I am Halimah Mohd Said and I welcome all of you to my blog.
I like to think of myself as a thoroughly modern woman steeped in the values and traditions of my forefathers.
I move with the times and changing paradigms while holding dear my principles.
I want to be creative in my thinking, constructive in my ideas and innovative in my deeds.
I’m not afraid to speak up for truth and justice.
Most of all I cherish my family and nurture good friendships.
nini talk 
Well done. I hope you get many fans. Salams from Sheriff
Thanks for visiting sheriff! Hope you’ll visit often and share your thoughts on this n that!
Nini, post one picture of our family on your blog
Rocky’s Bru is among the few blogs I enjoy reading. In his posting today, reference is made to ‘nini talk’. Natural curiosity prompted me here and what a pleasant surprise indeed it is for me. The name and the two pictures cannot possibly lie. I called my other half to be sure, and she cried out with joy and surprise, “Why, that is ….!” It has been so long.
Our salaam and good wishes to all of you. AK
Hi AK and Mrs AK – I’m sure I know both of you but your website is not familiar. Do enlighten me. Yes Rocky has given me a real boost and for this I thank him so much. Do visit often and post your comments, brickbats and all. Salams!
I’ve done a quick search and it leads me to Hassan and Salmah of Shell days!
How wonderful to meet you again in blogosphere and to see the good work you are doing in ALMANAR.
Yes Hassan and Salmah – we try to do our bit in the ways we know best. To give back a little of the knowledge and experience we’ve gathered over the years!
I hope you and the anak cucu are well and doing well as Zain and I are with our 3 anak, 3 menantu and 10 cucu. Salams, Halimah
just hopped from rocky’s bru. didn’t know you blog, or i’d have been here sooner. 😀
Hi Mekyam – do drop by and enlighten us with your wisdom. Salams,
Halimah
Puan/Datin ?,
Excuse me for the unsure salutation. I read your column in The Sun today titled “Vision of a bilingual..”. This is the best piece of writing I ve ever read on the topic at hand. I couldnt agree with you more when you said “the argument that teaching maths…is a flimsy one”, and indeed it is a dodgy one too. Having taught the Science of Vision at a public univ and now at an IPTS, I know too well how the malay students are coping (or rather not coping) with their studies because of language issues. Having gone thro the English medium (BTW I was still in primary school in 1969 when you were already a teacher), I think that the malays (not all) have big problems with languages, not just English. My hypothesis is (I stand to be refuted) malays are poor at languages, and it does not matter what language. People generally dont pronounce words properly, let alone care about sentence construction, grammar etc, although we learn to read the koran well. But how many of these good koran readers/chanters actually speak Arabic well enough? Very few indeed. So, I echo your point exactly that teaching the arts based subject is a more useful attempt at making the malays especially, proficient in the EL.
Thank you so much Dr Azrin for your very kind words! It’s good to know that a younger person with hands-on teaching experience shares my views.
The problem with the Malays is that they use language colloquially/ casually starting with the mother tongue. This attitude/ habit is then transferred to the learning of a second language. You and I are living proof that the Malays are not inherently poor at languages. My colleague Zainab speaks excellent French and taught it at UM. I’m convinced it’s the exposure and the methodologies we went through.
BTW my earlier blog posting was the same piece I sent to The Sun and The Star. Your comments should have gone there. You should also send your very helpful comments to The Sun. Salams.
you even get comments in your “about me” section? wow…
I may be wrong but looking at your name and photo, I hope you don’t mind me asking: are you the daughter of Tan Sri Dr Mohamed Said, former Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan? If you are not, my apologies. If you are, hello cousin…!
HELLO LINGGI COUSIN!
Thanks for recognising. Your dad and mine are cousins from Linggi. My dad is the (late) Dato Dr. Abdullah Ahmad. We were once neighbours in Gedung Lalang, Seremban. My late father’s house there is now occupied by my younger brother, Dr. Azlan, who also has a clinic in Senawang. My eldest brother is Dato Mohd Taufik. Does that ring a bell?
Alizul is the name I use specifically for writing comments in blogs (the political ones). It’s an acronym for Ali (the name my family call me) and Zul (real name, Zulkifli). I myself don’t have a blog although I’ve mulling over it (maybe procrastinating is a better word) for some time. Too old I guess (4 grandchildren ma). I’ll have one soon though. The political blog is an exciting world – a war zone is a more appropriate description.
