Not Another One

We can all agree that 2014 in general had been a glum day year for Malaysia. The fate of MH17 this morning sealed it. It would be one of those live events where people remembered exactly where they were when they first learned of the news. I remembered exactly where I was the moment the news about 9/11 broke. I was sure the generation before me did the same with the moon landing.

This year, Malaysia had two such events. And it was only July.

I was woken up by my alarm for sahur at around 4.30 am this morning. Anita was already up, and she was upstairs. Everything was silent. Then I saw a live news conference with Prime Minister Najib doing the talking. What was going on?

Anita filled in the rest, and we sat in front of the TV from then on while finishing our meal. It was tragic, and the news was only breaking at the point and plenty of speculation was about. Also on the same evening, Israel invaded Gaza, which would have been the main bulletin otherwise. It was indeed an insane evening.

I went to bed soon after as I was post-call. I also had a busy day ahead of me.

It was only when I reached home in the late afternoon that I managed to catch up with the whole news. More news conferences. More speculations and more theories, conspiratorial or otherwise. Idlan also had a theory about what happened. A missile misfired he said ....

My thoughts went out with the victims and their families. MAS had not had a great year indeed. And so was Malaysia.

Alfatihah.