Kakak, kakak ada rumah tak?

That was the question that caught me off guard. That was the question asked to me and my friends by one of the children at Rumah Nur Salam of Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. These kids are not orphans, they have their own set of parents and even siblings. Their parents send them off to Rumah Nur Salam early in the morning, or maybe late at night (depending on their shifts) and pick them up as usual when they get off work.

BUT,
what makes these kids different from other kids on the street or in your neighbourhood is that their parents don't have the usual, ordinary day-to-day job like our parents do. It's because these kids, their parents, are the victims of poverty (or maybe debt) in the city of Kuala Lumpur. Their parents are merely sex-workers, drug pushers - try naming a few other related jobs in the field, I'm pretty sure their parents would end up on the list. And this isn't me quoting ... It was directly quoted by the man himself who takes care of the welfare of the children who were sent to Rumah Nur Salam.


I can't say the name, due to security reasons, and my friends and I have already signed an agreement letter not to leak anything that may invite consequences. But if you head down to Rumah Nur Salam, you'd be able to find kids as young as 4 years old to 14 years old. They're well trained in manners, they greet you, they hug you, they even kiss your hands upon greeting the adults. And it just crushes my heart seeing them going through what they have to back with their families. Worst still, these kids, they know what their parents work as. Don't mind the young ones, even one day they're bound to know the truth. But what about the grown ups?
Imagine them having to go through every-single-day-back-and-fourth to school, meeting friends and teachers who actually know their background?

I'm not saying that their parents are to blame, NO. I'm 150% sure that the parents themselves don't want to be in the position they are or taking the job they have to. But what are they to do??
It keeps the food on the table for their children.



If it wasn't because of our assignment project, I doubt my friends and I would have gone to Rumah Nur Salam. Frankly, we didn't quite know the existence of this place as well. Sure, we've heard orphanage houses, old folks home, but never thought of a place such as Rumah Nur Salam.
Thanks to Pak Bol and his subject, Law & Society, me and my friends were asked to go and do surveys and participate in community services. And that was when we stumbled across Rumah Nur Salam.



During our visit, along the walls of Rumah Nur Salam, there were graffiti drawn by the children themselves, expressing their feelings and what they feel about their family. One painting of a boy named F***i caught my attention. He drew a picture of himself, looking sad sitting on the ground, his hands supporting his chin. Next to his picture was a cloud of thoughts where he wrote: "I was kidnapped for 3 days, but thank God I wasn't hurt by the kidnappers!" I couldn't describe the feeling I had the moment I saw the drawing. It was as if multiple feelings gushed through and for a moment there I thought I won't be able to do this interview, I won't be able to sit and have fun with these kids, cause I don't know how to even initiate conversations with them!



But at the end of the day, everything went well. The entire team went there to meet the children, to conduct the interview with NO proper planning I tell you. Yes, we drafted a few things, highlighted a few issues that needed to be addressed but boy, we weren't prepared for the bonding session.

The moment we entered the top floor (after the interview with the man who takes care of the children) into a room filled with kids laughing, running around, crying, looking tired yet psyched, instantly I saw smiles carved onto each and every one of my friends faces. I'm not sure they were smiling because of the cuteness and innocence of those children or because how relieved they felt for seeing these kids didn't have any sort of abusive marks on their bodies.
For me, it was both.





They started whipsering to one another, looking up at us, giggling away, acting shy and coy when we call their names. Then Daddy, (that's what the children calls the man) told them that they will be having special guests all the way from MMU, Melaka to spend some time with them playing games of all sorts and yadda yadda yadda. That was when the children started asking what is MMU, what course are we taking, why were we there ... It was quite a handful of questions, but I'll get to that later.

We played all sorts of games, starting with forming a group, coming up with a name and cheer for the group and surprisingly, these children came up with the group names and cheers themselves! All we did was facilitate and guided them. They had natural talents already. *wink* And they were as cool as a cucumber, introducing themselves with slight confidence with a firm handshake and big smile (even if they're 10!)

We spent about 2 hours there, playing and goofing, camwhoring - we didn't even realise time was almost up! (parents would start picking up their children soon) We had final goodbyes, took some mooooore photos and Q&A session began.

THAT
was when one boy, no older than 12 asked me and my friends "kakak, kakak ada rumah tak?" with the most innocent and honest face and tone I've ever seen and heard. We were taken aback. We looked at each other, not knowing what to answer. But most of all, I think we were all more shocked than wondering what to answer. In my mind these questions repeated over and over again: "WHY WOULD THIS KID ASK THAT KIND OF QUESTION OF ALL THE QUESTIONS HE COULD'VE ASKED IN THE WORLD?", "HOW DID IT EVEN OCCUR TO HIM TO ASK US WHETHER OR NOT WE HAD HOUSES?", "WHAT HAS THIS KID GONE THROUGH BACK HOME?"

Then, another kid asked "kenapa kakak dengan abang pakai lawa-lawa?" We honestly did not know how or what to answer ... Thank you to Daddy who stepped in by saying if we, the "brothers and sisters" did not wear nicely, then the kids won't want to play with us. Apparently that answer was satisfying enough for the children and they started to nod and giggled discretely.

All we could do was, smile ... What was there to answer?

Towards the end, we handed over some gifts to the children and Daddy for their support and time spent with us.



We left Rumah Nur Salam of Chow Kit that evening with different, mixed up feelings in each and every one of us. Regardless of how tired and exhausted we were, everyone was looking forward to going back to Melaka and submit the greatest assignment and story of the trimester, but one thing remained the same; the lives of those children in Rumah Nur Salam.
They will still be there. They will still be the same good old kids, just different visitors each day ...

DramaFest 2009! Law students continue the legacy!

