UTube : Inspector Mislan & the UTube Serial Rapes

Title : UTube : Inspector Mislan & the UTube Serial Rapes

Author : Rozlan Mohd Noor

Publisher : Silverfish Books, 2012, 298pgs

ISBN : 978-983-3221-41-7

Genre : Crime-thriller, fiction

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As I was browsing the English fiction shelves in a bookstore, among the loads of James Patterson, Jeffrey Archer, Dan Browns et cetera, my eyes caught one local name, Rozlan Mohd Noor (funny that I caught the smaller fonts of the author's name first before I saw the book title's bigger fonts...), and I was thinking...an English fiction book from a local author? That's nice! Picked it up and I remember being so much more intrigued when I found out that it's a crime-thriller, detective story-like...just my thing! Of course, I would give it a try.

The author - Rozlan Mohd Noor was a police officer with the Royal Malaysian Police for 11 years as an Investigating Officer and a Magistrate Court Prosecuting Officer in Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan. This info is available on the book cover. Being fascinated with the evolution of crime solving technology, he became passionate in writing crime stories, hence the production of some crime novels under the character 'Inspector Mislan' series. After leaving the force, he worked at several major corporations and multinational companies, before starting his own human resources and security consultancy business.

The story - The story started with a rape case of a woman at her own home whereby the rapist videoed the rape act and later uploaded the video in 'UTube'. The case is thus put under investigation of the D11 (Sexual & Child Abuse Investigation Division) where Insp. Sherry is the lead investigator. When another woman was raped with the same MO and her housemate was murdered at the same time, Insp. Sherry has to put up with the challenges of working with the tenacious Insp. Mislan under the D9 (Special Investigations) division. Along the way, 2 more rape videos went viral in UTube and the teams are hellbent on solving the crime although receiving a lot of heat from many aspects; bureaucracy, politics and smart-ass hard-to-get criminals.

Apparently, they discovered that the crime wasn't just a simple rape case but involving a more serious issue of hate crimes regarding the gays and lesbians. The author is tackling a what was once (and maybe still) a real-life issue of the nation in this book in such a way that I think he is maybe fictionalizing a non-fiction or maybe parts of the story was very similar to what really happened in real-life investigations.

The review - It's a good crime story, especially if you are a fan of such genre. The book is written in English but there's also a glossary of the local language and speech expressions at the back of the book to help non-Malaysian readers to understand certain terms that are used. The ending, however, is quite subtle. It left me with the impression of 'so is he the real culprit or not?'. A little annoying I suppose, in leaving suspense on the reader's mind at the finale. I tend to think that Insp. Mislan really nab the culprit but what's left hanging is the actual nabbing act and the question of 'will the criminal be prosecuted'?

As much as I admire this book for being one of the non-mainstream genre of novels written by a local author, I couldn't help but questioning the author a little bit about this; why should he needlessly portray local  'hero' characters as persons who embrace 'faithless' lifestyle as if all personnel in the crime solving department are like that? (I don't know if you readers can understand what I mean, 'coz it's difficult to try to explain a certain thing without being specific.) Maybe because I had hoped a local author could do the nation prouder by writing good stuff without the influence of a culture that does not come from this region. Anyway, this book is still a good read and entertaining.

The Great Gatsby

Gatsby. Who or what is Gatsby? To me, the name is quite familiar when I first heard of it. The first thought I had was the famous hair gel brand ... and also, Takuya Kimura (remember the interesting commercials he did for the brand?).

So, this Gatsby I'm talking about is not about the hair gel. It is actually a film currently showing in local cinemas near you. The film is basically adapted from a novel of the same name, authored by F. Scott Fitzgerald that was published in 1925. What a long, long time ago. Anyway, I haven't read the novel before but since this is an adaptation from a popular book, I won't write a lot about the story. Just a simple 'googling' and you can read the whole story in a jiffy.

Firstly first, I didn't know that this movie is from a book. So, I just watched this with zero anticipation and expectation except hoping that it would be a good movie. In a nutshell, I can simply say that this story is about hope, specifically, the hope of a man to rekindle his long lost but not forgotten love towards the girl of his dream. That man is Jay Gatsby, a mysterious young millionaire who owns a great mansion by the lake in the West Egg. He became friends with Nick Carraway, a young Wall Street hopeful, who rented a small cabin just beside his mansion. Across the lake, in the East Egg section, is the mansion of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Daisy is the 'second cousin once removed' of Nick (can someone tell me what's that supposed to mean?).

