. Shah Jahan was so devastated by her death that when he was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb, he spent the remainder of his days gazing at her tomb day and night. Upon his death he was buried beside his beloved wife.

Parts of the tomb were inlaid with emeralds, sapphires, diamonds and other gems, but over the years it has been defaced.


We were recommended to view the Taj during sunset, and we did. However, we only had a back view. Btw, camels look ridiculously girly up close


The river behind the Taj looked more like a drain though. What a pity


The next morning we left the hotel at 6am to wait for sunrise at the Taj. Almost there!


At approximately RM75 per ticket, we were supposed to collect a bottle of mineral water and a pair of foot covers each, which we forgot. A cleaner gave us recycled ones and wanted to ask for money (what else) but unfortunately, a group of tourists emerged so he couldn’t muster up his courage to do so


Breathtaking, isn’t she? Because of the design, the entire mausoleum looks like she’s floating


WOW


The excellent timing enabled us to catch the sun rising behind the east gate...


... and the moon setting behind the west gate at the same time! See the moon? It's right beside the pillar. Amazing!


Arch 1


Arch 2


Jawi calligraphy of jasper engraved into the marble, from the Koran


Originally, gemstones are embedded into the marble but not anymore


Details, details, details!


Flooring


I could go on forever posting endless angles of the Taj but nothing does it justice. I guess you just gotta see her for yourself


The exit


River view, where we stood the evening before

Agra Fort is located in Agra, of course. It is also known as Lal Qila, Fort Rouge and Red Fort of Agra. It is the biggest fort in India where all the great Mughals lived, from Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jehangir (he blinded and bound a chain round his brother to a soldier), Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal) and Aurangzeb (who killed and exiled his own brothers and offered poison to his father for the throne). Scandalous. And did you know the Mughals were descendants of Genghis Khan? Melawat sambil belajar lah.

I always thought it was a 'fort' fort lah, the place where you have war and stuff and emperors lived only in palaces. The place is huge lah.


Entrance


Wall


Mosque


Mosque interior


Roof


View


Courtyard


Behind bars


Renovation


Beautifully carved pillars