Notes from Qatar, a Very Inspirative Book for Me

Yes. I believe that many of you have heard about this book. A book written by a very young man at my age (in other words, I’m still also very young :p), an Indonesian who just finished his master education in Qatar then wrote his experiences & shared his knowledge in his blog which now summarized and able to be consumed by public in a book (well, two books already now actually) titled “Notes from Qatar”. Karin (my soulmateee :*) recommended me to read this book when I was in a very down condition. What kind of condition? The very lowest condition of mine. The hopeless and very miserable feeling I felt that time made me blame God and did not know anymore what I should pray to God, coz I thought that saying my pray to God is useless and unheard. Yes, I was that low and I am really not proud of my condition that time.

So, I went to the only Gramedia book store in the city (but I’ll always miss the Gramedia book store in Grand Indonesia, oh how lovely), bought the book and read it as I arrived at my kosan. Instantly, I loved the book since the very first page, especially to the sentence that the writer wrote which sounds like “There’s no growth in comfort zone, and there’s no comfort in growth zone. So we must leave our comfort zone to grow”. At the moment, I thought “Damn, that’s what I’m feeling! This city isn’t my comfort zone at all. Soo I guess I should’ve been glad that this is the right place for me to grow”. Page by page, I kept reading it, and.. I cried (yes, I am a whiny girl). I was ashamed of myself. How could I have a very negative thinking to God? How could I be that arrogant to God that I felt I didn’t want to pray anymore that time to God? We must have a positive thinking to God and to ourselves, that’s what the author taught me through his experiences & hadists that he also quoted in his writings. Positive, Persistance, and Pray (3P), that what he said, in order to get what we want. He didn’t just say it, he experienced it all. So, we, as readers, would believe in him.

Another thing that made me amazed from reading that book. About the power of alms or ‘sedekah’. He has often given his alms to many people who need it, and he always gets the minimum of 10 times real return from God. Many of his ‘unbelievable’ lucks that he got from his alms. Gosh, you have to read it to really see how the ‘sedekah’ works and read Q.S. Al-Baqarah [2]: 261 to see what God promises to us. Another learning I got from this book is that God NEVER deny his promises and that’s it’s a hundred percent okay for us to do some good things in hoping of good return from God. So I made promise to myself that from now on, I won’t hesitate to give my alms to any people who need it.

To sum up, I really recommend anyone to read “Notes from Qatar”. Very helpful and able to open our mind and our heart. It’s not hard to swallow either since he wrote it with his blog-style writing. And FYI, currently there’s already the sequel book which titled “Notes from Qatar 2 : Honest, Humble, and Helpful” which is also recommended to read. At last, I wanna say thank you very much to the author, who gave a very valuable lessons for me, and also to Karin who recommended this book to me when I was feeling down (kiss & hug, muachh!!).

P.S : I have proven the power of ‘sedekah’. I once did it and Alhamdulillah God gave me ‘something’ which is unmeasurable by money. God finally gave me what I have wanted & needed & prayed when I was feeling down as I told before. God finally granted my biggest wish. Grateful for it. Thank You, Allah…

Random Topic of the Day.. Pregnancy???

Tiba2 semua temen deket gw pada hamil ajah. Kayaknya usia2 mid-twenty ini memang usia produktif yah. Paling kerasa senengnya pas si Shany secara spontan dan langsung ngasih tau “Cong, gw isi!” (2 kali dy harus menyebutnya krn pas pertama dy bilang itu gw ga mudeng dy ngomong apa, heheh). Dimana gw tampaknya merupakan salah satu dari beberapa orang pertama yg dia beritahu soal berita yg jg dy baru tau beberapa hari itu, jadi pas denger itu langsung dr mulut dia, otomatis mulut gw langsung nyengir lebar n mau teriak di saat bersamaan (ya ampun, dasar cewek banget). Berhubung waktu itu kita lagi berada di sebuah supermarket mall yang tentunya bukan cuma gw dan Shany yg punya telinga, jadi gw harus menahan sedikit teriakan kebahagiaan gw itu. So, I hugged and laughed and smiled and greeted her at the same time. Aih, gw yg denger aja bisa segirang itu, apalagi yang ngalaminnyaaa.. (ehem, mupeng maksudnya).

