Anak Gen-X

Di pekan kecil Beranang , masih berdiri megah sebuah masjid berusia hampir 100 tahun yang menyimpan kisah sejarah Selangor . Masjid Raja Alang bukan sahaja menjadi tempat ibadah, tetapi juga lambang warisan dengan gabungan seni bina Melayu, British dan Timur Tengah yang masih kekal mempesona hingga hari ini.

  I love a good plate of nasi padang . Plenty of lauk to choose from, bold flavours all around, and that deeply satisfying feeling of “okay, I may need to loosen my belt” at the end. But let’s be honest -- most of us usually get our fix from the nicely decorated, air-conditioned outlets scattered around the Klang Valley . You know the type. Comfortable. Predictable. Instagram-friendly. So my interest was properly piqued when I stumbled upon a video about this ol’ skool nasi padang joint in Sg Way that’s been dishing out seriously good food for over two decades. Yes, Sg Way . And in case you didn’t know, Sungai Way is named after the river that winds through the area. It began life as a Chinese New Village under the Briggs Plan in 1949, grew alongside Petaling Jaya , and evolved from tin-mining land into a buzzing suburb with factories, Bandar Sunway, and later a rebrand to Seri Setia in the early ’90s. Naturally, makan places thrived -- and Nasi Padang Abang Mike became a firm ...

  Today marks the 43rd anniversary of IIUM , and it instantly brought back a flood of memories. I still vividly remember how, back in 2011, we did a special live broadcast of MHI from the university’s Gombak campus . Walking around the grounds that morning felt surreal. For those who may not know, IIUM was my alma mater — the place where I spent six unforgettable years of my life from 1989 until 1995. Years filled with both beautiful memories and difficult moments. Ironically, none of those years were actually spent at the sprawling Gombak campus we know today. For the early intakes, student life was far from easy. When I first entered matriculation, our “campus” was in Section 15, Subang Jaya, around where Inti and Taylor’s are today. Our hostel rooms were converted shoplots, with 16 to 20 students crammed into a single room. In the second year, we moved to Lembah Pantai after taking over the old Institut Bahasa premises. It was better — except for one semester when we were relo...

  Di tengah hiruk-pikuk Kuala Lumpur , tersembunyi sebuah taman hijau yang cukup tenang untuk lari seketika dari kesibukan kota.  bukan sekadar taman rekreasi, tetapi sebuah dusun bandar yang menggabungkan alam semula jadi, komuniti dan warisan tempatan dalam satu ruang santai.

  Back when we were studying at UIA in Section 17 in the early ’90s, one of our happy places was the old Jaya Supermarket over in Section 14. It had a handful of nice shops, and it’s where I proudly bought my first pair of Air Jordans -- using scholarship money, no less! Haha. There was also a hidden game arcade inside Kathy's Toys where my uni mates and I spent countless hours battling it out on the Michael Jackson video game , Raiden , and whatever else was blinking and beeping that week. For food, we’d usually wander over to the nearby legendary McDonald’s or straight to the Medan Selera . I can’t remember every single thing I used to eat there, but I do recall a favourite chicken rice stall and some solid popiah . The place was always packed -- students, office workers, nearby residents, everyone seemed to end up there. Fast forward to today, and unbelievably, we’ve found ourselves coming back here for weekend breakfasts. Our current favourite is a stall that serves an exce...

Been seeing photos from this trip popping up on my Facebook Memories lately, and it hit me that it all happened almost exactly 13 years ago. My Umrah journey in 2013 remains one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. I still remember the morning of April 30, 2013, making my way to the airport together with more than a hundred Media Prima colleagues. Wearing part of the ihram even before checking in, I carried with me a mix of emotions — excitement, relief and of course, a little apprehension. The trip itself had gone through a few hurdles before finally happening. At one point it was postponed due to visa complications affecting some colleagues, and later, Malaysia’s General Election period meant several others had to pull out because of work commitments. But deep down, I had already made my niat . Somehow, I knew I had to make the journey that year. The flight to Jeddah was smooth, and before long, we were on the bus heading towards Makkah . As our mutawif guided us throu...