So, DramaFest 2009 ended few nights ago, on the 14th of April 2009. To top it off, we, LAW students from PL03 merged as the champion!!! I'm so damn proud of each and every one of you, (although technically, I'm from PL01) you guys worked hard (played even harder) and you, PL03 deserved to be the CHAMPION! Congrats to all of you! It was a night to be remembered. Regardless off how messed up the props were, (we, the propmasters practically tore off -compleeetteeely accidentally- tore off the background which was painted for hours by our ever-hardworking Bull Family) whoops! Our bad?

The judges were completely mesmerised I would say, from the corner of the stage, behind the curtains, and in between changing the scenes on stage, I managed to cathc glimpses of the audience and judges. They were happy. They were entertained. Thy were smiiiilingg from ear to ear! And THAT, was definitely a good sign for the Bull Family of PL03!!

Ogay, Llt me name the casts of the Bull Family of PL03.

Director - Alicia Tan. (who brought her parents all the way from Muar just to witness the drama she directed and WON FIRST PRIZE IN THE DRAMAFEST 2009! Thanks for coming uncle, aunty!)

Narrator/Langsat the Michael Jackson Bull - Gabriel. Now, it's not always you can get your hands on a bull who can do an AWESOME Michael Jackson suave moves. Gabriel impressed the judges and even me ever since the first time I saw the dance. Lol. And as the narrator, his voice definitely charmed the crowd. His deeeeeeep, alluring voice, whom Madam Selvarani said was rather attractive captured the attention of Main Hall of MMU on Tuesday night.

Jusohlina/Chalet the Retarded Bull - Yael Khailan. Granted THE BEST ACTRESS OF DRAMAFEST 2009, this girl has it all! She deserved every single title she was named, much thanks to the ever annoying-irritating-cute act she managed to pull on stage. Being the daughter of the retired puh-lih-ti-cian (just the way Madam Selvarani likes us to pronounce it) Yael wowed the crowd - and fans ;) and judges and people behind the stage! I swear I could hear people giggling from behind the stage hearing and seeing how annoying she was as a cute bull and small girl. I don't think anyone could ever pull what this girl did on DramaFest. ;)

Mamat/Retired politicia-cum-Bullfighter - Dinish Nair. Now THIS guy OHHHH MAIIII GODDDDD is probably the biggest trouble maker of the entire cast! I believe if Alicia could actually strangle and kill him over and over again, she WOULD HAVE. Yes, he is a good actor. He won BEST ACTOR OF DRAMAFEST 2009. Yeay to Dinish! Despite being a pain in the butt, Dinish is undeniably able to get his way through things and has his own way to escape from the scoldings of his other co-stars. LMAO. (I loooooooveddddd the way he covered up his lines on stage, during the ACTUAL drama performance after seeing the background that was torn off hideously! Hahaha!)

Dinish: Why is our house succchhh a MESS!!?? - Priceless!

Minah/The Unfaithful Wife of Mamat - Melissa. Now this girl, I saw her the first time at CLC Councourse the first night I came for the drama practice. At first when I saw her, I thought she was having a bad day. Storming through the pathway to CLC Councourse, searching frantically for her pencil case and books, I also thought I can't fool around with these people in the team because they all looked darn serious! (except Dinish)
But boy, was I wrong wrong wrrrronnngggg!!
These people are what we call good people who know how to have a good helluva time who constantly bring good food for a late evening picnic after praticing drama!!

(You see, I wasn't the original cast or crew of the Bull Family. Bull Family was from group PL03 and I was from PL01. However, upon entering the prelimenary rounds, the Bull Family needed extra members and offered me a spot on their team. I'm the luckiest Law student of the entire 4 groups!! Thanks soooo much guys for giving me the chance to be part of your team!)

Pak Isa the Evil - Jyh Ling. I would say, among all, Jyh Ling was the fastest and the first few I got close real easily with among the Bull Family. She's really sweet. A total contradiction to her character in the drama, an evil Pak Isa who constantly wins victory with her bull (Gabriel) through bribing. Personally, the thing that made me and Jyh connected quick was her sense of humor. We would make fun of Dinish and laugh out loud, not to mention we kinda have the same taste in music. I still remember the late nights practice in CLC, until the guards actually had to switch off the lights to shooh us all back to our respected Ixora and hostel. I would tell Jyh to download these songs and she would tell me to download her songs. And things just went smooth sailing since then.

Lazim the Brother of Mamat - Aloysius Ng. This fellow uhhhh. HAHA. He's the joker of the group. He's always, always laughing and smiling and coming up with lame jokes or pranks. He really keeps the team mates smiling. Basically, when Aloy's around, all you'll have is fun fun fun! He's also the retarded yet naive brother of Mamat (played by Dinish) who loved his retarded bull (played by Yael) so much. I think Aloy and Lazim won't have much of a difference in real life. They're both just as funny and adorable!

The Chief - Gerald. Gerald played the chief who was bribed by Pak Isa each time for bullfights. Well, at a glance, I never expected Gerald to be such a good actor! For crying out loud, he WON the BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR!! He beat a handful of other actors and actresses from other groups! He may seem small, but never underestimate his acting talent!
With his trademark, (the fringe/hair flip) hr won the judges heart by being the affair of a married woman. Ohh cute little Gerald! You should've seen Gerald dancing to the traditional Thai opening dance ceremony. He did it with pride, people! And he was gooood!

CONGRATULATIONS TO PL03 FOR WINNING 2009'S DRAMAFEST!!
THE LAW STUDENTS CONTINUE THE LEGACY! Ever since 2006, we've been bagging in awards and the ILMU trophy. Let's hope 2010's batch of Law students make us proud, yet again!!!