Graduation

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Peace be upon you :) 

3rd July 2015, remarked the day of my graduation. Alhamdulillah, with Allah's mercy I made it to the final step of my medical school. So it's now official, Dr Nursyahirah Saupi M.D  Volgograd State Medical University, Russia. May the strength be with me in future, so that I could be a doctor with the value of ehsan. 

The struggles/ up & downs of 6 years journey, only Allah knows how tough it was. To be honest, I did regret the path I took for few times. Until one point that I was reading my novel (read : thick med school books) but the mind was dreaming of me being a businesswoman, an architect and sometimes even a fashion designer! But acceptance takes time. With the support from so many people around me (especially my parents), I managed to walk through this tough journey. Alhamdulillah. :') 

A smile of glory | Graduation Ceremony VSMU Class of 2015

Hence, this glorious ceremony marked my final chapter here in Volgograd. Leaving this city of heroes within 3 days time. Have you ever once feel like you are eagerly up to something but at the same time it's hard to do it? That's my feeling right now. I am extremely happy to fly back for good, but it's somehow sad to leave this place, the city where I spent my teen years, place where I created many pieces of memory. With no doubt, Russia (specifically Volgograd) will definitely have a special place in my heart, always. :')  

Ps : It's more than halfway through the month of mercy, Ramadhan. So let's be well prepared to enter the last 10 nights and spend this remaining bits wisely. Salam subuh from Volgograd, Russia. 

Love, 

Cahaya termasyhur

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Dendeng goreng

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Peace be upon you :)

Today marks the day where I had successfully passed 4 out of 5 theoretical and practical skills assessments. Alhamdulillah. I couldn't be more grateful than this, when Allah eases everything for me. And now it's just a step more before I could call myself a doctor. It sounds pretty wow but actually, tough world is waiting for me ahead and to not spoil my euphoric post-exam mood, let's not talk about that 'world' for now. *horrayy jumping up high*

And with a flash of light, we welcomed the first day of Ramadan yesterday. Fasting in Russia is quite challenging as we had to fast for 19 hours. But it does give me a nice experience though. This year, due to my tight schedule (final exams), I 'm pretty sure that I might not have enough time to prepare proper meals for my sahur/iftar. So my mum suggested me to cook "daging dendeng goreng" which can be kept through out the whole month. It was one of family's favorite side dish in Ramadan, a recipe that has been passed down by my grandmother to my mother. And now, it has been passed down to me!

The recipe is so simple that I feel like sharing it here (note that this is not a cooking blog so excuse my akward words hehehe)

Ingredients
1kg beef meat (slice into small pieces)
2 tbs tamarind juice (since I did not have enough of them, I mixed them up with some lemon)
Water
3 ts salt (you might need more. Do not hesitate to use lots of salt as it brings up the flavor)
Sugar to taste

Method
1. Put meat, tamarind juice, salt and a pinch of sugar into the pot. Then, add some water until it covers the meat.
2. Simmer them over low heat until the water dries up (I took for about one hour)
3. Take out meat from the pot and pound lightly slice by slice with a pestle to make them tender.(Jangan tumbuk kuat-kuat, nanti hancur pulak)
4.Heat the oil in frying pan and fry the pounded meat.
5.You may also add some onions and chili /pepper. (I didn't add any)
6. Ready to be kept in containers. For a good storage, make sure its oil-free. (I used lot of tissues to dry up the oil after frying)

This is how it looks like. Ala-ala serunding but in a grumpy version. 

Fact : There are so many ways on how people cook 'daging dendeng'. But the main idea of this dish is drying the meat up, as 'dendeng' is an Indonesian word which means dried meat.

Happy trying and Ramadan kareem everyone :)

Love,

Cahaya termasyhur

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The grandmother

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Peace be upon you :)

I had passed my Surgery State Exam yesterday, which left me with three more papers to go. All praises to Him, for easing me with all the procedures and questions during the exam. 

One of the procedures that we had to carry out during the exam was clerking patient. Each of us were given a patient to be currated. Based on the information that we gathered, we had to decide for the right diagnosis and  prescribed our patient with a proper treatment. Tough, it was! 

But alhamdulillah, I was given a very nice grandmother. When I told her that I was sitting for my final exam and I'd to present her case to the professor, she grabbed my hand and said that she will help me with all her might. It was such a blessing to have her cooperating well with me. If not, it will be so hard for me to diagnose her disease, as 80% that makes a right diagnosis is the patient's complaint.