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The love story brewed since 5 years back between Jay and Daisy. Difficult situations ensued and drifted them apart. Since that, Daisy married Tom and Jay ... is mysteriously hiding in his many tales, but when Nick knew him, he is already a big millionaire who throws extravagant parties every weekend. How he came to possess that many fortune, no one really knows but it is demystified as the story unfolds. Everything in the story is about Jay. Who is he? What does he do? What is his motivation behind all the fame and fortune? This story is about a man so driven to re-possess the love he once had but had to let go because of some difficulties and hopes that he can return the time (and everything else) back to how it was before. In the end of the tragic finale, we can perhaps sympathize with Jay, or perhaps Daisy ... We might feel sorry for Daisy, who finds herself torn between an old flame or an infidel husband, or maybe we feel even sorrier for Jay, as he sacrificed everything to the one love he has but it led him to his doom. Sad love story, isn't it?

Anyway, the movie is also available in 3D. With all the extravagant colours of the festivities portrayed in this movie, it might be exciting to watch it in 3D (I didn't, just sticking to 2D). One last comment before ending this piece...why on earth Amitabh Bachchan was cast to play a Jewish character? I am so not getting it...Anyway, overall ... I am just liking the story, though it's sad, and it was enjoyable to see the acting ... but, I think some parts are just way too dramatic and maybe too weird. It's like a musical but not a musical. Modern era songs in a 1920s era movie, I don't know..maybe it's the director's style. Anyway, still...an entertaining film.

alone

alone in my room, feeling uninspired,
time is in my hands, but my mind is tired,
listening to Bruno Mars, It Will Rain to be exact,
made me think of you, and know that it is a fact
that I might be wishing for the stars and the sky,
but if i dare not make that jump so high,
i might never call you as my own,
and my heart will always be alone ...


The dreamer©2013
~ htd, kk 2034hrs

randomly speaking ... boredom

 

boredom is hazardous

 

but before that, what is boredom?

why do you feel bored?

 

you will feel bored when you have nothing to do. no activity, nothing to look forward to, nothing to expect...nothing, NADA!

 

but sometimes it's not because you really don't have things to do. you may have certain tasks. you may have something that you ought to do but ...

 

you don't feel like doing it. there's a heavy feeling about it. you may not like it. you may feel that the things you have to do are not compatible with your nature that you don't really enjoy them.

 

boredom must be cured because if you leave it unattended, boredom can make you feel bad. when you mind is idle, it's easy for unworthy or kinky thoughts to creep in and your mind tends to go sideways. when you are bored, your lose motivation. when motivation is down, you won't feel happy, you don't feel highly spirited.

 

when you are not happy, there will be symptoms, depending on what actually bores you. you might not have the mood to face the day and you sleep late. you wake up late in the morning, and dreading to go to school/work. when at school/work, it's difficult for you to focus on something and wish that the day will soon pass. you may find reasons to ditch classes or work. you tend to be mindless of the rules or in other word, undisciplined.

 

with the above scenarios happening without control, you may lose sight on what's important, and you may lose yourself. plus, you may affect other people too. therefore, boredom is hazardous.

 

it takes a lot of personal effort to overcome boredom. finding the cause would be the first step and would probably be the hardest part. a strong will to change is also essential. if you don't have it, it will be only talk and no walk. fighting boredom is a challenge when the root cause is not known. seek enlightenment because maybe you lack barakah in your everyday life. return to your prayers and seek motivational materials. go get 'em!

 

randomly speaking ... diary

I was once a diarist, I mean, a person who keeps and writes in a diary. I started keeping diaries since my pre-teen years. This conservative diarist wrote everything that happened in her personal life on daily basis in those thick hardcover diaries year by year until she decided that it was enough and stopped. I guess that happened at some time before finishing her first degree. 

 

To me, writing in a diary is a huge emotional matter. Some people might just write chronologies of their day-to-day events or their monetary spending details just for keeping tracks of things. As for me, I wrote my heart out.

 

The things we write in our diaries reflect on who we are as a person and our thinking behaviour. I am not making a study out of this but I think those who keep diaries are sensitive people who thinks too much. But I can't say that people who don't keep diaries are not sensitive and not thinking too much, right? It's not right. So why do some people don't keep diaries?

 

To answer that, I ask myself why did I write before and why I stopped. I guess I have a few reasons for starting to write in diaries. First, I want to let out my feelings and thoughts about things but it's so personal so I can only do it in writing and write it somewhere relatively safe. Second, I like to document things and that include what's going on in my mind. Third, simply because I like reading, hence I like writing. So, maybe some other people do not prefer these ways and opt for a different method.

 

And so, why did I stop doing that? Well, when it's personal, there's happy stuff and sad stuff. Normally we don't get tired reading of happy stuff, do we? Reading back those parts would always make me smile. However, the sad stuff is a different story. After passing some stages in my life, I just thought that keeping sad stories in my life 'sucks'. I didn't want to be reminded of the painful feelings and sad memories anymore. I thought, I should let those parts go far away from my mind. And so I burned them.

