Pintu

My office is quite a spacious workspace area divided into 8 cubicles with low partitions. It's nice and quiet in here (because the other lecturers in this office are peace-loving people, they don't like to create much noise-mungkin sebab mereka semua pensyarah Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration kot, sentiasa cool dan senyap). Not to mention that we have the best view outside. There are two doors that open to our office.

Yesterday afternoon I was alone in the office. One student entered through the front door and asked if Mr X was around. I told him that the lecturer he was looking for probably had class and asked him to see if he was in the classroom next door. He said thank you and left.

Then he knocked at the back door of the office and entered. He came up to me and said, "Puan tadi saya cari En X kat ofis dia. Saya tanya ada satu madam tu pastu dia suruh saya gi bilik sebelah. Tapi saya tak jumpa la Puan."

I looked at myself in the mirror that I had on my desk. Dalam masa setengah minit dari saat pelajar tersebut keluar dari ofis saya mengikut pintu depan dan masuk ke dalam semula mengikut pintu belakang tidak pula terjadi apa-apa mutasi genetik ketara yang menyebabkan saya berubah rupa. Saya tengok muka Jawa saya tetap remain Jawa.

Dan dalam hati saya bertanya siapalah kutu yang telah membuka pintu belakang ofis kami. Selalunya kami memang pastikan ia berkunci. Untuk tidak mengelirukan golongan mudah tertipu seperti pelajar yang sedang berdiri semula di hadapan saya ketika itu.

Ini mesti kutu Air-cond ni.

Sabar itu separuh dari iman...so what's the other half?

For my French course the students need to print out on their own their course notes, grammar notes and exercise sheets that the lecturers have uploaded to the institute's e-learning portal. So from Week 1 I've informed all my students to do so as I would not be photocopying any for them.

Last week was already week 4. And some of the students still had not done so. In one of the classes more than half of them still came to class empty handed. So Madame Yati had to deliver her free lectures #54 and #55 entitled "Korang kalau nak belajar buat cara nak belajar kalau tak jangan buang masa aku" and "Jangan buang duit RM500 untuk bayaran 2 jam kredit dengan hanya duduk menganga". Dah nama pun lecturer kan?

So after several minutes of ear bombarding I just stood in front of them and asked them what they wanted to do then since they had no notes to work with and I was so annoyed with their lackadaisical attitude.

Everybody had made the wise decision to keep quiet except for one student who sat right in front of the class who meekly came up with a suggestion. Tapi masa cakap tu pun tunduk. Suara pun perlahan aje. Sebab takut kena libas.

....."Anger management therapy?"

So how can you not like teaching this bunch of students?

Cepat? Lambat?

Every year during the fasting month I will face the same problem. What time do I need to leave the office in Bangi in order to arrive home on time for berbuka without having to go through the massive traffic jam of the grand exodus? Suddenly the whole of the Klang Valley (or so it seems like it) wants to buy their ayam percik and kuih pelita at the Taman Tun Dr Ismail Ramadhan bazaar. Leceh betul.

Last week I tried leaving at 5pm. I reached the TTDI toll at the SPRINT highway at around 5.30pm. And guess what? It took me 1.5hours to reach the traffic lights at the TTDI Pizza Hut. If it wasn't the puasa month now I would've probably continued this entry with use of expletives such as WTH or WTF to emphasize on my extreme frustration of having to endure 90 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic when during a normal day it would've just taken me 10 minutes or less. Terima kasih DBKL kerana telah mengepung kawasan bazaar ramadhan TTDI yang telah menyebabkan kesesakan lalulintas melampau kerana trafik dari jalan besar tidak dapat memasuki kawasan Taman Tun dan kereta-kereta dari bazaar ramadhan pula yang penuh sarat dengan sate, popiah basah, murtabak daging, kuih tako, roti john, air tebu, nasi tomato, laksa Perlis dan tidak dilupakan kambing golek seekor tidak dapat keluar dari kawasan bazaar.

So there are only two options left for me. The first one is that I go back really early, as in before 4pm, or go home late. Maybe at 6.30. And hope that the roads would be clear by that time. Whatever it is, yang penting ialah stok bekalan buah kurma yang perlu sentiasa ada di dalam kereta. Dan air kotak Ribena.