Yasmin Ahmad 1958-2009

- Read tributes to Yasmin on www.thestar.com.my


Published: Saturday July 25, 2009 MYT 3:06:00 AM
Award winning director Yasmin Ahmad dies
By NURBAITI HANIM and ZALINAH NOORDIN
KUALA LUMPUR: Award winning film director Yasmin Ahmad has died from massive bleeding in the brain at the Damansara Specialist Hospital.
She died at 11.25pm yesterday following a surgery due to her collapse at the Seri Pentas on Thursday.
Yasmin never regained consciousness after being admitted into the intensive care unit. Burial is scheduled for today expected to be before zohor.
The 51-year-old creative director was famed for her advertisements and films capturing the essence of racial harmony in Malaysia.
Family members, relatives, loved ones and friends, including artists had gone to the hospital on hearing about her death.
Fatimah Abu Bakar, an actress and a close friend of Yasmin, and Media Prima International chief executive officer Datuk Seri Farid Ridzuan acted as the spokespersons for the distraught family.
Fatimah’s daughter Sharifah Amani Syed Zainal Rashid had acted in Yasmin’s two famous movies Sepet and Gubra.
Yasmin will be buried after Zohor prayers although at press time the location of the burial has yet to be determined.
Her body will be taken to the SS19 Mosque in Subang Jaya for prayers before that.
A large group of luminaries from the local movie and television scene gathered at the hospital the moment they heard about the death of Yasmin.
Although distraught, those present paid tribute to the award-winning director. “We would come cross a few great people in our time on earth. Yasmin was one of them.
“She wasn’t an easy person to live or work with, but that was only because she was so talented. “She had a big heart and vision that we usually don’t understand. That was why people misunderstood her. But she never intended any malice,” said Fatimah.
She added Yasmin’s films had always been about love and forgiveness because that was the way she was brought up by her parents.
Sharifah Amani looked distraught as she stood by at her mother’s side. She refused to talk to the press.
Fatimah and Farid acted as the spokespersons for Yasmin’s family to announce her death and details of her funeral.
TV host Aznil Nawawi, said he had always admired Yasmin’s work although he never had a chance to work with her.
“She possessed the knack on how to capture the essence of Malaysia through her movies and commercials.
“I last saw her when she was promoting her movie Talentime at Radio Era office,” he added.
Suria FM chief executive officer Engku Imran Engku Zainal Abidin described Yasmin’s death as a great loss – not only to the entertainment and movie industry, but to the nation as a whole.
“Her movies are watched by all races because they can all relate to the messages conveyed. “We have lost a great, intelligent and creative director,” he added.

Will be missing her movies and advertisements....

S...

Sunday at Mid Valley

Eating is my forte! I love food with a vengeance LOL so when i was desperately in need of a pair of workout shoes, i knew i had to go to the Sports shoe outlet in Mid Valley mega mall to look for a new pair. My friends at the gym were there a week ago and they had bought several pairs at very reasonable prices.
So Sunday morning arrived and we made our way there. Looking for a parking spot was not all that impossible. Maybe it was cuz we were not that late. I went and hunted for my shoes and found a black pair with bright pink trimmings. Diane's choice was a nice Reebok too in red blue and white :) and then we found some that were incredibly cheap , so we bought 2 more pairs .
Our tummies needed attention after that , so we went looking for food. In the Mid Valley Mall one gets spoiled for choice. So it was not easy making up our minds. I am always looking for japanese food, its like a craze for me these days! But i decided to give that a rest. Since we could not make up our minds at all , we roamed into the Food courts and were quite impressed with the food there. I mean the choices were pretty good so everyone can have what they crave for ! I noticed that the servings are quite huge. So i let the rest order what they want while i nibbled on theirs.
We had Korean grilled saba fish with rice and KimChi , and the soup was nice and simple too. Diane ate the fettucini carbonara which was not too cheesy. And i ordered 2 temaki rolls :) i cant run away from my japanese food craze! After all that , when we thought we had enough we could still swoop down a waffle with peanut butter / strawberry jam and vanilla ice cream.We walked around for a bit , and had to get some USD from the money changer. I got tired after a bit and decided to come home but not before i laid my eyes on this small corner snack shop called The Beard papa. Its a japanese snck shop and serves cream puffs filled with vanilla custard :) and they have other choices of filling as well like green tea (yuks!) and chocolate ( yummy!) . You can also opt for the coronet if u dont want to have the cream puff. Its a longish cylindrical croissant, also filled with custard :) And then there is the supposedly best chocolate dessert ever thats like a mini mud cake . So we bought one of each! The choc one looks quite solid but its all gooey inside , a choc haven for choc lovers like me !

