Masjid Kapitan Keling

The Maghrib prayer is in progress at the Kapitan Keling Mosque ans Rashid has left to perform his Wudu' or cleansing before the prayer ans I had just told him that i am still struggling with praying five tiems a day. So here I am doing what I have been doing whenever i am at a loss and in the twilight zone. I have been feeling like 'sitting in limbo and waiting for the tide to roll' for the last few months wondering when my life will change for the better. I worked for my cousin at the catering place stirring three pos of beaf, chicken and Dalca curries for one thousand five hundred wedding guests since six in the morning till about noon and my body is telling it. Lter in the afternoon drove to the USM Gallery hoping to do some work but did not do much other than packed my journals and the long scroll painting and headed for the penang State Art Gallery where they told me that my invitation cards for the show were ready to be picked up if I wanted to. The Gallery was closed, on a bloody Sunday! So I stopped by at my artist friend's Rashid to catch up with what is going on with the Art scene in Penang.

We taled about politics as this is his favorite subject and watched a video on the net about 'Malaya' ten years before independance the years just before the British left the country, a part of histroery which the history books today has neglected. Then we talked of life and religion where I told him of my problems and he explained to me how he got his saving grace. Rashid had gone through a rough ride most of his life too in his effort to finally become a ful time artist in his case a portrait painter. He is working on the potrait of the Sultan of Perlis at the moment and it is coming along splendidly, he might ask for 40 thousandRM for it he told me. He made 70 thousandRM on the last two potraits not to long ago and paid up his home loan ans now with this piece he hope to have a fianacial clean slate. Rashid is a kind and gentle person who speaks from his heart and it is very comforting to listen to him even if he keeps repeating the same old stories everytime we have these conversations. We are at his studio Gallery which is also the Penang Malay Artist Gallery annexed to the Karitan Kling Mosque a prominant landmark for this city.

I am getting ready to leave to pick up my daughter at her friend's house wher I had dropped her off for the day, they were going for a picnic she had told me with her friend's parents and I am very relieved as I had not been able to do much for her in terms of entertaiment. My son Karim is home as always most probably looking into the mirror every five minutes to see if his hair is in place or if he will ake it as an actor. I love them and I feel I have ot given them enough than I should. I am still wondering what had is ging on with my number one son the pilot who has stopped communicating for quite sometime now hoping that all is well with him too. It is not easy to be a parent my parents used to tell me and now i am learnig just how hard.