How did I find your blog? Accidentally. I normally browse blogs through blog directories like Penggabung Suara or SpotTheBlogger. I found yours in the latter. Your blog name nini talk sounded nice, so I just clicked it. The rest is history, as they say…..!
Nice to hear from you, even if we seldom meet. Thank you.
Hello from Dublin, Halimah..Interesting blog…:)
Hafriza – what a surprise and a joy!
Hope you are doing well in Dublin and enjoying all things Irish! Do keep in touch and Salams.
Nini, put a picture of the WHOLE family, our family is not there, not fair…!:(
Dear Halimah,
Please pardon me if I am wrong. If you are the same Halimah that I used to know, then Zain Yusof must be the other half.
Of course – none other than the two of us! Nice of you to visit!
Dear Halimah,
My wife, Anne, and I would love to meet with you and Zain again sometime. She has not seen either of you since our Hari Raya visit at your house near Gombak. We remember your first son as a little boy with big round eyes and, of course, your beef rendang.
It has been a long time, and fittingly, it is now also the Hari Raya season. We take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very Happy Hari Raya.
We are not normally in this region, but we periodically visit our families and friends in Malaysia. Right now, we happen to be around and are spending our time between Singapore and P.J..
Hi Anne and Yong – how nice to meet again in cyberspace. Zain and I would love to catch up with the both of you. Would you be in KL on Monday the second day of Hari Raya? Please drop by at our home between 12noon and 4 pm. I’ll email you our address. Cheers!
Hi Halimah
What a wonderful surprise to stumble upon your blog via the malaysiakini connection! We were along the same lorong of offices at Pusat Bahasa decades ago!
A good opportunity to wish you and family “Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri”.
I’m now based in Sg with regular trips home to kampung in Sec 14 PJ.We must try to catch up in the not-too-distant future!
Take care
Audrey
How wonderful Audrey! I remember so well those Pusat Bahasa (now Fakulti Bahasa dan Linguistik) days and our chicken pox experience! Yes we must meet up on one of your trips back! I’m still in touch with some of the UM people – Prof Asmah, Zainab etc
my email: halimahms@hotmail.com
Dear Dato Zain and Datin Halimah,
Kamsiah and I were in Bangkok for Hari Raya. It was a late minute decision. We left KL for the vibrant Thai capital on Saturday. We should meet up soon. I met Haris and his wife at Azmin Ali’s Open House last Saturday (October 3). Salams, Din
Hello Din! So nice of you to drop by the other day! Yes old friends must meet more often and new friends must discover one another! We should be able to just be ourselves as we were in the days of wine and roses! Cheers
Hi Halimah
I’m Johan.
I came to know about you from reading your book on Jawi Peranakans.
I didnt know you have a blog.So it listed on another and decided to check it out.
I’ve got a question which I hope you can answer.This is regarding the fez hat or tarbush:Who in Malaysia,prior to independence wore a fez?
Also,was there any political or cultural reasons for wearing it?
I do remember reading something in your book where it said that Jawi Peranakan men wear fezzes or that some wear it or something like that.I cant remember exactly.
Hi Johan
So nice of you to visit ninitalk and to have read my book (co-written with Zainab Abdul Majid). I’m not sure of the actual answer to your question but I do know that there were many Arab,Turkish and Armenian traders in the Nusantara region who brought their culture and traditions including their dressing style. The fez was popular in Turkey, Morocco etc. There is even a Morrocan town named FEZ. I’ve copied this for you:
Fez (clothing)
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The fez is a particular style of hat that originated from the city of Fez in Morocco. The fez is also known as the tarboosh (Persian sar-boosh for “head cover”) and checheya.
The modern fez is made of felt, shaped roughtly like a canister or truncated cone, tapering slightly towards the top where there is a tassle fixed to the middle of the flat top. This sort of fez is often worn by members of the Shriners fraternal organization.
About 980 AD, the haj was interruped, and the pilgrimages of those living west of the Nile were directed to Fez as to the Holy City. A manufacturer in Fez supplied a new style of headress that started to be widely used by the students of a particular school. The hat became a mark of intelligence, and came to worn all along the northern shores of Africa. This original form, still worn in Tunisia, Tripoli and Morocco, are two or three times longer than the ones most people think of, and have much longer and heavier silk tassels.
