2/25/2009 06:42:00 AM

Quotes from Bob Ong's books

Personally, I am a fan of the works of Bob Ong. I love his innovative writing style which is undoubtedly, for me, one of the most interesting and humorous use of the Filipino-English language. I am in the process of creating my own personal collection of all Bob Ong's quotable quotes. So first, let me provide for you this pre-existing collection (not made by me) of famous Bob Ong lines. Enjoy!

SOURCE: http://equilibrium2008.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/bob-ongs-quote/

PAG-IBIG

“Kung hindi mo mahal ang isang tao, wag ka nang magpakita ng motibo para mahalin ka nya..”

“Lahat naman ng tao sumeseryoso pag tinamaan ng pagmamahal. Yun nga lang, hindi lahat matibay para sa temptasyon.”

“Gamitin ang puso para alagaan ang taong malapit sayo. Gamitin ang utak para alagaan ang sarili mo.”

“Huwag mong bitawan ang bagay na hindi mo kayang makitang hawak ng iba.”

“Huwag mong hawakan kung alam mong bibitawan mo lang.”

“Huwag na huwag ka hahawak kapag alam mong may hawak ka na.”

“Parang elevator lang yan eh, bakit mo pagsisiksikan ung sarili mo kung walang pwesto para sayo. Eh meron naman hagdan, ayaw mo lang pansinin.”

“Kung maghihintay ka nang lalandi sayo, walang mangyayari sa buhay mo.. Dapat lumandi ka din.”

“Pag may mahal ka at ayaw sayo, hayaan mo. Malay mo sa mga susunod na araw ayaw mo na din sa kanya, naunahan ka lang.”

“Hiwalayan na kung di ka na masaya. Walang gamot sa tanga kundi pagkukusa.”

“Pag hindi ka mahal ng mahal mo wag ka magreklamo. Kasi may mga tao rin na di mo mahal pero mahal ka.. Kaya quits lang.”

“Bakit ba ayaw matulog ng mga bata sa tanghali? alam ba nilang pag natuto silang umibig e hindi na sila makakatulog kahit gusto nila?

“Hindi lungkot o takot ang mahirap sa pag-iisa kundi ang pagtanggap na sa bilyon-bilyong tao sa mundo, wala man lang nakipaglaban upang makasama ka.”

“Kung nagmahal ka ng taong di dapat at nasaktan ka, wag mong sisihin ang puso mo. Tumitibok lang yan para mag-supply ng dugo sa katawan mo. Ngayon, kung magaling ka sa anatomy at ang sisisihin mo naman ay ang hypothalamus mo na kumokontrol ng emotions mo, mali ka pa rin! Bakit? Utang na loob! Wag mong isisi sa body organs mo ang mga sama ng loob mo sa buhay! Tandaan mo: magiging masaya ka lang kung matututo kang tanggapin na hindi ang puso, utak, atay o bituka mo ang may kasalanan sa lahat ng nangyari sayo, kundi IKAW mismo!”

PAG-AARAL (STUDIES)

“Mag-aral maigi. Kung titigil ka sa pag-aaral, manghihinayang ka pagtanda mo dahil hindi mo naranasan ang kakaibang ligayang dulot ng mga araw na walang pasok o suspendido ang klase o absent ang teacher. (Haaay, sarap!).”

“Nalaman kong marami palang libreng lecture sa mundo, ikaw ang gagawa ng syllabus. Maraming teacher sa labas ng eskuwelahan, desisyon mo kung kanino ka magpapaturo. Lahat tayo enrolled ngayon sa isang university, maraming subject na mahirap, pero dahil libre, ikaw ang talo kung nag-drop ka. Isa-isa tayong ga-graduate, iba’t-ibang paraan. tanging diploma ay ang mga alaala ng kung ano mang tulong o pagmamahal ang iniwan natin sa mundong pinangarap nating baguhin minsan…”

“Hikayatin mo lahat ng kakilala mo na magkaroon ng kahit isa man lang paboritong libro sa buhay nila. Dahil wala nang mas kawawa pa sa mga taong literado pero hindi nagbabasa.”

“dalawang dekada ka lang mag-aaral. kung ‘di mo pagtityagaan, limang dekada ng kahirapan ang kapalit. sobrang lugi. kung alam lang ‘yan ng mga kabataan, sa pananaw ko ehh walang gugustuhing umiwas sa eskwela.”

