“I’ve been a secret intelligence officer for 40 years. When I first joined I was from the Army School, and they put me into the intelligence unit because they saw my thinking and analyzing skills…”

“I’ve been close to all the world leaders, and in London I was working as a car wash man, as a cover for being an intelligence officer. Whenever there was Malaysians hurt or involved, student riots or civil war, we would be there.

I’ve been around the world but Russia was tough. The scariest country I had gone to was in Namibia in 1979, during the Namibian War for Independence from 1966 to 1990. During that time we were looking to recruit informers. I was afraid during that time because, despite Namibia being a less-developed country and having very helpful people, almost everyone had guns and weapons. It was dangerous.

Most people think that being a spy is like being James Bond. We are nothing like him – he had expensive watches, attracted attention and revealed his name everywhere he went. But we did have a watch which had special recording equipment built inside of it.

If you want to be a secret intelligence officer, the first thing you need is patience. Secondly, you need to blend in, not stand out and ‘look stupid’ (unassuming), so people will not suspect you, like when I was a car wash man in London. Number three, ‘biar pecah di perut, jangan pecah di mulut’ (keep secrets to yourself’). In this case, you must not reveal the secrets of the Malaysian government.”

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 18th 2016)

“Abang Yee who hails from Kelantan is a burger seller and has been in the business for more than 10 years…”

“His daily business routine starts in the evening from 7pm to 3 am.

Abang Yee sleeps after he sends his children to school. He earns RM300 a day and would get even more if there are big orders from the companies near where his stand is.

He used to have 2 more franchises but has been sold to other people. Amongst the interesting experiences that he has had was when Abang Yee had large orders and at the same time he ran out of gas to cook.

To those who want to start selling burgers, his advice is you have to be honest and trustworthy”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Story contributed by Ekamil Razali.

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 10th 2016)

“Malaysian foods taste good. They have every flavor, however, foods from Oman taste kind of blunt.

“The truth is it never crossed my mind that I would be a chef once I finished SPM. I didn’t do well in the exam so I was reluctant to go back to my foster mom’s house. She told me “Rid, since you’re not excelling with academics, so try to learn practical skills like cooking.” So, since then I have set to become a chef as my goal.

I couldn’t call myself as a chef because I think you’d need at least 10 years of experience in the field. I’ve been a chef for almost 21 years and I still wouldn’t dare to call myself a chef.

About Oman food, most of them are cooked using the ‘boiling technique. However, lamb showa uses bits of spices and they cook it under the Earth for 2 to 3 days. 

Every experience that I have has been interesting. I started from the bottom, I’ve been yelled at, ran errands, made mistakes, came late to work. All that have made me who I am today.

If you want to be a chef you have to be mentally strong. If you’re lazy, undisciplined, and not committed to what you do, you cannot become a chef. If you’re doing just what you like to do, then you won’t cut it. Plus, it is true that chefs earn more but only the Sous Chef, Exec Sous Chef, Chef De Cuisine and Exec Chef earn more. Whereas, Kitchen Helpers, Commis 3,2,1, Demi Chef, Chef de Partie earn more or less like other jobs.

The reason I chose Oman is because my wife has been working for the Oman Air Crew for almost 10 years. I’ve never thought of becoming anything else but a chef. Guess I’m just a Malaysian, living in Oman, hoping to become a chef.”

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 10th 2016)

“I’m a spiritual singer and I sing music that I would like to think brings more light, love and awareness to the world and I do that through mantra and chants…”

“The intention is that there is a transmission of frequency that would attract people. I like to create transformational experiences for women, and in my spiritual travels I have gone to Egypt, to a spiritual university in India, and traveled to Mexico and being part of a sweat lodge – a Native American hut for ritual steam baths as a means of purification.

My belief is that over the last 5000 years the information and knowledge of feminine wisdom has been suppressed. Women for the longest time has been unequal to men. Feminine wisdom looking within yourself for the answers. It is an inward energy where you’re less likely to look outside for external validation, power, autonomy and sovereignty. Where you are less easily controlled, overpowered and more … you. 