I examined her from top to toe, rained her with so many questions so that I didn't left out any important points and despite her being irritated, she answered to each of my question with not even a sigh. I took 20 minutes clerking and examining her. (according to the rules, I should spend 10 minutes only! But who cares? haha )

When I was trying to puzzle out all the information while thinking of a disease that suits her complaints, she asked me ;

"So doctor, am I going to live?" 

It was a common question in all patient's mind. The atmosphere was in silence for couple of seconds. Because of the language barrier (note that our conversation was in Russian language), it took me few minutes to construct the most comforting sentence to reply to her question.

"Of course you are. Being sick doesn't mean that we have zero chance to live. Sometimes it's just a small hardship that we have to face in life." 

She smiled listening to my answer. And I smiled too. For being a nice patient to me, thank you grandmother. :)

"Barangsiapa yang menempuh perjalanan untuk mencari ilmu, maka Allah akan mudahkan jalannya menuju Syurga" -HR Muslim

May Allah ease me and my colleagues till our very last paper. Amin. 

Love,

Cahaya Termasyhur

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Sugar and spice

Assalamualaikum

Peace be upon you :) 

Currently I'm waiting for fajr prayer, at 1.35 am which is about 15 minutes more. My brain is stuck in traffic right now, I can't study anymore. And out of a sudden, I feel like creating a new post here. Hence, this entry. 

A year of silence from blogging, when so many things had happened and changed. Some are sugary, some are spicy and some are even bitter, for a better reason.

                                               ******************

Last month, I lost my very good friend in a hostel fire in Moscow. She was one of the 9 severely injured victims. She suffered from the fire for almost two weeks and passed away just a month after we met, and approximately two months before her graduation day. It was a sad incidence and the whole world were knocked by her story, the story of a syahaddah. 

When we last met up, she said to me ;

                "InsyaAllah panjang umur kita jumpa lagi ya"

I never thought that sentence would really mean something. If I were to know about that, I would hug her tightly and cry in her arms. But Allah took her in a beautiful way, in such a good ending. Husnul khatimah. 

One beautiful thing about her, she loves to talk about heaven. And now I am so sure that she's smiling brightly over there. I miss you, Ika. Al-Fatihah. :')

                                             **********************

Two days ago, I had turned 24. Alhamdulillah. People says, a year older a year wiser. So happy birthday to me! I received so many sweet birthday wishes, and the earliest was of course from my family.

My beloved housemates treated me with a suprise birthday sushi-dinner. I did not expect any birthday celebration since I know everyone are now busy preparing for the finals. But yet, they still have time for me which made me deeply touched. Suprise tu siap ada pakatan sepadu dengan my Mr. A, okay! haha dah pandai main pakat-pakat ye sekarang. :p

Overall, too much sweetness on my birthday. Alhamdulillah.  :')

                                             ***********************

I'm counting days towards my big day. And I am too excited for it, all the way from a to z!

But I have to first finish my final state exam with flying colors, so that I can start to focus on the preparations with no guilty and restrictions! wehoooo and guess what, the final state exam is just the day after tomorrow! I am so nervous and scared. Mama said ;

"Kalau dah usaha sebaik mungkin, insyaAllah Allah tolong. Usaha yang penting. Mama sentiasa doakan kak long" 

Mama is forever my calamity, after Allah. Man jadda wajada, kan? All the best my dear batchmates. Lagi satu nafas je untuk bergelar "doktor", insyaAllah. May Allah ease us.

"Oh Allah, expand our chest, make our task easy and remove the impediments from our speech. Amin."

 
                                          *********************

Okay times up. Azan subuh dah bunyi. Good bye peeps!

 Love, 

Cahaya termasyhur

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Can we be cream of the cream?

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Peace be upon you :)

The atmosphere in today's lecture hall was tense due to an article which was so famous for the past few days. Well,  issues about russian medical graduates have been a lullaby  to my ears since the past 5 years.

Theory tak hebat.

Practical kurang. 

Ini tak tahu. Itu tak tahu.

Ini tak reti. Itu tak reti. 

All the bad thing goes to russian graduates. Yey clap clap. Sigh. 

Year by year had passed  and 5 batches had graduated since I was studying here. Most of my seniors succeed while doing their housemanship. Succeed, okay? So on what earth does it prove all those bad sayings about russian graduates? Maybe a few are problematic, but not all of them.