BUHAY (IN GENERAL) (LIFE)

“nalaman kong hindi final exam ang passing rate ng buhay. hindi ito multiple choice, identification, true or false, enumeration or fill-in-the- blanks na sinasagutan kundi essay na isinusulat araw-araw. Huhusgahan ito hindi base sa kung tama o mali ang sagot, kundi base sa kung may kabuluhan ang mga isinulat o wala. Allowed ang erasures.”

“Kumain ka na ng siopao na may palamang pusa o maglakad sa bubog nang nakayapak, pero wag na wag kang susubok mag-drugs. Kung hindi mo kayang umiwas, humingi ka ng tulong sa mga magulang mo dahil alam nila kung saan ang mga murang supplier at hindi ka nila iisahan.”

“Mangarap ka at abutin mo. Wag mong sisihin ang sira mong pamilya, palpak mong syota, pilay mong tuta, o mga lumilipad na ipis. Kung may pagkukulang sa’yo mga magulang mo, pwde kang manisi at maging rebelde. Tumigil ka sa pag-aaral, mag-asawa ka, mag-drugs ka, magpakulay ka ng buhok sa kili-kili. Sa banding huli, ikaw din ang biktima. Rebeldeng walang napatunayan at bait sa sarili.”

“Tuparin ang mga pangarap. Obligasyon mo yan sa sarili mo. Kung gusto mo mang kumain ng balde-baldeng lupa para malagay ka sa Guinness Book of World Records at maipagmalaki ng bansa natin, sige lang. Nosi balasi. wag mong pansinin ang sasabihin ng mga taong susubok humarang sa’yo. Kung hindi nagsumikap ang mga scientist noon, hindi pa rin tayo dapat nakatira sa jupiter ngayon. Pero hindi pa rin naman talaga tayo nakatira sa jupiter dahil nga hindi nagsumikap ang mga scientist noon. Kita mo yung moral lesson?”

“Nalaman kong habang lumalaki ka, maraming beses kang madadapa. Bumangon ka man ulit o hindi, magpapatuloy ang buhay, iikot ang mundo, at mauubos ang oras.”

HALO-HALO

“Wag magmadali sa pag-aasawa. Tatlo, lima, sampung taon sa hinaharap, mag-iiba pa ang pamantayan mo at maiisip mong di pala tamang pumili ng kapareha dahil lang sa kaboses niya si Debbie Gibson o magaling mag-breakdance. Totoong mas importante ang kalooban ng tao higit anuman. Sa paglipas ng panahon, maging ang mga crush ng bayan sa eskwelahan e nagmumukha ring pandesal. Maniwala ka.”

“ayokong nasasanay sa mga bagay na pwede namang wala sa buhay ko.”

“hinahanap mo nga ba ako o ang kawalan ko?”

“hindi dahil sa hindi mo naiintindihan ang isang bagay ay kasinungalingan na ito. at hindi lahat ng kaya mong intindihin ay katotohanan. ”

“Sabi nila, sa kahit ano raw problema, isang tao lang ang makakatulong sa’yo - ang sarili mo. Tama sila. Isinuplong ako ng sarili ko. Kaya siguro namigay ng konsyensya ang Diyos, alam niyang hindi sa lahat ng oras e gumagana ang utak ng tao.”

“Obligasyon kong maglayag, karapatan kong pumunta sa kung saan ko gusto, responsibilidad ko ang buhay ko.”

“Masama akong tao, tulad mo, sa parehong paraan na mabuti kang tao, tulad ko.”

“Mas mabuting mabigo sa paggawa ng isang bagay kesa magtagumpay sa paggawa ng wala.”

“iba ang walang ginagawa sa gumagawa ng wala.”

“iba ang informal gramar sa mali !!!”

”Para san ba ang cellphone na may camera? Kung kailangan sa buhay un, dapat matagal na kong patay.”

2/22/2009 04:39:00 PM

2/19/2009 06:48:00 AM

One more day. One more day and all this will be over. Just one more night. Tomorrow's our deadline. I keep on wondering what will happen. Will anything ever happen? Probably. A lot can happen in just a day. Just like when I met him. It all happened in an hour and a half. That was all it took. That was all it took us to... realize our hidden connection. Is there really a connection? Or is it just a troubled thought lingering helplessly in my head? Is it all just me? Is this really how it's supposed to be? The feeling of not having anything. The feeling of regret. The feeling of guilt. The feeling of embarrassment. The feeling of shame. The feeling of helplessness. The feeling of... dejection, dysphoria, melancholy, hopelessness, misery, vexation... and amidst all these, the feeling of love. It's such a strange thing how we see love in terms of petty incidents, petty events, petty situations, petty interactions, petty reasons, petty questions, petty answers. When will this ever end?