In 1826 Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire was looking to break with tradition and update the official dress of the empire’s civil service. He originally looked at a three-cornered hat of European descent, but his advisors pointed out that the three corners represented the holy trinity and he reconsidered. A shipment of fezzes had recently arrived from Tunisia, so they were selected instead. It was considered the special badge of a Turkish subject and all, even if not a Moslem, were obliged to wear it. Women wore fezzes as well, but the women’s were smaller and without tassels. The transition to the fez was resisted for some time, but by the end of the century Turkey was swept up by a “Europeanization” wave and the fez became a loved symbol of nationality.
Fez formerly had a monopoly on the manufacture of the hat because it controlled the juice of the berry used to color them. However the discovery of synthetic aniline dyes in the 19th century allowed the manufacture spread to France, Germany and Austria. At the beginning of the 20th century Austria was the main center of the fez industry. The countries where the fezzes were extensively worn did not have a single fez manufacturing plant.
Kemal Ataturk, leader of the Young Turks, felt the fez was backward and dressed only in western, notably British, suits and styles. On August 30, 1925 he banned the fez in an attempt to push Turkey into the “modern world”. This effort was resisted with some fury, to the point that several riots broke out and fezzes were seized as illegal contraband. By the 1930s the fez was almost gone in Turkey when one last attempt was made to re-introduce it by a group who planned to overthrow Ataturk. This ended in deadly results with a total of some nine people shot down the streets of Omelette, Turkey.
Salam, I came here before and left a comment on one of your entries. Recently, I was rummaging through my old pictures and came across one picture of Puan Sri Zaleha Arshad at her flat in West Hamsptead, I think. I believe you were also there. I was there to interview Puan Sri. If it was indeed you, then we must have met before. Nice to meet you again in cyberworld. If I am wrong, then, my apologies . But nice to know you all the same. Zaharah
Of course Zaharah – that was me and my sister Sariah. We were staying in Puan Sri Zaleha’s place and you came over to interview her. I also met you at the BBC studios in the late 80s when I was living in London. And you’re still there!
Now 20 years on, it’s ninitalk meeting kak teh in cyber space – something we wouldn’t have envisioned earlier. Amazing isn’t it! Salams,
Halimah
Hi nini I miss u see u soon ok bye hehe
Hi Sof – We all miss you soooo much! Can’t wait to see you in KL after your holiday in Australia!
Can’t wait to hear stories and see pictures of your life in Hyderabad!
Salam Aunty Halimah,
I was blog hopping and stumbled on yours as I googled for ‘Mubin Sheppard’- my father Alias, is the younger brother to late uncle Osman and both were adopted by Allahyarham To’Ki Mubin. I just want to know more about him as I don’t get the chance to meet him so it’s really flattering to read a little story on him as written on your post back then in 2009, the one on PD house.
I would really appreciate if you could share some more stories/ experiences you had with Allahyarham To’Ki Mubin 🙂
Thank you
Excuse me for the unsure salutation. I read your column in The Sun today titled “Vision of a bilingual..”. This is the best piece of writing I ve ever read on the topic at hand. I couldnt agree with you more when you said “the argument that teaching maths…is a flimsy one”, and indeed it is a dodgy one too. Having taught the Science of Vision at a public univ and now at an IPTS, I know too well how the malay students are coping (or rather not coping) with their studies because of language issues. Having gone thro the English medium (BTW I was still in primary school in 1969 when you were already a teacher), I think that the malays (not all) have big problems with languages, not just English. My hypothesis is (I stand to be refuted) malays are poor at languages, and it does not matter what language. People generally dont pronounce words properly, let alone care about sentence construction, grammar etc, although we learn to read the koran well. But how many of these good koran readers/chanters actually speak Arabic well enough? Very few indeed. So, I echo your point exactly that teaching the arts based subject is a more useful attempt at making the malays especially, proficient in the EL.
+1
I was told that it was an excellent event yesterday at MCOBA …. keeping to it’s tradition of excellence. The reminder came too late, regretted for not being able to be there. I was there on the 4th. Did you leave an autographed copy for me …. remember at D Maria’s house? Cheers.
