Le Tour de LRT.

I spent the past few days thinking that I was only getting two days off next week: Tuesday (Deepavali) and Thursday (Awal Muharram). Then, right at the end of my last class yesterday, word went out that my fellow FIS-mates and I were getting the whole week off after all, just like everyone else. Obviously, I wasn't about to look this particular gift horse in the mouth. I went home that day in a mood that was possibly brighter than anything I'd been feeling for the rest of the week.

Except maybe that rush when I got full marks for my Biology test. 

So, what did I do to kickstart the holidays? I went with my brother on a little journey I called 'Le Tour de LRT'. 

It might not have been the first time anyone's done it, but I've never heard of anyone doing it before. So I'll just consider it to be one of those random ideas that spontaneously pop up in my head from time to time, and not something I'd gotten from an outside source.

The plan was to embark on a tour of three of the main railway lines in Malaysia: Putra, Star and Monorail. We'd go from end to end on each of those lines, without getting off, except for interchanges and emergencies.

So we set off at about 9.30 from the Ampang station, which was the first station of the Star line. The fact that it wasn't too far away from where we lived made it all the easier for us.

We returned after four hours, having gone around KL, as well as the far-off reaches of Kelana Jaya, Gombak and Sri Petaling. 

The whole tour ended up costing RM 7.60. The initial theory was, since we'd be returning to the exact same station where we set off from, it wouldn't cost us a single cent. This part of the plan was foiled at the end of the Monorail line at KL Sentral, where there was no direct interchange to the Putra Line.

We concluded that, for sightseeing purposes, the Monorail was the best. It took us through the heart of the big city, and the design of its coaches made for an excellent view.

Sticking with the same aspect, the dullest was the Putra line. Sure, there were a couple of landmarks along the way (Menara TM, The Gardens@Midvalley) but all we saw were mostly housing areas. There were even parts of the route where the track went underground, so there was even less to see. Yaaawwwn. The Putra line was clearly not designed for tourists. 

So that's one thing off my bucket list - or at least it would be, if I had one. Now, back to the mundanity of holiday life.

Intersections.

"...[Each story] affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one."

- Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

I recently read the book from which the above quote was taken. It's been a while since I've read a good book, and by gum, this book was a good one.

Now, I won't spoil the story for those of you who haven't read it yet, but it basically goes like this:

The story is about an old man who dies in a work-related accident and goes to heaven. There, he is met by five people from his past who, regardless of whether he knows them or not, have affected his life in some way or another. Their purpose is to explain to him the events that had occurred in his life, for only when one understands, can he truly find peace (or something like that).

Besides being a fantastic read, the book also made me think about a couple of things.

Firstly, that our supposedly important lives are really just insignificant specks in the grander scale of the universe. 

We all have our own stories. Stories that are interwoven with the stories of many others - friends, family, acquaintances, strangers. Anything, and everything we do affects other people in one way or another. Just as anything, and everything other people do could affect us. Do unto others what you want others to do unto you, as the saying goes. There's no harm in being a little selfless sometimes.

Secondly, everything happens for a reason.

Muslims believe in the concept of hikmah (wisdom). Everything that happens has its own hikmah, a reason why God made it so. We must not rue unfortunate mishaps, or bad decisions. No amount of regret can change what has already been done. The right thing to do would be to look for the positives and learn from them. Understand that every cloud has a silver lining. To quote another line from the book:

"But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time."

******

I visited the Anatomy Museum at the HUKM Kuala Lumpur campus with my collegemates earlier today. Looking past the arguably dull curator-slash-tour guide, as well as the cancelled cadaver dissection demonstration, it was alright.

There were human body parts everywhere. Preserved, of course, in 10% formalin (or something). From the relatively ordinary hands and feet to the more macabre cross-sectioned human heads (one of the heads on display apparently belonged to a certain Botak Chin, although we had to guess for ourselves which one it was) and a baby still attached to its placenta, there was plenty to see. Heck, there was even a case containing male genitals which, naturally, induced a few childish giggles.

I wondered where all these body parts had come from. How the university had managed to acquire them. Who they had belonged to. If their previous masters had anticipated that their body parts would end up being indefinitely on display in front of many, many curious observers (none of the specimens were from the 90's onwards).

Looks like paths can still cross, even in death. I'd never expected to look upon the lifeless face of a notorious gangster, even if it had been partially skinned to reveal its insides, or cut in half. And what about those others? A dead pair of semi-formed twins - who would they have been had they tasted life? A pair of lungs - what air had they once breathed? A brain - what thoughts had once flitted about through its cells?

So many questions, and yet no chance of ever getting an answer. All just a part of the complex mystery that we call life.

Plays and Players.

Recently, my Foundation in Science (FIS) class at Nirwana started rehearsals for our Animal Farm play, based on the book of the same name. Obviously, it's not something we'd do on our own accord - the play doubles as our presentation for English class.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it's basically about a group of animals who rise up against their farm's abusive owner and end up running the farm themselves. Childish, you say? Not quite - it's an allegory of the Russian Revolution. Plus, it was written by George Orwell; the guy who wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. Never heard of him or the book? Shame on you. Look it up.

Anyway, I don't have any speaking parts in said play. Heck, I don't even have any acting parts neither. As co-chief scriptwriter I figured that I wouldn't be required to act - turns out I was wrong. I had to go through the screening process just like everyone else.

It just so happened that I wasn't in the best of moods at the time. I hardly put in any kind of spirit or enthusiasm into my audition, and after that was done, the directors decided that I should be the guy in charge of sound and music instead. I'm guessing that my acting was so poor that they figured that I should be kept as far away from the acting as possible. 

I'm not exactly gutted about it. In fact, I actually feel kinda happy about the whole thing. Being the sound guy is the best role I could have hoped for. I don't really have a whole lot to do, and whatever I do have to do isn't really that hard or burdening. They got another guy from the other FIS class to help out as well, so that's halved my already meagre workload.

The best part is that I don't have to skip lunch. You see, the rehearsals are held every day during the lunch break (1.30 - 2.30), as well as during English class. While everyone else has to stay back to act (and stuff), I'm just happily taking my time, making the most of my hour off. And since my regular lunch buddies are busy with Animal Farm, I find myself having lunch alone even more these days. While I don't mind eating with my friends, I do appreciate the alone time. Sometimes I just need time to cool off.

I'm not entirely sure about when we'll have to present the play to our lecturers, possibly sometime in mid-November. In any case, we don't have a lot of time. I'm not really expecting the show to be a success of Broadways-sized proportions, but I'm hoping it'll at least be presentable - especially since the FIS students who'd come before us had also presented the same exact play earlier in the year. Our version of Animal Farm would have to at least have something to set it apart from theirs, or the lecturers would get bored.

Hard work + Teamwork = Masterpiece.

I'd done plays before, back in the day - one I wrote for a teacher's farewell ceremony in Rembau comes to mind. If memory serves, we'd been given even less time to prepare for that one. Despite the time constraints, we still managed to put on a good show when the time came. Granted, the actors had natural talent, and the play was based on actual events - but the point remains. If you put in the effort, you'll get the results. You reap what you sow, and all that.

Miracles happen. And I believe in miracles.