Tuesday, June 08, 2004

A Beautiful Weekend

A Beautiful Weekend

Had a beautiful weekend. Received some great news on Saturday morning regarding a chronic health condition ~ it's gone into remission, insya Allah, permanently. Went for a course in the afternoon and then to the play Otak Tak Centre in the evening.

I won't write a review right now as I was quite tired by the time I saw it and it would not be proper to attempt a full-length review. Let me just say that my first impression was that a play that deals with a mental health subject like bipolar disorder is meant to inform and educate, and less to entertain. This play was far too entertaining for me. I got the impression the audience felt more ridicule than empathy with the manic patient. Same goes for the schizophrenic patient with the delusion that she was a gynae, even though she finally commits suicide. There was no sense of tragedy at any point in the whole play ~ at no moment did I ever come close to being moved to tears.

The course continued on Sunday. It was a marriage course and the participants were a whole bunch of couples who were either engaged (most of them) or married (one couple). They attended to get the certificate of attendance, as the course is a prerequisite for any marriage application.

I went to accompany a lady friend who, like me, wanted to gain knowledge about the institution of marriage ~ she was a little hesitant to attend it alone as she knew most of the participants would be couples and she didn't want to be the odd one out. There was also a reticent 17-year-old girl who came alone. She really stuck out like a sore thumb. Not just because of her youth but also because she never said a word to anyone through out the course. It turns out she's been living in the US for the past three years (her mother's posted there) and will be getting married to her Filipino boyfriend as soon as she turns 18 in August.

Most of the lecturers were academics from the International Islamic University Malaysia. The exceptions were a paedeatrician (Marriage and Health) and a syariah lawyer (Islamic Family Law).

We were asked to introduce ourselves at the end of the course (supposed to have been done at the beginning but for some inexplicable reason this was done at the end). Most said "I'm so-and-so. I'm from KL and I'm here with my fiance."

I said, "I'm Azlan from KL. I'm here for the knowledge. This is the third time I'm attending this course. I'm a seminar junkie."

ha ha ha

Copyright 2003-2004 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice

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