Falling Into Heaven: Silent Night

Picking up the chilled tankard, he emptied it right down in several big gulps, before slamming it onto the surface of the black, sleek table. Feeling it rising inside him, he braced himself against the incoming burp. It hit him hard, almost ending up regurgitating all the booze he had been drowning himself in for the past hour.

Trying to sooth that dreadful feeling, he held a palm across his chest, another against the table, resting his forehead upon it. When it finally passed, he leaned back against the chair as far as he could, both hands covering his face, giving his stiff back some stretching. All he had been doing for the past few weeks were just typing and drafting proposals and documents, and that’s gradually hitting his breaking point.

In a spur of madness he laughed hysterically, drawing plenty of attention from the other patrons of the bar.

Screw it. Nobody knows nobody here.

This wasn’t the usual place they hit on girls or get drunk all those times. It’s more of a pub than a karaoke lounge or a club. The patrons here are usually senior citizens or people that actually wants to have a proper conversation surrounded by somewhat jazzy ambience. He wasn’t in his suits either; just jeans and a denim jacket hiding the hideous Spiderman T-shirt he got last Christmas.

Like all bartenders, this one seemed to telepathically read his mind, popped another bottle of Heineken free of its cap and placed it before him. “Thanks,” he smiled bitterly. The bartender replied with a thumbs up before saying, “Haven’t seen you around before. You new in this neighbourhood?”

He nodded, “Just passing by.”

“Where’re you headed to?”

“Anyway but the city, I suppose,” he answered after giving it some thought.

The bartender stared back at him, then smiled back at him empathically, before he was summoned to serve the other customers. Feeling relieved yet partly disappointed, he was sipping his beer alone, left to his own thoughts. One hand holding the bottle, his left was constantly reaching out to the peanuts, stuffing them in at a staccato-ish tempo…

“There you are!!” A voice boomed from the back, before a palm landed on his shoulder.

“Another one of his, please!!” Dyke, in his suit,  rested himself right next to him, while busily texting someone on his mobile. A moment later the mobile was shoved into his pocket, and Dyke turned his attention to the beer of bottle that was just placed before him.

“Cheers,” he held his half-drained bottle mid-air, waiting for Dyke to return the gesture.

“To your health, mate.” Both of them took a big sip, before resorting to another stretch of silence.

“You cool?” Dyke broke silence, while staring intently at him.

“Yeah…no…No, I’m not,” he replied, decided to be honest to his workmate in the end.

“You mad?? It was that night, isn’t it?? I’m sorry but we were all high. I was freaking high. I couldn’t tell from left to right,” Dyke resorted to his apologetic tone.  

He allowed himself the luxury to chuckled for a moment of two, before sipping on his beer, almost choking himself when he tried recalling how high they were that night.

“YOU, my friend, were TOTALLY WASTED,” he continued, “no offence taken.” Dyke sighed in relief, but in no way was prepared for what came next.

Raising his beer mid-air, he gave Dyke toast. “To your ignorance and stupidity, for which if absent from my life would result in a severe deterrence to enlightenment and understanding, of which I  be subjected to a loop of endless  self-gratifying and self-pitying of my own.”

Without waiting for a response, he emptied his tankard, leaving Dyke stunned and speechless in his spot. Dyke was just starring at him, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. Slamming the tankard onto the table, he said, “The tab’s on you,” before standing up and left for the door.

Making his way onto the streets, he paced northwest towards the city, not exactly sure where he intends to go next. Even more so after insulting and pissing of his one of the few friends and colleague he could actually mingle around at work.

It’s gonna be so AWKWARD…

He wasn’t sure why he acted that way, and the reason he had uttered such hurtful words was beyond his comprehension. But he felt good afterwards; some kind of poison expunged from the inside after his outburst. Someone had to pay for that and Dyke was the unfortunate scapegoat who took that head on like a champ. To be fair, nobody is MORE QUALIFIED than Dyke to be at the receiving end.

Perhaps I should apolog…

CRASH!!!