 

Burning old diaries. Sounds dramatic to you? Hah, maybe. Can we 'delete' the unwanted parts in our life just by doing that? Of course not. But I did it because of a combination of reasons. First, I didn't want to keep things that I didn't need anymore, in this case, the reminder of unhappy things, but since they were downright personal, I also didn't want any other eyes to see it. Then, as I never stay in one place for too long, transfering thick old personal diaries became quite a fuss. So, with peace in mind, I said goodbye to all those rantings in a small fire at the lawn.

 

Since then, I never write personal stuff 'religiously'. But I guess I can never change who I am. I am that person who like to express things in writing. I found blog. I became more open. With blog I don't just write for myself, but I allow other people to read too. Now it becomes a 'contained' personal stuff, or generalized personal matter. And then it's facebook era. Believe it or not, as much as it is a social media, it is somehow a kind of diary too, depending on how a person use it. I guess I am always a diarist, now with a 'publishing' sense.

 

In the end, I guess whatever I write now, wherever and however I write it, it will be a legacy to someone who matters, someday.

   

Lavender dari Rochester karya Fatihah Pauzihal

Tajuk : Lavender dari Rochester

Pengarang : Fatihah Pauzihal

Penerbit : Jemari Seni Sdn. Bhd., 2012

ISBN : 978-967-0508-07-8; 612 ms.

Harga : RM23.00 (WM)/RM26.00 (EM)

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Lavender dari Rochester merupakan novel penuh kedua nukilan Fatihal Pauzihal yang telah saya baca habis dalam satu malam. Kisah di dalam novel ini berkisar tentang 4 watak yang menjadi tunjang utama iaitu Lutfiyah, Hadi, Zakir dan Wardah.

Lutfiyah yang dibesarkan oleh babahnya dan Ibu Sumaiyah di Rochester pulang ke Malaysia bagi menjalankan amanat babahnya untuk mencari ahli keluarga mereka yang telah lama ditinggalkan. Malang yang bertimpa-timpa ke atas dirinya menemukan dia dengan Zakir, pemuda kampung yang bekerja di KL dan terkenal dengan sifat kasanova. Walaupun begitu, Zakir adalah pemuda yang baik dan bersama-sama Wardah, seorang gadis naif, guru tadika dan kawan sekampung Zakir, mereka membantu Lutfiyah dan membawa pulang Lutfiyah ke kampung mereka. Di situ Lutfiyah bertemu Hadi dan bermula lah satu episod permainan 'tarik tali' dan konflik emosi serta perhubungan antara mereka berempat dan manusia-manusia di sekeliling mereka. Lutfiyah dan Hadi masing-masing mempunyai sejarah duka mereka sendiri. Pertembungan hati watak-watak muda ini banyak dibantu dengan panduan watak-watak yang sudah berusia dan telah lama 'makan garam' seperti Nek Mah dan Ibu Sumaiyah.

Berjayakah Lutfiyah dalam pencariannya dan merungkai persoalan yang menjadi tanda tanya sekian lama? Dan bagaimanakah kesudahan 4 jiwa yang hebat diuji Tuhan dengan pelbagai cabaran pada akhirnya? Apakah hikmah di sebalik semua yang berlaku? Semuanya terjawab usai membaca novel ini.

Komen saya:

Saya bukanlah peminat novel melayu yang rata-rata temanya sentiasa klise dengan kisah cinta terhalang kerana perbezaan taraf keluarga, hubungan kekeluargaan yang terpisah, perhubungan cinta terlarang kerana hubungan saudara atau kisah hidup anak melayu yang belajar di luar negara dan terbawa-bawa dengan arus kemodenan. Novel ini juga begitu, tiada kelainan yang ketara. Namun, novelis ini mampu  mempersembahkan ceritanya dengan baik dengan gaya penceritaan yang lancar, bersahaja dan mudah difahami.

Dari segi isi, kisah ini sarat dengan cinta dan kasih sayang, samada yang membahagiakan mahupun yang menghancurkan; kasih anak terhadap ibu bapa, kasih nenek terhadap cucu, kasih antara 2 saudara, kasih penjaga kepada anak angkatnya - dalam erti kata lain, kasih sayang di dalam hubungan keluarga. Selain itu, kisah ini juga menyentuh tentang kepentingan memajukan diri sendiri, peluang kedua (second chance) dalam kehidupan dan hikmah sebuah kemaafan, seperti tagline novel ini, kemaafan adalah dendam yang terindah.

Kesudahan bagi cerita ini tidaklah sukar untuk dijangka, lebih-lebih lagi jika si pembaca sudah terbiasa dengan jalan cerita soap operas di kaca tv. Bagaimanapun saya cuba untuk tidak membuat jangkaan dan menerima apa sahaja kesudahan yang disampaikan novelis ini. Bagi saya, ia kesudahan yang agak baik dan teratur cuma mungkin sedikit kurang mencabar minda, hehe.

Apapun, novel ini baik untuk dibaca kerana banyak perkara positif yang boleh diambil daripadanya, jika si pembaca tidak hanya membaca untuk hiburan dan melayan mainan perasaan.