October 2007


Semalam aku dan kekasih hatiku pergi menonton P.Ramlee The Musical. Ramainya orang tidak terkata. Tempat letak kereta melimpah sampai keluar. Oleh kerana kami sembahyang dulu, lambat sikit. Jadi kena letak kereta dekat luar. Jalan la sikit. Tapi tak la penat.

Kami berdua tak tahu sangat pasal pementasan musikal produksi Enfiniti kali ini. Mungkin kerana kami jarang sekali menonton media massa konvensional, jadi promosi tidak sampai ke telinga kami. Mujur adikku yang memang konvensional lagi sering menonton media konvensional memberitahu aku tentang produksi ini. Sempat la beli tiket sebelum habis.

Kami dihiburkan sejak mula nota pertama lagu dilontar oleh Budak P.Ramlee ( P. Ramlee ketika kecil ). Asyik menonton gerak tari yang sangat lincah lagi serentak oleh seluruh ensemble. Latar di Penang era 50-an sangat nostalgik. Budak P.Ramlee mengisahkan tentang cinta hati pertamanya, Azizah.

Babak silih berganti, latar bertukar rupa dengan lancar sekali. Setiap latar membuatkan mulutku semakin ternganga dek keindahan lagi kecanggihan set produksi. Sungguh kemas, sungguh teliti, sungguh mengagumkan! (Melalui buku kutahu ini Raja Malik punya kerja ). Sungguh berbakat lagi istimewa Raja Malik ini pada hematku. ( boleh ke guna hemat ni? ke ini bahasa raja2? err )

Perempuan-perempuan dalam hidup P.Ramlee. Ah, sungguh seronok menghayati kisah cinta seniman Agung ini. Baru kutahu kisah hidupnya. Selama ini, hanya filem-filemnya yang menjadi bahan tontonan semenjak kecil. Ubat luka lara dengan lawak jenakanya. Tidak pernah terfikir untuk mengkaji kisah hidup dan personaliti seniman agung ini. Sebab itu aku amat berterima kasih kerana mereka mempersembahkan kisah hidupnya, buat tontonan dan pengetahuan semua peminatnya. Aku terfikir, kalaulah bapaku berminat nak tonton teater..pasti dia juga dapat menghargai kisah hidup P.Ramlee.

Kisah cinta pertama, Azizah. Mmmm…agak tepat kalau kukatakan agak kaku watak ini dipegang oleh Dato’ Siti. Bahasa mulut dan bahasa badan Siti kurang bersatu pada hematku. Nampak agak canggung. Walaupun tidak dengan babak yang lebih intim dengan Sean Ghazi ( mungkin ini yang mahu dielak ), Siti masih boleh menyampaikan perasaan dengan intensiti gerakan tangan dan pandangan mata. Mungkin juga dengan cara lenggok badan ketika berkata-kata. Tapi tidak boleh komen lebih-lebih, ini juga penglibatan lakonannya yang pertama. Kasi can la.

Atilia sebagai Junaidah sangat berkesan sekali lakonannya. Walaupun genit orangnya, auranya besar. Mampu mencuit hati penonton sebesar teater Istana Budaya. Suaranya juga cukup lunak. Percubaan pertama yang membanggakan.

Melissa Saila juga menggegarkan pentas dengan kehebatan persembahannya. Watak Norizan, isteri kedua P.Ramlee memperlihatkan karakter yang berbeza dengan isteri pertamanya, Junaidah. Kalau Junaidah lembut dan kekampungan, Norizan lantang dan agresif. Melissa Saila membawa watak ini dengan baik sekali, hingga mampu menarik penonton untuk bersimpati dengan beliau di sebalik watak keras yang dibawanya.

Liza Hanim adalah heroin sebenar buat aku. Lakonan dan suara yang mantap menjadikan beliau memang pilihan yang tepat untuk melakonkan watak Saloma. Melihat lakonannya, seolah-olah beliau biasa benar berteater. Gerak badan yang bersatu dengan tutur dialognya membuatkan penonton dapat menghayati kisah cinta P. Ramlee dan Saloma dengan lebih sempurna.

Sean Ghazi mempamerkan usaha yang mantap sebagai P.Ramlee. Memang bukan kerja yang senang. Filem P. Ramlee, gaya lakonannya, rentak tutur katanya, cukup sebati dengan rakyat Malaysia. Semua dapat menilai, ‘ha..itu P.Ramlee..ha..itu bukan P.Ramlee’. Namun, beliau berjaya menjadi P. Ramlee sehampir mungkin. Mujur beliau berpengalaman luas dalam bidang persembahan pentas. Tidak kekok menari, suaranya juga bagus.

Seluruh ensemble melakukan tugas yang sangat baik. Tarian dan nyanyian yang sungguh hidup dan bertenaga membuatkan 3 jam berlalu sekelip mata. Syabas buat Adlin, Zahim, Erwin Gutawa dan semua pasukan kreatif yang berjaya mementaskan persembahan segah ini. Hasil kerja sempurna begini memang memuaskan hati semua. Puas hati kepada yang bekerja, puas hati kepada kami yang membeli tiketnya. Ada sekali terdetik di hati aku, ‘alamak..janganlah habis lagi. ceritalah lagi’. Asyik benar  menghayati kisah hidup perjalanan hidup P.Ramlee. Kalaulah boleh kutonton lagi..