All he felt next was a crushing blow descending upon his skull, and a searing pain punctured through his left temple. He crumbled onto the ground almost instantly, before feeling his hands on some kind of slack fabric. It was pitch black but soon enough he was tasting blood in his mouth. There were lots of shouting but there wasn’t anything that he could make out before he lost consciousness…

Religious Diversity - Reason for Bigotry Or Room for Love??

There can be no worst start to the year 2014 with the news of the raiding on the Bible Society of Malaysia looming over the headlines of every major news reporting portal. It is utterly offensive, intrusive and disappointing that the whole “Allah” row has come to such a stage.

Some say that this is a mere political gimmick. A hand dealt by the politicians to divert the Rakyat’s attention from the more abrasive issue of rising living costs and inflation rates. Like first delivering a body blow which is swiftly followed by illegal elbow to the chest. Surely both hurt like hell, but the victim would most likely cry foul over the illegal assault, forgetting about the real damaged done by the prior attack.

I would say that is a rather fair assessment of the situation, but I believe despite the grumblings and complaints everybody is set on adapting to the higher living costs and the weaker buying power that the year 2014 entails. Because there is simply nothing much that we can do to change that fact. It’s part and parcel of life.

But now it seems more to me that they really mean business. To weed out all potential elements that may cause confusion among my Malay brethren, to deter all un-Islamic influence that may cause my Malay brothers to divert from their faith. A blanket ban on exclusive Islamic terminology which are prohibited for non-Muslims. The thought of second guessing what would happen next is really what scares me. The unknown and the probability of religious persecution lurking right behind the corner is what terrifies me.

In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter to me whether I am allowed to use the words such as “Allah”, “Nabi” etc. It is after all, in their words, “non-integral to the practice of [my] Christian faith”. It doesn’t really matter what man calls God, for God has declared that “I am who I AM”; He is God regardless of what you call him.

But I can’t say the same for my Malay-speaking brothers and sisters in Christ. Whose fault it is, that they have little or almost no command of the English language? And who are the ones that go all out to try to reach out to these people that can only communicate in Malay? What started as a mere gesture to reach out to the secluded became a tradition of the church, which has also become an inheritance, a mark of identity especially to those in Sabah and Sarawak.

The truth is, the verdict delivered by the Court of Appeals has almost no bearings on the practice of my Christian faith. I can readily accept that verdict and leave it to God, praying that one day all Malaysia will finally have a leader that Malaysians of all ethnicity and religion can be proud of. Leaders that believe in tolerance, respecting each other and love. A society where churches visited by non-Christians, Friday sermons frequented by non-Muslims, Buddhist prayers attended by non-Buddhists. Isn’t the very core of the whole “Allah” issue is the shallow understandings of our own religion and of others, as well as the ignorance we beheld against each other? It is a really terrifying notion of how little we understand about each others’ religion!!

Aren’t we all Malaysians? Aren’t we all entitled to the same rights enshrined in the Constitution? The right to religious freedom and to practice them in a peaceful manner? Is it even Islamic to protect ones of privilege at the expense of another? Would conducting raids and enforcing bans promote Islam? Mind you, that the more you ban something, the more popular it becomes.

I don’t wish to sound condescending, but allow me to make several anecdote based on my experience studying overseas. There was no “surau” in our campus, but the Chaplain of my university offered  a “quiet room” to my Muslim friends to pray in, as many times as they need. This room is situated inside the Chapel itself. He even had prayer mats and Kiblah signs prepared in the room for the Muslims.

On another note, our Malaysian society was organising a festival for the locals one day. We were busy entertaining our guests with performances, food and games throughout. But contrary to popular beliefs, my Muslim friends were as pious as any Muslim could be. When it was time, everybody stopped working and the “imam” led the prayers right in the middle of the campus, open air for everybody to see. There were many curious stares, some whispering in wonder about what they were doing. But for me, I couldn’t possibly be more proud for my friends, for they were carrying out their duties as best as they can, for all to see. The wonderful thing is, while the Muslims were praying, the non-Muslims were explaining to the local visitors (mostly British) what they were doing.

I’ll leave you with this: Aren’t this two instances the best possible testimonies for the respective religion? Aren’t these two instances the epitome of tolerance, understanding and respect?

AMEN/AMIN to that!!