An Open Letter to J.K. Rowling

Dear Ms. Rowling, 

First of all, let me tell you that I love you. I know millions of your fan around the globe profess their love for you all the time, in different, more special kind of way, but I still want you to know that I love you. 

I love you for the fact that you created this wonderful, bespectacled, orphaned wizard by the name of Harry Potter and how through your stories about him, you have made him as real as any human walking this earth can be. Harry is not perfect, your books are not perfect, but that's okay. That's part of the appeal, the fact that among all the imperfections, there is still something worth loving, worth looking out for, worth looking forward to.

Ms. Rowling, I understand from stories that the conditions under which you wrote your stories were far from ideal. They were dark times indeed. But you had that story in your head (and perhaps, more importantly, in your heart) and you managed to tell it in spite of all your hardships. Ms. Rowling, please know that a lot of us read your stories under similar, desolate situation. I know a friend who lost her parents when she was still very young, and your stories were probably the only ones there for her when life as she knew it fell apart. And me, Ms. Rowling, I read a few of your books when I was going through some of the darkest times in my life and Harry, Ron and Hermione were always there for me. Please know Ms. Rowling, that those words you string together struck a chord deep in my heart. I hate to be ungrateful to others who there for me during my difficult time and say that Harry alone pulled me out of my depression and suicidal tendencies, but he was there and I can certainly feel his firm grasp on my slipping grip on reality.

Funny, isn't it, how a work of fiction can be so real to so many? Deep inside, we know Harry is a fictional character, but he is one that we can relate to, one representing love, faith, hope and courage and at the end of the day, Ms. Rowling, those are perhaps the single string of commonality that we have among us human. Maybe that's why Harry has managed to transcend the many barriers we have erected among us.

Thank you again, Ms. Rowling. For Harry and his friends and his stories. And thank you for telling them to us.

Much Love,
A fan.

ps. This was tearfully written after I finished reading Hallows ages ago, while pregnant with Lil Hero. The entry has been in my drafts folder for ages, and I kinda dug it up again after watching Hallows Pt. II. I decided to just publish this since even after sometime, the things I wrote still struck a chord deep within me (btw, that's one of the ways I evaluate my writing, does it still stir up the same emotion I felt when writing if I read the piece after some time?) And judging by this entry, you can safely guess how I feel about J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and this entry. 

Framework Konon.... PAH!

Okay, I've thought about this for a bit. I am actually going through a bit of a writer's block (eh, samo plop dengang Meka...) so one of the 'exercises' I did was this association thing, where I come up with one totally random phrase or word, and just come up with things that relate to that phrase or word or whatever. 

So somehow, I kinda diverted my 'association exercise' into blog topics, things that I can talk about in this blog. Originally, I just wrote 'what's in my head' in the middle of an A4 paper, and tried to expand on that, but seeing that my head and all its brilliance is pretty blocked at the mo, my head decided not to cooperate. I am left looking at the A4 paper pretty stupidly with the unfinished mind-map of "What's in My Head" in the center. Sorry Tony. 

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So then, I somehow digressed a bit more and thought, since there's nothing in my head (maybe the aliens have sucked out my brains or something), why not just expand "What's in..." haaaaa, that question, I tell you, tiba-tiba banyak idea mencurah-curah. Actually, not that many ideas lah, tapi adalah sampai 10 benda I can list down, as per the following list:

What's in....

1. Your head?
2. Your heart?
3. Your purse/wallet?
4. Your handbag/manbag/backpack?
5. Your office drawers? 
6. Your wardrobe? (lemari baju lah, kang ada plak yang cakap, sejak bila kau  ada wardrobe)
7. Your PC and/or external harddisk and assorted memory flash drive/disk? 
8. Your car?
9. Your memory box?
10. Your blog?

So now, I have somewhat of a framework of things to write when I stumble upon another of this infamous writer's block. Question now is, tajuk dah ada, content? 

Bwahahahaha... bongok. Looks like we're back at square one.

ps. Please forgive the author/blogger. She just came back from a week long vacation, and she still haven't adjusted to the fact that SHE HAS TO WORK, DAMMIT!

Sunday Ritual (No More)

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Aku tak paham.. Tiap-tiap hujung minggu Mak aku mesti beli Berita Mingguan ngan Utusan Mingguan. Dah berapa minggu dah ni, cerita yang sama keluar, cerita cinta tiga segi Mamat Sepah-Fida-Adda. Minggu satu, keluar kenyataan si polan, gitu gini. Minggu depannya, kuar statement si hamba Allah tu pulak, counter yang si polan cakap. Minggu ni keluar statement si polan counter si hamba Allah. My question is, perlu ke?

Okay, so you all can say, if you're this angry about it, why read it at all? Actually aku pun tak pasti kenapa aku baca. Actually bukan baca sangatlah, more like skim the headlines, tapi aku sentap, sebab weekend paper reading ni jadi ritual hidup aku sejak aku kecil lagi. I read page after page, almost each and every word (sometimes ads are even included, I was that sangap), sebab when it comes to newspapers, aku ngan mak aku serupa, kalau dah lambat (around noonish), baik tak payah baca dah paper tu. Hari biasa of course dulu-dulu aku sekolah and nowadays, kerja, celah mana aku nak baca paper pagi-pagi. So weekend je la yang dapat jadi spot aku teruskan ritual aku...

You see where I'm going with this?

Ni belum masuk cerita wedding sponsor tu lagi. Come on lah, perlu ke cover macam tu sekali? I can feel my brain cells dying just by looking at their pictures, belum lagi aku baca cerita-ceriti yang disempilkan.

Okay, dah, dah, tak payah lah baca... Masalahnya, tak baca pun aku still nampak, and remember the ritual I so cherish my whole life? That ritual is now has to be replaced with another one, I guess... Takkan aku nak keep on doing something yang membunuh brain cells aku?

Can anybody suggest an equally fulfilling and mentally-challenging Sunday ritual?