A doctor working in a hospital in Malaysia once said to me, 

If a doctor graduated from Russia came to a life threatening condition in an isolated jungle, he will survive treating his patient even without using any modern instruments and manipulations. 

Shouldn't that be a huge spirit for us? 

Well not to be assabiyah, where you study isn't the main issue. The most important issues that we should really concern are what we had learned during our 6 years medical course, how we are going to apply them in our real clinical practice and our effort to improve our lacking holes.

Being cream of the cream in the past, I'm so sure we could be cream of the cream in the future. If there's a will, there's always a way. And when there's a way, there will always be a glorious future. InsyaAllah. So why should we be demotivated by an article which is just thousands of letters written on a blank paper? Think wisely and let's be motivated again!

 Opss is this considered as cream of the cream? 

Love,

cahayatermasyhur

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Permanent Personality

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Peace be upon you :) 

Alhamdulillah, I had done my best for yesterday's psychiatric exam. One down and two more to go. Well right now, it is 2 am in the morning and I'm still stuck at my desk, preparing for my next pediatric exam. Sangat mencabar. Why? Because this exam will be fully in russian language. Hmm usaha lah syeera, selagi mana boleh. =.=

Lagipun Allah janji, man jadda wa jada, kan? :') 

*******

A conversation while studying psychiatric few days ago : 

S : Taw tak bila child start to develop their personality?

E : Geleng geleng tak tahu. Bila?

S : 5 tahun, and by the age of 20-23, they will have their permanent personality. 

E : Ohhh really?

S : Yesss.

E : Hmm how old are we now?

S : Twenty-two.

Pandang satu sama lain, masing-masing tersengih tanda memahami apa yang tersirat di hati.

*Mungkin ini boleh dijadikan alasan untuk orang terima baik buruk perangai kita hikhik* 

Such an interesting fact I learnt from psychiatric. 

Hence, dear friends and 'ehem future husband,' please accept our flaws, because perangai kami dah tak boleh nak ubah. Its permanent already yo. *peaceeee*

******* 

Selamat solat subuh, warga Malaysia. 

Kepada warga Volgo, selamat study sampai lebam. 

*yawning*

Time to sleep, maybe? 

Love, 

cahayatermasyhur

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Battle is on

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Oh Allah,

Please expand our chest,

make easy tasks for us,

and remove impediment from our speech.

So that the examiners understand what we are saying.

Amin ya rabbanal alamin. 

dup dap dup dap dup dap

The battle is now on. Good luck batchmates! 

May the best be ours. 

Love,

Cahayatermasyhur

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Unusual New Year

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Peace be upon you  :)

I am pretty sure everyone knows about what happened in Volgograd, 2 days before 2013 ends. Tragic, is what I can say. I always have this kind of thought, in which Volgograd is a safe country, far far away from any risk of bombings and blast. But it turned out to be not as what I think. 

Well true, nothing is impossible from Allah's side. 

Kun faya kun.

Bila Allah cakap jadi, maka jadilah. 

As a person with sense of humanity, I am deeply sad for what had happened. Dozens of innocent native were killed. I can clearly imagine the typical morning situation on the bomb-targeted trolleybus, as I always used that bus to go to the hospital. Every morning will be a hectic morning on the bus, where mum carries her little baby, where grandmother carries her heavy plastic bag full with vegetables, where children carries their schoolbag sleeping on their way to school. Those innocent people were killed. Their family hearts were broken into pieces and honestly mine were broken too.

It was really a terrifying incident. Volgograd, where I spent three quarter of my year since the past 5 years, had turned gloomy within a flash of light. It is where I struggled to repair my relationship with my Rabb, where I learnt about relationship with human, where I learnt to distinguish right from wrong and where I changed from daddy's dependent girl into an independent one. Hence, what happened in Volgograd had terribly scratched my heart too.

Due to the disaster, the Russia government had announced that the first 3 days of 2014 will be the days of mourning. Therefore, there will be no new year celebration. The air is sorrow. Streets are empty. People are melancholic. And here I am, sitting in front of my laptop, looking through out the window, still hoping for any sparkles of new year fireworks, while praying that tomorrow will be a peaceful one.

Hasbunallah wa ni'maal wakeel

Cukuplah Allah menjadi penolong kami, dan Dialah sebaik-baik pelindung. 

Happy 2014 everyone :)

Love,

cahayatermasyhur

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