Yes – It was a very meaningful event well attended by MCOBs and members of my family. The Dr Said family presented 500 copies of the book Dr Mohamed Said: My Early Life which is the revised edition of the 1982 publication. It has been reformatted, realigned and given a new face and cover design. I added a Prologue and Epilogue to make the book more complete. I’ll definitely sign a copy for you
Assalamualaikum Datin,
Dimana saya boleh beli buku Dr Mohamed Said edisi terkini? Terima kasih
Afrizal – saya hanya meletak 30 naskah buku ini di KIDDIE STORE Damansara Heights. 500 naskah telah diberi percuma kepada MCOBA (Malay College Alumni), 100 naskah telah diberi kepada Kerjaan Negeri Sembilan untuk diagih kepada perpustakaan sekolah dan 200 naskah akan diagih kepada saudara mara Linggi
Salam Datin, Terima kasih atas maklumat yang diberi.
“I’m not afraid to speak up for truth and justice. ”
Ma’am, you are rare for a Malay lady. We need more truths pls. Good luck.
Dear Datin, congratulations on your appointment by the Y. diPertuan Agong. I would like to extend an invitation to speak to you, would you mind sharing your email address to allow me forwarding you further details on the event.
Hope to hear from you.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Nida Hamid
nida@emp-asia.com
Thank you Nida – great responsibility!
Salam from Quebec, Canada
Just to let u know that there will be an interactive screening of SALASILAH KETURUNAN NYALAS @ Kg Gubah @ residence of Pakandak Burkhan Abdullah @ Sunday, July 07, 2013 @ 10.00 am. After a year long research with the help of numerous kerabat Nyalas, I have enmassed a total of 9,670 (as of today) names…all interconnected to each other either through marriage or blood relations. Would welcome your attendance & an opportunity to meet many of your sedara mara. Lots of surprises for many families…discoveries made during the course of my research. The whole kampong is very excited about this upcoming event. Please join us!
Salam,
Forgot to mention that I would love to have the names of your family members to be included in this gigantic Family Tree of Nyalas.
Dear Pn Halimah,
Nice to have known you through your wonderful writings in the Sun. They definitely do shine in the hearts, minds and souls of many readers…including me. Thank you for writing wonderful pieces of works and I will continue to look for them in the papers…daily.
Dear Jayanthi – how very nice of you to think and say so! I appreciate it so much
Nini
Hi I’m a surgeon working in Seremban GH and came across a link about your fathers gallery.
He was one of a few Dr’s who had piblished
He has published in a few medical journals and as I’m doing an exhibition about the history of medical research in Seremban, would greatly appreciate if you could contact me at 0193641342.Many thanks.
Dear Datin,
I’m a surgeon working in Hospital Tuanku Ja’afar and am putting up an exhibition at our hospital entitled “History of Medical research in Seremban”, next week.I stumbled upon an internet link about your father (Biography of the Early Malay Doctors 1900-1957 Malaya and Singapore) and noted that he had published some articles in medical journals in the mid 1950’s.I was hoping to take some pictures at the Gallery Jasa at Gedung Lalang but was told that it has already been closed down.
Would it be possible for me to get in touch with you?
Regards,
Vijay (019-3641342)
Dear Dr Vijay
It was nice to chat with you on the phone and find out about your exhibition on the research done by Malaysian doctors. Yes, my father Dr Mohd Said wrote two papers (i) Gangrene of Unknown Aetiology in the Foot and (ii) Kwashiokor in Negeri Sembilan which were published in medical journals in the 1950s.
It would be nice to meet up with you at my family home TERATAK JASA in Seremban where I can show you his collection of medical books, photos and other artefacts put together for the Galeri JASA opening some years ago. Among them is the unpublished volume of Dr Said’s memoirs of his medical education in King Edward VII College Singapore
Assalamualaikum
I am also known as Angah HJ in fb. One of kerabat Linggi. But non-active fb member due to tight schedule.
I read your article in fb abt vocab.
Do accept me as yr friend. I am an educator.
Dear Datin Halimah,
Our former classmate Yooga directed me to your blog as a medium to contact you. My name is Eric and we were classmates in KGV S’ban. I am now retired from my law practice if you do remember me, I would like to keep in touch.
Please email me. Thank you.
Sampai jumpa lagi,
Dear Datin Halimah.
We may have met. Teacher n student @ SSI JB Upper Six 1971. Not sure. Im Johorean not settle down @ Sg Gadut. How are you now?
Dear Datin Halimah.
We may have met. Teacher n student @ SSI JB Upper Six 1971. Not sure. Im Johorean now settle down @ Sg Gadut. How are you now? Like to meet you
Salam Datin.You are a true Patriot.