Devoid Of Happiness

2012-01-22T02:10:00.001+08:00

Been shopping for some books earlier in the day, nowadays I got nothing much to do for past time but reading. Wandering around the bookstore, I thought I had felt an undercurrent of distress, that there were rows of books which contained the keywords happy and happiness.

What the heck?

And I found it amusing too, since it is a fact that producers offer what consumers are devoid of. Seriously people, I mean, does anyone really read a thick hardback book for the sake of finding happiness?

If so, then this lot must have a penchant for complexity, or in other words, unproductive overthinking. Moreover, it suggests how stupid people can be, when a very simple thing such as being happy requires series of heavy readings.

Maybe it is just about time for happiness to become a dissertation title, or maybe it had been done already, because I am totally oblivious of the irrelevance.

Also, I am not writing this in oversimplifying manner, as many of you might presuppose, and if you do think so, then you must have overthought. It is an apt prerequisite towards 'finding happiness'.

Apropos of the topic, being happy is not just easy, it can also be considered a penniless charity for people around you. Be happy, it is the simplest form of donation to the society.

I know, human emotion is diverse, one cannot be neither perennially happy, nor perennially sad. So, even you truly are a pathetic walking meat, whose life filled with nothing but problems, at least keep your despair in concealment.

Furthermore, if this bunch of deep thinkers have really been digging into the depth of thought, so deep that even happiness is hard to find, they must have been coming across some facts that;

1. In order to make them happy, how much environmental damages have been done to print those paperbacks? We all know from what paper is made, do we?

2. In order to make them happy, how much time did all the authors spend to write that unnecessary books? While in fact they could have produced other productive works.

But that is not the case, perhaps being depressed is now trendy, and I am a bit old-fashioned on this.

P/S : You can start being happy by stopping from writing pessimistic Facebook statuses.

A Meaningful Experience? In UPSI, Perhaps It Really Was

2012-01-17T06:47:00.014+08:00

About four years ago, there sat a confused young man flipping through some old photo albums of his family. He was looking for a source of inspiration to accompany him for the coming years, maybe from a bit of reminiscing he could get what he scavenged for.

Life was too foreseeable to him, at least he could do something about it, to stretch beyond what seemed conventional. Among all the photos, his utmost loved one was conspicuously seen. His grandma, there she was.

The only person who could fulfill all his whims, it was why she happened to be the one he loved the most even if she was alive at that time, he would have had sufficient bucks to roll a joint day and night. He quipped in his own monologue, he laughed at his own joke.

He remembered how he used to cheat her that he topped the school exam, because he longed for her compliment, while in fact he only managed to stay in top ten, but it was not a big deal surely, since he eventually did achieve all that, sadly she was no longer alive for such joy to be shared with.

One thing that was still in his mind was a banter between them, he asked her what she wanted him to be one day.

A chef? No, the hat is ugly, said she. A philosopher? No, you would die from thinking too much, said she. A lawyer? No, the philosophical value behind this job is opaque, you would end up defending the guilty, said she. A police? No, it is the pool of briberies, said she.

We both have poor eyesight.

The worst was, she did not even provide the answer, nor did she give any suggestion as well. All he knew was that she was a teacher who was formerly trained in SITC, a heretofore prominent teaching institution, commonly known as UPSI in recent times.

Well, he thought that, memories straddled between the living and the deceased, if both could be intersected it must be through an absurd communion. A teacher? Not bad at all. He took her as inspiration then.

It has been almost four years since I enrolled at UPSI, wherein I had learned a lot about many things. I was there most likely to fill the gaps of a linguistic undergrad, my preferred niche, never being too optimistic on changing anything.

I changed myself of course, it was the least individual contribution of oneself to society, as I would probably devote all my adulthood to teaching, it is in my blood, a genetic inheritance maybe.

Everything was decent to be honest, nothing went too idealistic, all flowed as planned. Learning entailed time, it was anti-fast, I never yearned for hasty success, nor did I aim for perfection.

I did not consider university as numerical prostitution, as many pointer whores would sacrifice anything to attain highest grades, while in fact both CGPA and intelligent were exclusively different, the higher the former did not signify the latter.

There were other avenues one could appear intelligent rather than being dragged into pointer slavery. I found this sickening, it skewed off the purpose of education, that is to escalate the level of knowledge then invent a new one out of curiosity.

Hence, be accustomed to avoid yourself from becoming the prey of numbers, but at the same time, do not let it become an excuse of escaping from competing. Concisely speaking, just get your scroll charmingly, surely with charming number that you deserve.

UPSI; 2008 - 2012

The journey had already ended a couple weeks ago, and I am grateful of everything that I had gone through.

It was a meaningful experience of course, along with embedded sentimental values, those nice people I met and be friend with, some stupid things I did that I squirm whenever I think of, some inspiring things I did that still left to be proud of, well, it was great.

Syazril Ashraf

Devoid Of Happiness

A Meaningful Experience? In UPSI, Perhaps It Really Was