Let's just wait for tomorrow.

2/18/2009 05:46:00 PM

One of the incidents that affected Brutus the most was his separation with his lover, who was a white citizen. They had to break up for their affair was forbidden. From 1948, during the time of the Apartheid, the Black citizens were separated from the Whites. Blacks from South Africa had to live in designated areas which were poorly furnished. In fact, these places deprived the Blacks of a good and healthy life within their own lands. Abuses from the police frequented the Blacks’ dwelling place because the Whites believed that they had to keep the Black citizens under their control. And so these incidents that occurred in the time of Dennis Brutus resulted to one of his famous masterpieces, a poem which he entitled Nightsong: City.

This poem can be assumed as both personal and political in nature. Its title Nightsong: City can refer to South Africa’s nightsong which was the City—or the incidents or the sounds one can hear in the city. Brutus depicted in his poem the actual happenings in South Africa during the Apartheid. It can be deduced that this poem was based on the sufferings of the Black citizens and the problems that they encountered. A knowledge of what was happening during that time and Brutus’ relationship with these events should be acquired to be able to abundantly understand what this poem is all about, and also to figure out why it was written in a personal and political context. Nightsong: City is a work made up of symbolisms, imagery, and similes that depicts perfectly and concisely actual events, particularly the sounds, that happened in South Africa during the Apartheid.

The persona of a man victimize by the Apartheid period could be the poem’s persona. Though the author fits perfectly as the narrator of the poem, it could also be looked at in general terms wherein all the experiences of the Black citizens in South Africa are encompassed. This means that the poem could be looked at in general terms of how Blacks in South Africa actually felt during that time. The setting described was obviously in a city in South Africa, particularly during the night. Its theme generally is about the Black citizens in South Africa and the problems they encountered as a result of the different acts imposed under the Apartheid period.

As one reads through the poem, one can assume that the tone used by Brutus was very soft, as if someone telling a story to a child who was about to sleep. It was like a spoken lullaby uttered in mere softness. This tone is very evident in the first few lines of the poem. But if each of the lines of the poem is analyzed, one would realize that this softness in the tone only covers up the frightening underlying meaning of the whole poem. This work now becomes a seemingly true-to-life lullaby where the inferiority of the Blacks and their miseries are carefully being portrayed. Each line of the poem represents a daily scene occurring in the city of South Africa. In the third line Brutus writes… “police cars cockroach through the tunnel streets;” This statement talks about the wailing of the sirens of the police cars which could be a source of their fear since during the Apartheid period there were plenty of abuses done by the policemen. There is also a line in the poem which reads… “from the shanties creaking iron-sheets, violence like a bug infested rag is tossed, and fear is imminent as sound in the wind-swung bell;” This simile describes how this city in South Africa was surrounded by fear and violence—that fear is imminent and violence is somehow “imposed” to the people. Since the Blacks were not in the position to fight back, they eventually had the idea that feeling afraid of their surroundings have become inevitable, and that the city was meant to be fearful. Another statement that would reinforce this idea goes… “the siren in the night the thunder at the door, the shriek of nerves in pain. Then the keening crescendo of faces split by pain;” And from one of the lines of the poem which goes… “the wordless, endless wail only the unfree know,” one could immediately interpret the lack of freedom of the Blacks. And as Brutus continues with the poem… “Importunate as the rain the wraiths exhale their woe over the sirens, knuckles, boots;” this statement could represent the Black’s effort to resist the brutality inflicted upon them. Brutus compared the people to wraiths, or ghosts. And this could mean that no matter how loud the people cry, the offenders could not hear them because for them, the Blacks are better off as ghosts, or corpses. And their wails did not matter anymore no matter how loud, and noisy, and endless they may be.

It is also very noticeable in the poem Brutus’ use of descriptive words that accurately describes the sounds that magnifies the fear felt by the Blacks. Brutus utilized such powerful descriptive words so that the readers would be able to clearly imagine and visualize what was actually happening in South Africa. Since the author’s original purpose for writing is to oppose the Apartheid laws, his intention of using such style was probably to show the readers events that are hard to imagine would happen in real life. Brutus probably wanted the readers to see the desperate situation the Blacks in South Africa were in.

