Sheffield of South Yorkshire - a city of steel and green ( 1 )

أَعُوْذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّـيْطٰنِ الرَّجِيْمِ
Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim.
Assalamualaikum wbt

PART 1 : INTRODUCTION, THE PEOPLE IN A DAY.

Side note : For the time being, all the posts under this label will be dedicated for the cities in which, the writer got the chance to stay longer than a week and is not meant to be filled with complete details of the town's structures, histories and informations ( as you can easily google everything nowdays ), it rather will be narrated more like a short story for fellow readers to sit back and enjoy what it is like to be in the writer's shoes, making new friendships and experiences. Thank you.

As i was catching my breath carrying a blue backpack, weighing about 17 kilograms, walking uphill towards the direction of the town from where the Sheffield National Express Coach Station is, i saw this man in his 30s. He was there sitting on a bench, looking from left to right vigorously at an extremely fast gaze while every 5 seconds he looked down and jotted down something in the notepad 

that he had on his hand. I was interested to know and i needed help as well, so i paced myself carefully towards him. I was literally standing by his side for a good 3 seconds, peeping into his notepad, before i started to speak up.

- Good aternoon Sir, can you help me please, i need to take the bus number 52, but i do not know at which stand does 52 pass by.

- Oh its over there, just in front of that grey building.

That was it. He answered shortly and continued writing fragments of random numbers on his notepad and he would strike through some fragments too. Suddenly, i recalled the film " A Beautiful Mind " and i remembered how i cried so much, almost whined like a baby, while watching that 'based on true story' film genre. That award winning film ended beautifully with the main character said "it's good to have a beautiful mind, but it's better to have a beautiful heart". And so i began to think how rare it is nowdays people would open their heart, 'no one does that anymore' said my mind, they just stop being themselves, just to cope up with the social standards. In the public we see just people putting their masks on, playing different roles to project the idea that they favour the most, to be perceived upon. People are scared to tell what is in their mind or what is in their heart or they simply do not know what is right and just blindly follow what other people are doing, they are just scared of being rejected, different or alone, but little that they believe “And indeed do many lead [others] astray through their [own] inclination without knowledge…”,Q6.119.

I took the bus number 52 and boarded out at the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity bus stand, as written in the instruction in the private message given by one of the postgraduate malaysian students, i was in contact with, Izzah. It was Ramadhan 1435H, and Alhamdulillah i managed to find the house under the address, Beaufort Road 12. All that was playing in my mind was i just wanted to put my bag down because my legs were shaking out of tiredness, my body was signalling me the fatigue alarm.

- Assalamualaikum, hi, my name is Thi Liana, you can call me Thi. So which one is Izzah ? ( of course i called Kak ( respect form of addressing to older sister ) Izzah, but just to make the text with minimum malay word for fellow non-malay readers ).

- Waalaikumusalam, oh that's me. Well, that is Sarah. Hey, come in and follow us! We will show you, your room. You will be sleeping here, i hope you like the view.

'Attic! Wow!' my heart jumped high out of excitement. I quickly put down my backpack and lied down on the bed which enabled me to directly facing the blue sky through the 1m x 1.5m glass window. I prepared the room quickly and went to Izzah's room to have a chat with her about the rules and regulations of the house. 
Now she was not alone, there was Jiha and not long after, Ain came to join us in Izzah's room. We got to know details about one another and then suddenly, ended with me promoting the interrail to them. Successful.



Later that evening, i was exhausted the moment they said we were to break our fast in the mosque today and there was a lecture to be attended an hour prior to break fast. I met June on my way out from the house, a malaysian postgraduate doing a journalism course. To be honest, i didn't remember at all what was the topic the Imam talked about, but i sat there anyway, hoping i would still get the prayers from the angles above. We had our iftar ( breaking fast) with the Muslim community in the Sheffield, it was a beautiful evening, it felt safe and welcoming.



I was just about to close my eyes on the bed when suddenly, someone knocked the door. Bahijah came, she welcomed me warmly yet, briefly and bid me a goodnight.



I was there lying on the bed again, gazing at the stars and repeating to myself, " Thi Liana, now its just you and Allah the Most Knowing, the Most Seeing." 




TO BE CONTINUED.