Adam Lambert ~ my idol !

Adam Lambert is the true American idol even tho Kris Allen won!!!

Kris Allen in shock and he knows that Adam should have been the winner!

Shocked and stunned but i am almost over it!

The American Idol 2009 results show was a shocker but the amount of news coverage and blog comments that overflowed in abundance online goes to show that the people have not gotten over the shock! I am almost over it , accepting defeat LOL graciously. Hahahaha! Although i spent all morning still reading comments about the results!!

Kris is a good singer but Adam ranks way above him in all other aspects. Both are good but we know who rightfully deserves the title! Career wise tho i am sure Adam will excel and prove to the world that he is star material . Kris can never ever compare with Jason Mraz even tho he is likened to the singer! Ok i am biased ...... and my American idol is still ADAM LAMBERT!

Because You loved me

My days are not as easy going as they used to be. My posts in this blog site are few and superficial. It wasn't cuz i had nothing to write about . In fact i always have a ton of stuff on my mind and at the tip of my writer's tongue! But time was the main issue here. Tonight however i feel i need to write. Its a spur of the moment sort of topic but always dear to my heart.
First of all , i am now kept on my toes with a number of new tasks at hand. I have taken on yet another English training session. This time it isn't the usual short stint of a week or a fortnight. This one is 6 months long , tho its only 2 sessions a week. I am exactly midway thru it now , and have 3 more months to go.
For most of the Listening and Speaking modules i have to download certain video clips to help with the training. And the one particular one for my session this week is about a Filipino girl called Charice who sings like an angel at the tender age of 16. And her dream is to sing with Celine Dion. Oprah found her and she performed a song in Madison Square Gardens with the celebrated singer. Nothing really extraordinary about that for most of you, even tho she has a wonderful voice. And my post isn't about her spectacular voice or about how dreams can come true!
It was the song she chose to sing and who she dedicated it to. The first few notes that came thru her lips were beautiful. She is a very amazing singer but from then on , tears welled up in my eyes. At the start of the song, the 16 year old girl had said that she was singing this song for her mother who was in the audience. And the song she chose was Because you loved me.
Her words touched my very heart as i listened to the lyrics. I am what i am today all because of my mother! I love u , Ma...... i always will . Happy mother's day!
PS: i tried i million times to upload the video here but keep getting the error message so if anyone wants to view the clip, its here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WilGCuT8LlM

E-very day i love u

power coup within .....

its been a horrible and stressful week for me and my other colleagues as well especially all the HOD. It is just like in the movies and those chinese dramas that you have watched many and many times over and over again. Never thought that me and others would really got the chance to experience ourselves 1st hand...... wow... it is reallly very tiring and stressful for us.. what more those who are directly involved !! We are in the office "Coup" power hahaha.... eh... tis is for real.. no joke wan ah !! Family fighting each other for the ultimate ... the power / hot seat !! Actually, only two involved as the rest is just back benchers. It's either me or him..... u vote him.. i opt out and vice versa. Macam drama minggu ini. One will paint bad pictures about the other causing uneasiness among the family.. dragging the man of the house as well. Poor man.... one side son, the other side also son.... so how ..??

