I’ve known his mom for a long time now. Let’s call her R. Now R’s a gracious, funny and honest woman and she loves to read! She used to run a cosy little bookshop in the heart of Georgetown a couple of years ago but she was simply too busy for her own good – yes, she has a day job and she lives in KL mostly.
Unbeknown to many, R has an adventurous streak in her. She recounted how she travelled across Siberia with her son, beginning from Mongolia and right across the continent towards Europe. And this is not your usual tourist type of travel we’re talking about.
This is one woman in her 50s, who rolled up her sleeves and backpacked across Siberia with her 30-something son, in what I call a sojourn of life. They ended up in France or the UK, where I think they split up, each making their own trip back to Malaysia.
What amazed me was her sense of adventure and joy for living. How many women in their 50s willingly take on such risks? And in Siberia!
Anyway, I’ve never met her son but when I saw his piece in The Sunday Star two weeks ago, I knew this was the guy. When I was in my old job as a web content editor for a woman’s web portal many years ago (I quit that job 3 years ago to do my own thang and yes, even that portal has disappeared. It literally died when the content editor left!), Dzof on behalf of his mom’s bookshop, used to contribute insightful and well-written book reviews.
And now this mathematician has his own column in The Sunday Star which has been renamed Star Weekender or something (as an aside, tell me, doesn’t the new Star remind you of one other newspaper which is given free at McDonalds?).
Of course, the next thing I did was quickly email R and tell her (OK, I gushed) how fantastic to know her son was now a columnist. R told me Dzof has a blog and of course one thing led to another and I being Miss Wanna-Know-It-All (hmmm, I am exhibiting some cat-like curiosity, no?) surfed over to investigate.
Yes, folks, you heard it from MayaKirana ya. You won’t find the link to Dzof’s blog from his column in The Star but you get it from the horse’s mouth – Dzof Azmi’s blog is at www.dzof.org (I wonder why it’s dot org…maybe I’ll go ask Dzof later.) Anyway, if you are a new fan of his writings, pop on over.
And of course, the reward for leaving a kind comment on my site, is that I then come over and leave my graffitti on yours. (Admittedly, it isn’t always pretty, but at least I don’t use permanent ink!)
Thank you very much for your kind words. (We haven’t met, have we? ) Just a few comments in return:
1. Do you how my mum decided to join me on the Trans-Siberian?
Me: …and then, I was thinking, get on the train across Mongolia and Russia to Moscow-
Mum: Oooh. Can I join?
Me: (Calculated and realised that all my accommodation costs would now be halved) … Oh-kay.
2. It’s a .org because I chose to have that. .com is for a company (which I’m not), and .net was traditionally for internet providers. I could have had either then, but now someone is cybersquatting on dzof.com.Decisions are easy when there are no choices!
3. At the risk of getting my mum upset, I have to add she was actually closer to 60 than 50 when she did that trip. Did she enjoy herself? Read: http://www.dzof.org/2003/05/you-havent-lived-until-youve-been-to.html
4.The new Star in fact is different from the other astronomically-named paper in a few ways: It’s heavier, costs money and runs Dilbert twice a week. This immediately should label it ‘the more serious tabloid’.
Hi Dzof,
No, we haven’t met but I have heard about you from your mom. As for your mom’s age, I always assumed she was in her 50s. Now you can go tell her I think she’s young for a 60-something person! Ah, I see, so you’re a Dilbert fan. Tell me, why do all logical-analytical people (my husband included) who are either into computer programming or maths or something science-related enjoy Dilbert world? Is it a male thing? Okaaaay, so you’re writing for the more serious tabloid… but tabloid nevertheless? LOL.
*ahem* Mind you, Dilbert is not only a male thang. =P
HI Maya , i like ur blog site, very nice , i want to do a blog of my own someday. If i need help , can i contact u?