I once helped a woman recover from a bad experience. She had been raped, had issues around her sexuality and had a much more masculine demeanor that wasn’t working for her. After working with her she had a transformation and her experiences with men were different. She used to dream in black and white, and now she dreams in color. I did energy work with her and helped her go back to the moment of where the source of her pain was, and we changed it. We went back in time to where that source of pain was, that kept repeating and playing out in her life that she hasn’t dealt with. Went back to that moment with her, and we changed that relationship with the pain. It wasn’t a source of pain anymore, and she finally felt complete, again”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 7th 2016)

“My body is a sacred temple…”

“When I think of sacred, I think of a temple, and in a temple you would go in with respect, you would go in there knowing its a sacred place, wanting to keep it clean, and going in there with ‘Presence’. Presence as in knowing I am stepping in here and this is a sacred place, so I’m honoring this place, I’m not gonna disrespect it, not going to use bad language or create conflicts – there is a certain energy when you say the word ‘temple’, compared to the word ‘dustbin’. So if you see your body as a dustbin which a lot of, you know, where people can throw rubbish and do whatever they want, its a very different way of Being than if you see it as a temple – a temple where you honor, respect, keep clean, and love.

I believe that Feminine wisdom all comes down to women understanding that their bodies are a temple. That they worship them, even if you don’t. When you do not see your body as something that is sacred, then you do not treat it as sacred. Ask yourself; ‘does my body really want to put itself in this situation where I could potentially feel I have been taken advantage of? One of the things I understand is women have issues with their boundaries so they don’t know when to say no and do not actually know what they want. So once you begin to learn that, you begin to learn what is it that you actually want, based on how you actually view your body”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 9th 2016)

“I wanted to understand myself and figure out why things weren’t working in my life, why I was unhappy…”

“Because I didn’t know my own power to do the things that I loved. I didn’t know how to follow what I loved doing. I was afraid, and I wasn’t using my creative abilities. I believe when you are not inspired daily, not using your creative gifts, you begin to destroy yourself because that needs to be expressed. I always looked outside for validation, fulfillment and intimacy. I mixed with the wrong guys, and had an experience in my childhood where I felt like I was abandoned by my father. So I kept playing out that same thing with all my relationships with men, where I would be with men where I would feel unloved, or not important enough. When I understood why that was happening and what to do about it, that changed. A lot of my unhappiness was around wanting the love that I couldn’t give myself in the relationships with men that I had. Of course I was looking outside for it everywhere – when what I needed was to look inside”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 6th 2016)

“Sexual energy is life force. It is the energy that created us. It is creation energy. Without that energy there would be none of this – there would be no you, no me…”

“So that’s why it so powerful. But we have so much shame and guilt around it, so we suppress it. And when you suppress it that’s when that energy becomes distorted. Your creative energy and your sexual energy are very similar things, and they come from the very same place. That inspiration and that fire that you feel around when you’re doing something creative, sexual energy is that same thing. When you look at the artist, the rock bands, there’s something sexual about them, they are using this creative energy and they are channeling it in a way and you can feel something sort of sensual and sexual about them.

In relation to sexual energy is also orgasms and pleasure. Pleasure is healing just as stress is destructive. But we have a lot of judgments about pleasure, pleasure becomes sex, and sex becomes porn and rape and all those negative connotations. And religions have judgments on sexuality and people become confused and shamed of their sexual feelings and the way its expressed, and there’s a lot of healing to be done. 

So at the core of it sexual energy is masculine and feminine energy coming together. You think of a battery (with the plus and minus sign, when it joins together) you get electricity. The + sign is the male energy, the – sign is the feminine energy and when its joined you get electricity. In real life you get a baby, a new life”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 7th 2016)

“Feminine wisdom is all about the cycles. Cycles of time, cycles of the seasons from spring to summer, cycles of life, death, rebirth and transformation…”

“This is a feminine part of the wisdom – women are naturally cyclical and we ignore that. Humanity has wanted things ‘now’, man has wanted things now, yesterday, and all achievement and goals, without respecting the cycles of nature. And so, we are harvesting before the plants are ready to be harvested. We are not following the cycles of life that nurtures life – and that’s what feminine energy is. At some point your body needs to rest, and you need to nourish yourself. You cannot be in ‘high achievement mode’ all the time. Most people don’t know that and if they were to follow their natural rhythms they would be healthier. And when I talk about cycles, I do mean the menstrual cycle. They go through the cycle every month just like Summer, Spring, Autumn (the PMS period) and Winter (the bleeding period).

Men’s energy runs different than women, because they have more testosterone, as women has the opposite, they have more estrogen, which controls the cycles”. 

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa

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(This post was first published on October 7th 2016)