Death in Gaza introduced us to Ahmed, Mohamed and Najla. The Observer has an update on them, in the aftermath of the atrocities committed in Rafah.
Archive for
May, 2004
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May 31, 2004 10:39 pm
8:10 pm
Ah.. the signs of old age. When you can’t survive on four hours worth of sleep anymore. Last night I tried to stay up until Subuh, which was at 2.50am. The theory was that, going straight to bed at 3am and waking up at say, 9am, is better than going to bed at midnight, getting up again at 3am, falling back asleep at 3.30am and up again at 7.30am; because the latter meant interrupted sleep, the former not.
Theory disproved, at least for this old fogey. Despite going to bed at 3am-ish, my eyes were wide open at half past seven. A tad groggy, but I was unable to go back to sleep. And for the rest of the day, my eyes have been undeniably heavy; and my brain refuses to compute the economics models I am reading.
This is consistent with prior findings that despite trying hard to sleep in on weekends, I never feel refreshed; instead getting a nice, irritating headache for the rest of the day if I sleep past my designated waking hour of 7.30am.
I find the long days and short nights one of the challenges of living here and being a Muslim. In winter we are rewarded with shorter days, easing the fasting hours should Ramadhan fall in winter. But in summer, we struggle to stay awake / wake up for Subuh prayers.
I have heard of an opinion which says that since fajr occurs in the middle of the ‘night’, technically, we are allowed to pray Subuh as soon as we wake up the next morning, instead of waking ourselves up in the middle of the night. I have yet to find a source that verifies this, either from the Shafi’e or Hanafi school of fiqh – any pointers, anyone?
5:24 pm
Of the five Harry Potter books, the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite. So it didn’t take much to budge me from my bed on this Bank Holiday Monday morning, to queue up outside Lancaster’s premier cinematic venue, the Regal, so that we could be one of the first few (read: thousand) people to watch this movie.
The small entourage of three as per Friday grew to seven this morning, including two six year olds whom, judging by the expressions on their faces as the movie wore on, were quite enchanted. We decided to avoid the crowds and go for the 11am show, when most of Lancaster were still sleeping off a drunken pre-Bank Holiday night out. Yes, there was a bit of a queue for the tickets; more so because the cinema wasn’t open until 10.30am; and being Malaysians, we made sure we did things the Malaysian way – stick one person in the queue as far ahead as possible, and make her buy all the tickets in one go.
So, how was the movie? This third installment wasn’t quite as loyal to the book as its two predecessors were, which was refreshing. There was also a showcase of some of Britain’s finest – Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, Alan Rickman and Sir Michael Gambon (which sounds more like a theater line-up rather than a big budget movie cast list) which was nice for a change. Check out Emma Thompson’s Professor Trelawney; quite a fitting tribute, I must say!
I have to admit, seeing faces put to the characters I’ve been making come alive in my head can be quite an experience, and not necessarily positive. After watching Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Troy come alive on the silver screen in recent years, I have come to the conclusion that however grand and breathtaking it is visualised, nothing beats the movie I have had playing in my head when I read the stories myself.
At the end of the day, what makes it onto celluloid is one person’s little movie played out in his head. But when we read these works of fiction, we are able to make our own little movies, with our own casts, our own sceneries, our own props. And however much I enjoy watching one man’s personal movie, I kinda like mine a little bit more.
Oh, and for the record: In my Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black is a very dishevelled, very broody, but very, very intensely gorgeous Brad Pitt. Or Hugh Jackman. Depending on their other committments, of course.