Dari sekian yg gw kenal, 90 persennya kayaknya langsung hamil abis nikah. It means that they don’t wait at all. Soalnya gw kadang ngerasa masih bingung, mendingan nunda dulu, like a year, atau langsung aja mau punya baby. Kenapa ada pikiran nunda itu? Ya karena biar bisa lalalili-lalalili (apa coba) dulu sama suami nanti. Abis lalalili-lalalili selama setahun, baru deh hamidun. Ya enak emang, kalo planning nya bisa bener2 terjadi. Nevertheless, kayakny gw gamau sengaja nunda gitu deh (walaupun emang beneran pengen lalalilinya itu). Pertama, karena inget umur, biar delta usia ortu-anak ga jauh2 amat. Terus, kedua, ngapain menunda sesuatu yang baik & bagus kan? And third, I want to give grandchildren for my parents as soon as possible, too, so I can make them happier as long as I still have them here. But, still, everyone has a right to decide when to have babies. If it’s not the right time yet, or not possible, then we have to wait. But if it’s the right time, there is no barrier, and have good reasons, why wait?

Nah kan, udah ngomongin dunia perhamilan dan perbayian aja gue. As if I was the expert!! Wkwkwkwk… Nikah aja belum (tapi gosipnya udah santer sampe level manager ajah, emang para petinggi dsini sukanya bergunjing). Yah, gw amin-in aja deh support & doa mereka. Coz gw yakin, Allah udah mendesain dengan sempurna jalan kebahagiaan setiap orang, dan hanya Allah yang tahu. Kita cuma bisa ber-ikhtiar, bertawakkal, dan menjadi orang yang baik kepada siapapun. All is well.. 🙂

Season 7, Eps. 10

“When you meet the right person, you know it.
You can’t stop thinking about them.
They’re your best friend and your soul mate.
You can’t wait to spend the rest of your life with them.
No one and nothing else can compare..”

That’s what Nora’s (Barney Stinson’s girlfriend) father said to Barney. Ain’t it right? 🙂

“I’ll Be There For Youuuu….”

Hey, don’t get bored every time you ask what I was doing and get an answer “watching FRIENDS” from me, okay 🙂 . Coz it is my most favourite tv series that I’ll always gonna love to keep watching over & over again, hehe… But now, all 10 seasons of FRIENDS have been finally watched by me (Voila! Yay!)! Very old tv series, but still never failed in making me laugh out loud in every episode of it. Mmm… what I love about that tv series is… everything. The six strong characters, the stories, the jokes. If I were asked which one of those 6 characters was my favourite one, God, I don’t think I could choose, coz I love all of them. They’re all so funny. Not just the dialogues that made it so, but also their faces / mimics. There are Rachel with all her whiny acts, Ross with all his super exaggerating acts, Chandler with all his stupid jokes, Monica with all her crazy organized perfectionism, Phoebe with all her weird songs & stuffs she believed and said, and finally Joey with all his plainness.

I also love all of the episodes, without any exceptions. Nevertheless, there are 2 episodes which are so touche for me that I’ll always remember. First, in an episode that I forgot in which season (forgive my bad memory ability, but it was in season 1 or 2 I believe :D), there is a moment when Rachel was feeling very vulnerable & afraid of her own future, but then she looked at her five friends playing very happily in Monica’s apartment then she smiled and said to herself “I’m fine“. I really know how Rachel felt that time! Coz I felt it too. The peaceful feeling when you see and be with your close friends made all uneasiness you felt before just disappeared. Yeah, I felt what Rachel felt 🙂

My another touche episode is the very last episode (eps.17) in season 10 of FRIENDS. It is when Rachel (her again, readers, hehe) chose Ross (the love of her life) over her dream job in Paris. She chose love over carrier! Gosh, it is the thing that I mostly will do, too. Well, I already did it, actually. I sometimes thought, will it be the best choice if we choose love over carrier? Will it make me regret? Well, for me, love is more important than carrier. Family always comes first, right? That’s always the rule. So, I’d rather lose my dream job than lose the love of my life. Because love makes me happier than any job in the world. It’s good if we can have both, a dream lover and a dream job. But if we can’t have both, well, I’ll say that I’ll choose love over carrier. Just like what Rachel did.

Although I’ve watched all 238 episodes, but I don’t think I will ever get bored if I repeat watching the tv series over again. That’s why I’ll always keep this best-comedy-tv-series-I’ve-ever-watched in my Hard Disc / DVD forever. 🙂