16 ramadhan / 16 september

16.09.2008 - i believe like most people in the country ...this date is being waited with anticipation .... no ...not exactly due to malaysia day ... it has been about 45 malaysia days before and i dont think people pay that much attention as today ... i dont remember 20,000 people gather in a stadium just solely to celebrate malaysia day eve like last night... not many people even remember the date 'malaysia' was born ... the question now will it happen or not ? ...

Ulat + express bus + ticket balik raya

about a week ago there was a discussion on how to eliminate the 'ulat' or touts in the bus stations especially puduraya on one of the local radio stations... that initiates me to put my thought around that issues.

when i first set foot in the city more than 20 years ago, i was quite impressed with how bus tickets were transacted in puduraya during that time. it was orderly with all the ticket sellers sat quietly inside the designated booths. the booths were well lit and uniformly labelled according to bus companies.. no sight of the sellers pushing their hands out of the booth windows waving and shouting trying to attract the customers let alone ulats wondering around intimidatingly luring the passengers..

However things had chaotically gone backwards recently ... the situation at the ticketing area at puduraya is almost similar to the selayang wholesale market...

the solution could be ... get rid of all the manual ticket sellers ... get online . yes bus ticket should be sold online . people can buy tickets from the comfort of their work stations in the office or at home or wherever wi-fi could reach them ...no you dont even need computer - you can by tickets from your pda or 3G handphones... to those who are not that IT literate or do not have access to these facilities, probably petrol station or post office could offer this service .... our modern sophisticated society should move on in prallel with the time ... just a thought !

Salam Ramadhan

I hope it is not too late to wish happy ramadhan to all . nowadays it is pretty common to receive sms wishes on whatever ocassions and one of them is ramadhan ... among the wishes that i received is copied below and sent by one of my friends from dubai ...i wanted to post it as soon as i received it however the 'procrastination' disease is still in my vein - so delayed again ... btw this is the wishes note


"..Salams, my name is shabaan, i am advising you that my neighbour, ramadhan will be visiting you soon with his wife roza and two children sehri and iftaar. they will be accompanied by three grand children rahmat, barakat and touba, they will leave after 30 days by eid airlines. treasure them and you will be blessed. Ramadhan mubarak ."

well...we only have 25 more days to treasure them ... better late than never