A friend shared this on FB and instantly, my eyes glittered and my heart floated into the joyful memories of the 80s. The first time my parents brought my sis (who is 2 years my junior) and I to Toa Payoh National Library. That was one of the precious gifts my parents got me despite us living humbly in a rented flat at lorong 5. As cliche as it sounds, the gift of knowledge. I really felt like a million dollars being exposed to racks and racks of books and immediately, i ran to fairy tales and Aesop fables, my first love. Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales were my good source of moral education and perhaps, if Allah izinkan, I will be reading it to my daughters so that she will embrace good characteristics of The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina and even Snow White from the Grimm's bothers. Talking about the Grimm's brothers, rumour has it that they are not the actual author of several fairy tales but in actual facts, these stories were before passed through word of mouth probably decades ago before Grimm just like Puisi lama and Kisah Bawang Putih Bawang Merah, Laksama Bintan and many more Malay folktales. However, the main point here is that books has and will always be a great source of moral values for young kids instead of Ipad, Youtube and television.

Being a librarian once crossed my mind but believe it or not that at that young age, i did wish to be an archaeologist basically I got hooked by the mysterious Pharaohs, the legendary Romans and philosophically intrigued by Greek mythology. At 8 or even earlier than that because my uncle introduced me to Clash of the Titans movie starring Laurence Olivier with his 70s dashing layers of hairs. Growing up around books was amazing and thanks to that, I learnt to pick up English in a household of Malays and Javanese speaking adults. I am definitely not a genius or speak English as fluent as an educated native English speaker but good enough to score an eight for my IELTS. Berkat usahaku dan keredhaan Allah Ta'ala. Insya-Allah if all goes well, I will be stepping into London's kingdom of knowledge in September. I hope that I can do very well.