Peace be upon you.
Hello once again! PBMUKS just had our production last Sunday, QALBU. Its our 3rd attempt at staging a drama, and I shall say that QALBU ended on a note with very mixed feelings.
Before I start, I would like to thank all who got something from the show stuck in their own QALBU and did took the effort to express it to us or for us to see. There is a Malay saying I took from the mouths of your favourite Malay diva, Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, and made it my own principle; Tak hidup dek puji, tak mati dek keji. Don’t live by praises, neither do we die by criticisms. And that should be the way.
Criticisms means that we have rooms for improvement and the existence of it creates opportunities for us to improve. Praises boost our morale. Get the two to mix and ta-dah! You get a new found excitement for a better show upcoming Pentas Budaya.
For those who enjoyed Pentas Budaya 09, wait till you see whats coming next year! Okay I probably shouldn’t be too gleeful in light of the upcoming exams.
This bit is for those who did not have the opportunity to watch it; it was a play intended to explore issues of motherhood; a woman whose natural role is to mother but she did not and she can’t due to circumstances. She transferred the mothering to another woman. This woman was a mother in her own right, was forced to be a mother to her husband’s illegitimate daughter. Then there was the transvestite who became the talk-of-the-town for the night. No, we’re not endorsing cross dressers, thats not a PBMUKS niche by the way. But the character manifested how someone whose fitrah, or nature, does not allow for motherhood, so he-she tries as hard as possible to foster it through being a mummy for the girls in Kelab Mawar.
Okay so here is where some of those who went will do a flip and ask, REALLY?
My honest answer? Yup.
We’re sorry if the community sees the play as inadequate. I guess we could have done much more, as undergraduates. But thats the thing, every experience in life, no matter how defeating it makes us feel, should be a learning process. Especially now where we’re still students. We will learn something from this, we all will, we all have. And we will keep learning and hopefully, do better by the day.
PBMUKS definitely is capable of doing more, and we feel that QALBU was not the pinnacle of success for the Performing Arts Secretariat… so wait for it! We’ll be back on stage next year with a new act! (Trust me, you’ll love this one.)
Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who came, everyone behind the Qalbu team, everyone who helped us along the way in any way, and our sponsors and mentors. We hope for your continuing support.
I would like to close off with a Malay quatrain;
Buah cempedak di luar pagar,
Ambil Galah tolong jolokkan;
Kami budak baru belajar,
Kalau salah tolong tunjukkan.
The jackfruit lies outside of the fence,
Get a pole and help me bring it down,
We’re youth whose learning had just commence;
Do advise us for if it doesn’t seem sound.
Yours Sincerely,
Farah Nadia Jamalludin
President, PBMUKS.
