UPDATE ON DINA ZAMAN'S I AM MUSLIM 2 PROJECT

Be warned, this is a bragging entry.

My article was published in the I Am Muslim 2 blog today. That's 2, I repeat, 2 articles accepted in the project. (Muahaha).

I am still trying to find time to meet Dina. No, not to thank her.

It will be a negotiation on the payment thing. :)

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS

SOMETIME IN THE NIGHT

“Hello Akula, WOI! AKULA!, Its me, Rudi. Are you awake?” Looked at my watch , 3.23 am. Answered the phone: “Huarghhhh….. who’s this?” Feeling groggy, try to keep myself awake. (Rudi is a good friend in London) Hmm okay. Fearing the worse. “What’s the matter man?” I asked him. “Nothing, I just got myself Dina Zaman’s I Am Muslim. Do you know your name is mentioned in her book?” Still trying to make sense of it all, I said “Yeah? Uh okay”. He continued “Okay, just to let you know. Now go back to sleep”. Umm. What? “Is that it, man? Your family’s ok over there?”. Rudi said “Yeap, Sure they are. That’s it.” Click.

Cant sleep after that. And its not because I am excited my name is in Dina Zaman’s book. I am of the species who cannot go back to sleep right away, after being brutally awaken in the middle of the night. Pulling myself together, sum up the conversation. Rudi called me in the dead of night, all the way from London, to inform me that my name was typed somewhere in Dina Zaman’s I Am Muslim. And there’s nothing wrong with his family. I sighed. What a friend. Love him to death.

LUNCH HOUR, YESTERDAY

Wari. Another good friend of mine.

Wari: “Hello beb”.
Akula: “What’s up?”.
Wari: “In case you don’t know it already, your name is in I Am Muslim’s by Dina Zaman.
Akula: “Yeah, another friend of mine informed me last night. Called from London”.
Wari: “How the hell he got it over there.”
Akula : “Good question, I really don’t know. Its about 3.am when he called me. Half awake at that time. Forgot to ask him”.
Wari: “ Listen. Do you have a copy of the book?”
Akula: “ No, not yet.”
Wari: “Okay, you can borrow mine if you want.”
Akula : “Its cool man, I asked another friend to buy it for me.”
Wari : “Ok beb. Bye”.
Akula : “Uh ok”.

THIS MORNING

At the office. Saw Adi, strutting, holding something in his hand. “Akula, you owe me RM 30.00” and hand over Dina Zaman’s elusive book. “FYI, You made me do this. My wife keep teasing me and cant believe her husband's buying a book!. You owe me big time, bro”

Finding out my name mentioned in a book obviously is a big thing to my friends.

I am deeply touched and truly blessed.

BTW, its on page 8.

PROMOTING DINA ZAMAN'S I AM MUSLIM 2

I am not promoting Dina Zaman's new book I Am Muslim. No. Period. I am sure enough efforts, money and personal appearances by Dina herself have been made to do that. And I have never met her except through a few correspondences via emails.

However, I like the idea of her on going project which is to get a book publish written by you guys. The concepts and how to are define clearly in her blog I Am Muslim and I will not get into the details here. (Don't want to steal her thunder la).

When she was in malaysiakini, I had this bugging thought which I need to clear out of my head. So I wrote an article and send it to Dina's column. And she published it. I am telling you, for the whole month I felt like being on the top of the world. Nothing like getting your work published. And the best thing was, it invokes debates. Loved it.

So you guys, have a go at it. If you can talk, you definitely can write. It's just a matter of instead using your mouth, you used your hands. Your brain will still process the same output. Oh... and whatever Dina mentioned in her blog, about the need of using correct grammars, don't pay any attention to it. That is exactly why she has editors to rectify your grammar mistakes. :) On a serious note, from my personal experiences, if you worry about grammatical mistakes, it will stump the idea flows. And you'll get irritate, then you'll get mad. The same thing when you are eating. The uninterrupted process of using your hand to grab the nasik lemak, mixing it with sambal sotong and finally shoving it to your mouth is really important. Imagine while you are doing that, someone slap you at the back. All hell will break loose, right? That is what worrying about grammatical mistakes will do to your idea flow. You can correct your mistakes later, or just let Dina and her gang of editors do it for you. If you are already excellent, then the above advice is obviously not for you. Hehe.

I apologised for the preaching. I am still learning too, but what the hell, you'll never know if you don't try.

As for me, yes, I will contribute a piece of my opinion later, once I renegotiate the payment thing. :)

And Dina, if you read this, open table la. I hauled my ass off all over KL to buy your book, but at the end, still no book. Sold out. What la you.....kedekut ah?