Bin Gregory Productions

All articles by bingregory

“Gurindam dulu dulu jangan ponah dipotikai / Tak tahu tanyo dulu jangan goma memanadai mandai” Begitu kata Dato’ Hattan. Mengikut nasihat beliau, sudah saya mengkaji Gurindam 12 Raja Ali Haji
Continue reading...  

Rajawali by WS Rendra

Rajawali by WS Rendra, translated into English.
Continue reading...  

Ramadan bersama Tok Guru Nasruddin | Episode 22

Selamat berpuasa teman2 sekalian. Tok Guru Nasruddin kembali dengan dua buah kisah sempena Bulan Ramadan yang lain dari yang lain tahun ini.
Continue reading...  

Cari Pasal: Gurindam 12 Pasal 2 dan 3 | Episode 21

Gurindam Dua Belas is a Malay poem written in rhyming couplets with free meter. It has 12 parts, each dealing with a different pasal, or issue. It was composed by
Continue reading...  

Raja Ali Haji’s Gurindam 12 | Episode 20

Gurindam Dua Belas is a Malay poem written in rhyming couplets with free meter. It has 12 parts, each dealing with a different pasal, or issue. It was composed by
Continue reading...  

Mitos Malas Zaman Sekarang |Episode 19

Kenapa mitos melayu malas masih bernyawa? Malas dulu dan malas sekarang sama tak? Tengok pandangan Syed Hussein Al-Atas dalam video ke5  dan terakhir Siri Mitos Melayu Malas.
Continue reading...  

Malas as Passive Resistance | Episode 18

Video ke4 dalam siri Mitos Melayu Malas. Malas boleh ditafsirkan sebagai penentangan pasif dalam konteks penjajahan, dan sifat itu ada sejarahnya tersendiri di kepulauan Melayu.
Continue reading...  

Mitos Malas No.3 | Episode 17

Baru pada zaman penjajahan akhir termuncul tulisan penjajah tentang sifat malas melayu di kalangan raja dan orang awam. Apakah maksudnya sebenar?
Continue reading...  

Bila Mitos Malas Bermula | Episod 16

Apakah dinyatakan oleh penjajah dalam rekod sejarah tentang Melayu malas? Bilakah mitos bermula? Apakah keadaan masyarakat Melayu pada peringkat awal penjajahan?  Dengarlah jawapan Syed Hussein Alatas.
Continue reading...  

Mitos Melayu Malas, Intro | Episod 15

Dari mana datang persepsi bahawa Melayu satu bangsa yang malas? Bolehkah sesuatu yang kerap diulang lama-lama menjadi haqiqat? Teman anda yang setia ini mencuba jawab soalan ini dan lain lagi
Continue reading...  

Mullah Nasruddin | Episod 14

Memperkenalkan Mullah Nasruddin: Seorang yang bijaksana dalam kebodohan, seorang badut serius, dengan teman sejati Sang Keldai beliau jejak hampir seluruh dunia Islam. Nusantara sahaja tak pernah … sebelum ini!
Continue reading...  

Jalan Retak

It is with inordinate pride I announce the completion of my first novel in Bahasa Melayu, Jalan Retak by A. Samad Said. Written for middle-school students, Jalan Retak is a
Continue reading...  

Permata Untuk Isteri | Episod 13

Menjadi antara lagu Kopratasa paling femes, di sini saya baca puisi Permata Untuk Istera karya Abdul Aziz H.M. bersama terjemahan saya dalam Bahasa Inggeris.
Continue reading...  

Episod 12: Siapa Yang Maha Mulia

Orang yang datang dari negara barat susah nak faham cara memuji sultan. Kita disuruh sembah raja ke macamana?
Continue reading...  

Keturunan Bela Saka | Episode 11

Cerita seram: Saka dalam keturunan dan cara belanya. Budak? kecik tak digalakkan tengok.
Continue reading...  

Iman Mutiara

Jom kita berkembara dari Syria ke Jamaica, dari Ibn Arabi ke Raihan, sambil mengupas tiram kebosanan dalam pencarian Mutiara Iman.
Continue reading...  

Episode 9: Kurang Ajar

Tengok ke tak tengok ada aku kesah. Episode ini kurang ajar sikit sebab kita kecek pasal puisi “Kurang Ajar” karya Usman Awang.
Continue reading...  

Episod 8: Anak Anak Kita

Sempena Hari Merdeka, mari kita baca – bukan nyanyi ye – lagu M. Nasir serta terjemahan yang sentuh hal-hal kemerdekaan dan kebebasan secara halus dan puitis. Anak Anak Kita by
Continue reading...  

Episod 7: Gelaran dan Pangkat

Episod 7 ini berdarjat tinggi kerana topiknya Gelaran dan Pangkat. Moga para pendengar boleh naik ke status yang lebih mulia seterusnya.
Continue reading...  

Episode 6: Puisi dalam Terjemahan

Kawan-kawan, mari berjalan ke arah Ithaca bersama saya dengan puisi C.P. Cavafy dan A. Samad Said.     Anda rasa ada karya-karya lain yang patut dikenali luar malaysia? Sila tinggal
Continue reading...  

Episod 4: Landscape of Dreams

Salam alaykum guys! Episod ini penuh pembayangan dan bayang-bayang yang tak terbayang sebab kali ini topiknya the landscape of our dreams. Harap enjoy.
Continue reading...  

Episode 3: Jalan depan Rumah

Salam alaykum everybody! Episod hari ini kita seberang laut untuk bersembang pasal jalan depan rumah saya di New Delhi, India pada zaman 70an.  Gajah, unta, beruang, dan banyak lagi. Iboh
Continue reading...  