Aku kena berterima kasih kepada adik aku yang konvensional itu. Entah dapat entah tidak dia membeli tiket untuk dirinya sendiri. Kalau tak dapat..boleh la aku berlagak dengan dia lepas ni!

Hujan turun lagi

Senang kalau hari-hari begini

Rasa tenang

Seluruh rasa

Rasa basah

Seluruh jiwa

 

Panas yang tadi dah reda

 

©Naziehah Oct 2007

The Longing by Nimah Nawwab

Freedom.
How her spirit
Haunts,
Hooks,
Entices us all!

Freedom,
Will the time come
For my ideas to roam
Across this vast land’s deserts,
Through the caverns of the Empty Quarter?

For my voice to be sent forth,
Crying out in the stillness of a quiet people,
A voice among the voiceless?

For my thoughts, that hurl around
In a never-ending spiral,
To settle
Mature, grow and flourish
In a barren wasteland of shackled minds?

Will my spirit be set free—
To soar above the undulating palm fronds?
Will my essence and heart be unfettered,
Forever
Freed,
Of man-made Thou Shall Nots?

I managed to lose 5kg during the fasting month. I believe I am back at square one 4 days during Raya celebration.

Malaysian food is the ultimate temptation to all women trying to lose weight. Malaysian food during Hari Raya is the chief culprit. Now that I have succumbed to the gluttony of rendang, and lodeh and tart nenas, I am back to being the good girl that I am during Ramadhan. Salads and more salads, here I come!

This year’s Hari Raya is a bit special since this is the first time I celebrated it as a wife. The ’salam-salam-mintak-maaf’ part was not at all emotional as you see in Malay drama and we were back squabbling the minute after we were done bersalaman. It’s quite fun though wearing ‘baju raya sedondon’ ( matching coloured clothes ). I experienced a different style of raya at my husband’s house. The celebration at his house is much more hectic with relatives streaming in endlessly until the very end of the day, making it the only day that I burnt the calories that I consumed by washing dishes and running here and there. It was a great experience and I look forward to working out during hari raya next year!

Hari Raya is not supposed to be about the food only. It’s about celebrating the victory after fasting  for a whole month. It’s about the success of soul after guarding oneself from all evil thoughts and evil doings. However, the true meaning is often lost when the fixation is rarely on the spiritual sucess anymore.

With that..Selamat Hari Raya! :)

Last Saturday, after months of putting ‘Visit an Orphanage’ on my ‘Personal Goal’ lists and keep renewing it month after month, I am finally able to realise it by visiting Rumah Aman. It was a programme conducted by an organisation that I joined,WENA.

I am glad I went there, and I am even more happy that the husband decided to join me as well. It was an eye opening experience, for me and for him, and I think for everybody else that joined that day.

Rumah Aman is a orphanage with a twist. At least for people who are familiar to going to orphanages before. My husband used to visit orphanage before and he said that it is a far cry from compared to the experience het got at Rumah Aman. As for a complete ignorant like me, I was so happy that these children have Rumah Aman as their home.

Living in a clean and structured house, the 30 boys looks healthy, happy and fit. The house is clean, I mean not just normal clean, but gleaning, sparkling clean! Aged between 4 to 8 years old, they were given love and care, as ‘how you would give your own child’. That is the motto of Rumah Aman. The founder of Rumah Aman, spoke so fondly and proudly of their boys that it made me feel all warm inside.

Dressed in colourful chequered shirts, tucked into their matching dark coloured trousers; these boys were very participative in their activities as we watched on. As briefed by Mehrunissa ( the wife of the husband/wife team that founded this place ), they specifically created a system so that these boys’ time will be filled with beneficial activities so that they won’t have time to quarrel and get into unruly behaviour. There’s English classes, Quran classes, play-time, and reading time. Classes were small and each and everyone were given full attention.

On the noticeboard, there’s a poster that catched my eye. ‘88 ways to praise a child’, listing various phrases and words such a ‘Good boy!’, ‘You are so smart!’, and ‘Wow’. How clever and necessary considering that it is not in our culture to praise a child and making them feel appreciated. It is an excellent way to educate parents and visitors on the importance of boosting a child’s self-esteem.

My husband said that I did not get to see the ‘real’ orphanage in Rumah Aman. I am glad though. I want to visit a place that gives me hope. I am searching for people and situations that embodies excellence and improvement and I am thankful that more often than not, I am always presented by those qualities. Looking at the boys, looking at the house, I am marveled by God’s blessings. Because of the effort of 2 amazing people, 30 boys were given opportunity to live a better life and hopefully in turn will become like their founders and provide more love and care for 30 more children each when they grew up!

This pain in my heart;

What is it compared to the agony

Of a father that loses his innocent daughter

Sweet smiling daugther

to a human beast

His child’s lifeless body

Suffocated sorrow

This pain in my heart;

Meagre in reality

©Naziehah Sept 2007