Advise to those voting.......to vote the Policeman... catch bad guys but able to bring in any business ??? wherelse, businessman... bring in business and able to maintain the sales n uphold the company..... Which one would you vote ??

its gonna be a very stressful weekend ahead..

S..tress..

Of Lice and Lies ...

I don’t know if any of you remember her but her name was Bhavani. (or something to that tune) She was the first person I was friends with at St. Anne’s.

The first few days of school, I was feeling lost and alone. I didn’t know anybody. Prior to Std 1, I did not attend kindergarden or nursery classes; the closest being Sunday School, if that counted at all.

That particular day, some of the girls were crying uncontrollably in spite of the fact that their mums were standing just outside the classroom, peering through the shutters, shushing and uttering “tiam” in their various dialects. The sight and sounds of kids crying made me feel worse. My mother wasn’t there. There was no one to console me had I contributed to the barrage of tears.

As I sat in class trying to be brave, she approached me and made a great show of pretending to cry. That broke the ice. I knew she was mocking the girls. I laughed. I’ve found a friend.

Bhavani was as puny as I was and we were both equally scruffy. Her uniform was crumpled all the time. Perhaps her family didn’t own an iron? Maybe they didn’t even have electricity at home? Mine were often crumpled too cos’ I tended to take naps wearing my pinafore. I wear the same pinafore throughout the whole week and only change blouse daily. Dirty-leh..

That we were of a different race didn’t matter. We managed to communicate even with the smattering of English that I spoke. We giggled over silly things and were soon friends with the other girls, including the cry babies. Recess times would find us playing “catching”, skipping ropes and 5 stones, which I never mastered, even to this day.

Children are usually affiliated with innocence but they can often be cruel as well. Young as we were then, there were already snobs amongst us. And there were the troublemakers too.

One day, someone (try as I might, I cannot remember who that someone was, maybe it has been blocked out to protect the culprit??) shouted, (why do kids shout rather than speak?) “Don’t friend her .. she got kutu-one! See her hair got white white one. After you near her the kutu fly to you. My mother say if got kutu, must cut botak head and then must put kerosene wash the head.”

After 40 years I still wonder if there’s any truth to that statement. Did Bhavani have lice on her hair and if you were infested, do you really need to wash your shaven scalp with kerosene?

All eyes were upon her and I could sense her discomfit. She looked at each of us in turn, her eyes imploring for someone, anyone, to go to her defense.

I would have you believe I was the heroine who stood up for Bhavani that fateful day or called the accuser bluff or that I had taken her by the hand and scuttled off somewhere else to play.

Bhavani looked at me with eyes that spoke volumes. I stared back. That’s when it happened.

At the age of 7 I committed my first act of betrayal. I chose to walk away.

From that day onwards, I did not speak to her. Perhaps I was ashamed of myself or perhaps I was angry with her for arousing such emotions within me?

As the days passed, the remorse I had felt dwindled to nothing or so I thought. Some years later an article with a similar theme appeared in the Reader’s Digest. I remember crying while reading that article. The feelings of contriteness and shame which I thought had dissipated so long ago, resurfaced.

Many years have past since I last thought of Bhavani but last year I read “The Kite Runner”. There is no connection whatsoever between that story and mine but I found myself identifying with the character Amir. Reading that book made me recalled that incident in school as well as the times I had opted to take the easy way out and in doing so, betrayed or had been disloyal to a friend.

Amir wasn’t a bad person but sometimes it’s so much easier to let others take the blame; to follow the crowd; to keep quiet rather than to stand up or speak up for someone whom you know in your heart is right. And if you miss your chance to do right at that moment, it’s gone forever.

Maybe this story isn’t so much about Bhavani but my own weaknesses rather? Little did I know that this act of cowardice had left a scar and even though the years have rendered it almost invisible, it will always be there.

F