Third and last author reporting!
So yeah, Shira the Panda is biting my head off for checking in late for my first post on this blog, so here, go chew some bamboo sticks, Shiwawa.
First meetings should always follow suit with an introduction, so for the sake of manners (which I think should go around more often in this world), allow me to introduce myself.
The name's Jaf Reen Natassia Iman Jaf Faizal and I was born under the archer's stars 20 years ago on the first day of the last month of the year. I've always loved starting off a first impression on someone with my name as you can see, it is quite a mouthful. It would lead to all sorts of questions, such as "Woah, what does it mean?", "Wait, what race are you?" and so on and so forth. Preferably, I like to go by Iman.
The idea of this blog came out of nowhere by the two authors below, and I wish I can say I came up with it 'cause now that I think of it, this really sounds like a good idea. A platform to share our opinions and thoughts and impressions and any goddamn random thing that comes spewing out of our train of thought. So, yeah, let's hope this goes somewhere.
Or maybe at the end of the day, at the very least, we would have a whole journal of our bullshit to reminisce and joke and cringe over, eh mates?
Sooooooooooooooo. What to write about?
Right, let's start with the title, shall we? That particular statement came to me suddenly while I was walking around, skipping the day's classes and all after a particularly grueling test the day before (excuses, I know but dammit if Family Law isn't killing us all!) and I was just thinking on how atheists probably have the right approach to life. Although I am not one, in my opinion it is your fundamental right to pose questions. About everything you fancy.
People have this fear of questions. Of asking them, answering them and the likes. I don't know, this might just be my own observation, particularly in Malaysia, where we've been curbed from asking questions that may or may not be related to either; (1) the rigid school syllabus and why they are the way they are and why do we have to stick by it religiously and why can't we tweak it and dig deeper maybe and why one stream is regarded as better as the other when both work hand-in-hand in reality, (2) religion and why they are the way they are and where it comes from and why do we have to do this and that, (3) politics and the invisible rules attached to it, (4) sex which should be a natural thing in the course of humanity but is regarded as such a dirty taboo, and (5) everything else that is applicable to you once you leave the cocoon of school and face cold hard-hitting reality.
This fear may have been borne by the fear of what the questions would reveal. Humans have this innate capacity to feel pain strongly, and more often than not, the questions that matter the most would strike deeply in one's core and possibly reveal the truth about one self or another person or something that one cares about, more than one person can handle. A quote comes to mind, "The mask reveals more than the face."
However, I think that a little bit more curiosity and honesty wouldn't hurt. People are so much more comfortable behind closed doors and high walls that they hide it all behind the mask that they wear everyday to school or work or to their boss, acquaintances, friends and loved ones because they think that they need to adhere to this certain form of conformity that everyone else lives by in order to be accepted and not be looked at differently. What's wrong with wanting to know?
So yeah, I think this is a fear that has been cultivated for far too long, especially among kids who are still looking at the world with fresh dewy-eyed luxury of naivety, and we should just start asking questions more. Only then, we can probably learn a new thing in life from so many other different opinions and point of views instead of just hanging around the mamak stalls, talking about how that person who was the bitch who stole your ex turned out to be your distant cousin or how you were chewed off the ear by this one lecturer in class or how a friend turned so 'sombong' after landing a new boy/girl and how easily they abandoned you after getting off the singles train. Instead of filling your head with all these useless mumbo jumbo, why not spice things up a little and actually discover a new perspective instead?
Okay, serious rant over. On a more cheerful note (maybe? I don't know, I probably have a different view of what cheers one up compared to others), I bought myself a copy of George Orwell's 1984 and The Great Gatsby (my copy has mysteriously disappeared) today! So next post would probably be a review of one of those two.
And this is turning out to be a longer post than I expected. Hope I didn't bore you to death.
Bonne nuit!
Oh, and I have this minor obsessions with quotes at the moment, so here's another one for you lovely reader :)
"Discover your limits, and ignore them."
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