Episode 2: Beras Perang

Hey Guys!  Episod pada hari ini penuh serat, zat-zat dan karbohidrat sambil kita berbahas hal-hal beras!  Beras putih, beras perang dan macam-macam lagi. Ingat, Rice is Life.
Continue reading...  

VLogging at Bin Gregory Productions

Bin Gregory Productions has been adding value to the public internet with free and original content since 2002! But I can’t deny the need to keep up with the times. So
Continue reading...  

Hari Raya 2017

After several years of balik kampung, we’re celebrating Hari Raya in Kuching.  Opah spent Ramadan with us. Hopefully it will be our last Raya before the house is torn down
Continue reading...  

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid: Review

A meditation on migration of every sort. As a muslim migrant who has chosen life outside The West I feel like Hamid is chronicling the particular world I inhabit more
Continue reading...  

Shah Alam Botanical Garden

Not ten minutes drive from downtown Shah Alam is the Shah Alam Botanical Garden. An enormous green space gazetted on Bukit Cerakah, the gardens range from open lawns to jungle
Continue reading...  

Inggeris Pantun for Princess Santubong

Stuck in traffic day by day /
Clouds wrap ’round Mount Santubong /
Try’s I might, try as I may /
English pantuns come out wrong /
Continue reading...  

Kitty Caught in Tree: Tropical Edition

A kitten adopted us this Ramadan. I wasn’t eager to take in another cat but one should feed a hungry guest, what more during the fasting month.
Continue reading...  

Datuk Hj Ibrahim and the Isle of Lakei

An old friend dropped by for Raya.  After the usual pleasantries he disclosed his purpose: a side quest to Pulau Lakei, the final resting place of the fabled Datuk Hajji
Continue reading...  

Three Roods Farm for sale

Dear muslim friends in the USA, After 20 years of organic farming, my parents are retiring. Their Michigan homestead Three Roods Farm (www.threeroodsfarm.com) is up for sale and it is
Continue reading...  

Biawak Hunting

Four days after moving into my home in Kuching, I met my first biawak, lounging on my front porch. Over the last 12 years, they have been a constant presence, stalking kittens and slaughtering chickens
Continue reading...  

Kuching Modern: A Windshield Survey

over the last ten years, there have been dramatic changes in the style and appearance of the new housing stock toward a more Modern look, all the more noticeable since the city is booming
Continue reading...  

Beras Perang

A twitter-essay on Beras Perang, unpolished, unbleached, lightly milled local long grain rice.
Beras perang tampi di nyiru,
Tumpah melukut merata-rata.
Haiwan yang garang lagi diburu,
Siapa takut semut melata?
Continue reading...  

Review: Islam and the Destiny of Man

The sensitivity and respect he shows the Christian outlook is a great example to other converts in how to come to grips with their origins. Who we were is part of who we are, and being comfortable in yourself means coming to terms with that.
Continue reading...  

Tanah Air

America has the Homeland, Germans the Fatherland, Russia the Motherland. Only the Malays have a Waterland.
Continue reading...  

Review: Salonica, City of Ghosts

“They all claimed the city for themselves in God’s name. But is it not said: Where God is, there is everything?” Nearly five hundred years of history for a city
Continue reading...  

Susu and You: Milk in Malaysia

Milk and Honey. Symbols of purity and goodness from Biblical times. But Filled Milk? Susu cair? Recombination? What is this stuff? A brief guide…
Continue reading...  

Pearl of Faith

Original English translation of Raihan’s 1997 hit Iman Mutiara from the Puji-pujian album.
Continue reading...  

Me and Damon Gupton

Sam Raimi. Megan Fox. These are but a few of the Hollywood names I have a distant, tenuous, nearly imaginary, and at this point fairly pathetic connection to from my time as a child actor. Here’s another.
Continue reading...  

Raihan’s Sesungguhnya, in English

A translation of the classic nasheed Sesungguhnya by Raihan into English. Hard to believe it has been nearly 18 years since this first came out.  It is merely old now,
Continue reading...  

Climbing Mount Santubong

Mount Santubong looms ahead of my morning commute every morning, as it has for a dozen years. I’ve skirted the base of the mountain countless times, on the way to Damai
Continue reading...  

You can get used to anything

The hazy weather Kuching had the last few days made me think of an old song from my childhood. It’s by Fred Small, and it goes like this: YOU CAN
Continue reading...  

Spelling Champions of Sarawak

The biggest annual national spelling tournament in Malaysia is Spell-It-Right. Starting early in the year, several of my daughters had participated in rounds starting within the school itself and moving
Continue reading...  

Mengapa rebung adiknya buluh

Bamboo thrusts dramatically out of the soil, clean, symmetrical, very sharp. The shoots grow fast, shooting over my head within a matter of days. Only once they have reached their final height, long
Continue reading...  

The Years of Rice and Salt

An alternative history where all the Europeans die in the Black Death and the great civilizations of the world are Islam and China. Such an exciting premise. We follow three
Continue reading...  

Menjelang 1 Mei

A rousing poem in Bahasa Malaysia from student of agriculture Chairil Aswad, on twitter as @schwarzenmann.  First published in E-Sastera Sajak Facebook group, 30 April 2015. Translation into Inggeris mine.
Continue reading...  

Hari Raya 2015

Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Dan Batin Eid Mubarak from Sarawak.  May your fasting and ours be received by the Most High in His Mercy rather than by our merits, amin.
Continue reading...  

MRE: Botok and Pulut Udang

As Ramadan winds down, I race to give credit to local foods that got me through the month. These MREs, Malaysia Ramadan Essentials, are practically complete meals in one package.
Continue reading...  

36 hours in KL

Time for my semi-annual ritual humiliation at the Immigration Department. After 12 years here married to a Malaysian, I ought to be well on my way to Permanent Resident status.
Continue reading...