The one to rule them all (3)

The main attraction during ‘off-peak’ time. Try doubling the intensity during rush hour.

I clocked the time it took me to leave the prayer area to reach the square just outside the mosque - 30 mins just to inch your way out. This is a side view of one of the main entrance and the crowd is just leaving. It’s pandemonium. People big and small, old and young, with walking stick and in wheelchairs, women with their scarves stuck. As you can imagine, my view is normally limited to the back of the person in front of me.

At this time it’s one way traffic with security working extremely hard keeping the crowd moving and preventing people from entering the mosque. But somehow things work out and that’s how it is here in Mecca.

This picture shows the crowd leaving the main mosque square after Isya’. Most of them would head back to their respective hotels, about half on the left would queue for the kebab. What is it with man and food.

The grand mosque in its full glory.

All pictures taken with my new Nikon Coolpix S70, so my apologies for the (lack of) sharpness. The risk of getting my SLR confiscated by security far outweighed the cost of the compact.

The one to rule them all (2)

Getting to Makkah was very smooth without any major drama even at Jeddah Immigration. The only minor snag was the bus that took us into Makkah got lost. Yup, the driver who is local couldn't find his way into the Holy City and we got delayed by an hour waiting for some assistance. Just goes to show that even experts can't take it for granted and it pays to listen to people.

Several passengers in the bus got agitated and started abusing the poor driver, until one Tabung Haji officer stood up and reminded all of us that we're in ihram and should watch what we say and do. True colours come out when you're angry, that's why they say when you're angry, just keep quiet.

Haj is about many things so far, which is against basic common human nature:

- dealing with forever delays and waiting i.e. patience - very difficult because most of us live a fast pace life.

- dealing with the hardship of the rituals - not too bad, you just get used to it.

- dealing with crowd, lots of it and many of them inconsiderate - very tough one.

Your experience depends (completely) on your own take and the way you deal with your own emotions because you can't change your external elements.

I'll try and post some pictures soon.

The one to rule them all

After much heartache yesterday, finally Khabar Haji made its debut tonight, well done to our team in Madinah.

Insyallah, I'll be making the mother of all trips this year and will be leaving on 16th Nov for my Haj. I hope you can pray for our safe trip, good health and smooth implementation of all our activities there. As customary and required, I ask for your kind forgiveness.

Don't know if blogging is easy, but I'll try and keep in touch in the 3 weeks I'm away.

Crimson Tide

I don't know how many of you watched this movie, an old one by today's standard I think done in mid 90s. It's a standard action movie set in a submarine with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman as leads.

It's one of my favourites because the film successfully demonstrates the issues of leadership and communication. It's a story of the tension and conflict between the Commanding Officer (Hackman) and Executive Officer (Washington) centred on their decision to release, or not to release, the submarine's nuclear missile against the enemy amidst confusion from the information (or lack of) from their headquarters.

This film came to my mind when I recently had to deal with a minor volcanic eruption involving our colleagues in public. Whatever the disagreements we have, we debate it internally and only among ourselves. Leave the debate and disagreements in the room, out there in the open and among the public, we are one and we support each other. We should never undermine or contradict our colleagues in front of other people. In addition to the embarrassment, outsiders see this as a sign of our weakness and they will exploit it.

Watch the movie, brilliantly written and superb acting. As usual, there's always one or two lessons for real life.

To Infinity And Beyond

Yesterday I attended an event where we ‘exchanged documents’ with Endemol witnessed by the PM in Cannes. The old man didn’t look too well, he was coughing and sniffing, the almost perfect French Riviera moderate and temperate climate clearly didn’t suit him.

The event commemorated Malaysian companies concluding deals with global media and content companies. I must say it was quite an achievement on many fronts – the position we’re in today where international companies look at Malaysia becoming more and more feasible as partners, and for the PM to accord such weight to the content industry by making a day trip from Paris, complete with potentially harmful airborne transmissible bodily excretion.

We’ve come a long way but we’re here. What we do from now on is only limited by our own fear of the unknown and our bad habit of staying in our comfort zone. And as for us, you’re going to have to watch this space because we are just getting into the commercial negotiation boredom. Suffice to say that this would change the landscape on how we deal with new ideas and how we could take our ideas beyond our shores.

As the famous saying goes, To Infinity And Beyond.

Numero Uno

I've been wanting to say a few things about our recent success during Ramadan and Raya week.

This is the first time that we surpassed the viewership of FTAs all of them combined, and this is the first time we can call ourselves our Viewers' No 1 Choice. Success, while it is not easy to attain, it is much more difficult to sustain.

But let it be known that this success came from the following:
- ideas from the ground
- the ability to act swiftly
- careful, scientific and well-informed approach

Most importantly, we took the decision to change by putting the viewer in the middle, by dismissing our own preconceived idea of what should work, by sidelining our own bureaucracy and by bypassing internal walls.

Never again the domain of authority belongs to one person, it always belongs to the viewer (always has and always will be) and all of us and systems that we operate within, are mere enablers.

Well done everyone.

All You Need Is Love

Many people enjoy Raya differently and experience Raya in their own respective ways. Some get away to exotic places escaping from the madness at home, some go back to their roots to remember their humble beginnings and for some, Raya is just another day. My 8 year old son will spend this Raya with a big fat lip bruising from last night’s fall playing (completely safe and legal) fireworks.

However you spend your Raya, spend it with your loved ones, they need you more than you think. If you don’t have one, well try again. Somebody someone out there needs you, maybe you’re just too busy or too blind not to find them.

Please drive safely and have a meaningful Raya.