The poem also has a personal context since Brutus wrote this poem right after a break-up with his white lover. In the lines that reads… “my land, my love, sleep well;” Brutus is both addressing the land, which was South Africa, and his lover whom he was separated from. He is able to simultaneously relay the general South African experience during the Apartheid, and as well as his feelings towards his relationship.

Nightsong: City is a poem that creates a violent reality amidst it tenderness. It is tender because the narrator of the poem does not wish to evoke anger or hatred from one’s heart. It is able to create a violent reality because actual human experiences—from the brutality of the whites to the loud cries of resistance of the Blacks, were carefully described in this seemingly wonderful lullaby. Indeed, Brutus, through his poem, was able to relive a true South African experience.

2/16/2009 09:40:00 PM

Okay. So maybe I was wrong about certain things. Maybe I've made some mistakes that I now regret doing. Do I really deserve to feel this frustrated? It hasn't even begun yet but still, I'm already hurting. Do I even have the right? Slowly, I'm losing strength, confidence, hope, faith. All the things that I used to believe in are now just slowly sweeping away. I'm not exaggerating here, am I? Will I ever grow tired?

2/15/2009 10:56:00 PM

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a film about a boy named Benjamin who was aging backwards. He was born old—probably at the age of eighty or so, and he grew younger everyday. Benjamin, as an old baby, was abandoned by his Father on the porch of a nursing home. A woman named Queenie who was working at that nursing home took in the baby and treated him as her own child despite his unusual physical attributes since she could not bear a child of her own. As the film progressed, Benjamin came across many people who taught him about the marvels of life—how to feel hatred, how to experience pain and happiness, and most especially, how to love and be loved. In return, he was also able to touch the lives of the people around him with his amusing personality—mature, yet seemingly innocent.

Clearly enough, this film distinctly illustrates how our lives are most often subordinates, or worse, victims of Time. The story is all about the uncontrollable and unalterable Time. It roughly shows how powerful Time can be. Its theme revolves around Time, and its relationship with Life—that Life is Time’s Fool. I originally got this idea from William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116. In this sonnet, there is this particular line that says “Love is not Time’s Fool”. In the film’s case, Time suddenly seemed to be the all mighty and powerful one. It became the giver of Life and Death. Over the course of the story, Time appeared to be mostly in control. Some of the circumstances of this idea about time are the deaths of some of the characters in the film. The death of one of the people in the nursing home who taught Benjamin how to play the piano. The death of the woman who always sang with her high-pitched voice. The death of Captain Mike. The death of Thomas Button. The death of Queenie. These deaths all came unexpectedly. No one would have ever predicted the exact time all these people would have died. It was only Time who knew when Death would take place. Another circumstance of Time’s supremacy throughout the film was Daisy’s accident. This one scene of the film is claimed by many of my friends to be their most favorite part. I, too, consider this as one of the most compelling events in the film. I believe that this part of the film depicts to us how the littlest of our actions can affect gravely the lives of others. I deem this similar to the idea of the Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect refers to the notion that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. While the butterfly does not cause the tornado, the flap of its wings is an essential part of the initial conditions resulting in a tornado. And so Benjamin said in the film that if only one of the series of events that led to Daisy’s accident had changed, chances were the accident never would have happened. If only there was a shift in the Time of the lives of the people involve, then a whole different outcome might have occurred. Again, this shows how Time catches each of us off-guard and surprises us in a lot of ways.

Although the story implicitly showed how Time only keeps moving forward, and that nobody can ever change what Time has already allowed to happen, there are two symbolic figures that makes me think otherwise. These are the clock which was designed to move backwards, and Benjamin himself. These figures appear to me as symbols which would seem to be stronger than Time itself. They seem to have resisted the standards of Time. Time always perceived itself as something which keeps moving forward, and never backwards. The two symbols have done differently. And this is something I regard as something extremely significant. It actually makes me think that maybe the film isn’t really telling us that Time is the most powerful of all. That maybe Time doesn’t have to be in control. That maybe, the circumstances that proved Time as the sole mover of Life are nothing compared to the symbols which represent Time as something which can be altered and opposed. And as I think about this, I am filled with so much relief. I was always taught since I was a child that Time is something linear. That it moves about a straight line. And now that I think about it, I really think that all of us are mistaken. Time is more of something that moves in circles, or probably something that is indefinite. And this is probably what the film is all about—Life is a whole lot larger than Time.

2/07/2009 04:01:00 PM