"Orosa-Nakpil, Malate: Gem of the Gay Subculture"

It was my first time to read a book that bravely touches one controversial aspect of our society. This book tells a story that deals with issues such as unconventional love, homosexuality, anal sex, and AIDS, all at the same time. But I didn't regret buying the book as far as the knowledge and eye-opening reality that I've gained from "Orosa-Nakpil, Malate" are concerned. Actually, the book's Tagalog version was first published last 2007 but it was only recently that I had the courage to take it out of the bookstore shelf, this time in it's new English version. I don't have the prerogative to make comparisons because I haven't read the Tagalog version yet, but based on Gangcuangco's recent version, I could say that his book can be regarded as a modern gem of pink literature. It's a story that will make you cry and will teach essential information about AIDS at the same time. I could say that the execution of the story was done in such a way that the readers will feel for the characters and eventually, will heed the author's call to stay safe against the infection which  has been linked to the BPO industry these days. Although some may sense a bit of predictability on the first few pages of the book, the story would eventually reveal certain twists and turns that makes "Orosa-Nakpil, Malate" a different kind of gay love story. This book has a captivating story that will make anyone cry and ask for more, regardless of sexual orientation. And like Brokeback Mountain, "Orosa-Nakpil, Malate" provides readers a simple glimpse to the bittersweet life of homosexuals, showing all the struggles, sorrows, and tragedies of a typical Filipino gay living within a harshly conservative society. For your convenience, I included some book infos from the author itself courtesy of one of my favorite Filipino blogs, Manila Gay Guy:


Synopsis: Dave is a young medical student who frequently goes to Malate. In Barn, a bar that houses a dark room, he meets the men who entangle him in a web of love, vengeance, and sex.

Louie Mar Gangcuangco, the author

        From the author, Louie Mar Gangcuangco: I wrote the story two years ago, when I was just seventeen. What inspired me to write the novel? It’s a monosyllabic word many people fail to understand – love.
         This is a tough confession. At sixteen, I have been splurging my extra  cash inside Malate’s premiere gay places. For more than half a year, I have had whirlwind love affairs that most lasted for barely two weeks. But things changed when I met him.
       We met at Bath. Ooh… I still remember how gorgeous he was. His eyes were hazelbrown. The way he looked at me was tempting. His physique was really sexy. But what hit me was his personality. His was unique. His was matchless wit. Best of all… He knows how to speak French.
       I loved him with all my heart. Twice we went out on dates that went more than the casual chitchat and dinner. We ate a lot. So much that even our souls took part in the banquet. I sacrificed so much for him, but after he grew tired of my youth, all he did was to brand me a “nuisance.
      That December afternoon, I cried over the phone, telling him how rude it was of him to treat me like trash. We met and he apologized. But the pain he caused me made me sit in front of my laptop. And words kept flowing on and on. The keyboard ticked… lagatakatak… for three long months until the third draft of the then-called “Orosa-Nakpil, Malate: Isang Kasaysayan ng Pag-Ibig, was created.
      Nine months seem like batting an eyelash. “Orosa-Nakpil, Malate:Isang Kasaysayan ng Pag-ibig matured into “Orosa-Nakpil,Malate Pagkagat ng Dilim and is finally released with a shorter title, “Orosa-Nakpil, Malate.
     “Orosa-Nakpil, Malate was evaluated by Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, the former Secretary of Health; Dr. Valenzuela from PGH; Prof Leano from UP College of Medicine; and Dr. Destura from the National Institues of Health.

"NMAT: The Verdict"

I just learned my NMAT result yesterday, earlier than I expected (CEM informed us during the exam that the electronic copy of the NMAT result would be posted 10 working days after the exam on their website), and up until now, I've been brooding about what the heck has happened to my score. I prepared so much for the exam to get an 85+ that might have given me a chance to receive a possible scholarship or if I was lucky enough, a 90+ percentile rank that might have pushed me one step closer to my dream of entering UPCM (UP College of Medicine), which is every aspiring doctor's dream, I suppose. However, things really happen for a reason and in my case, destiny betrayed my own plans and timing. I got a 72 percentile rank, which means that I belong to the upper 28% of those who took the test last April and 72% scored lower than me. Good enough for me to enter most of the medical schools in the metro but not good enough to get me a scholarship or enter my dream school.

           I've always been told that it's better to aim for perfection but miss it rather than aim for imperfection  and achieve it. It's one good proverb that has molded my attitude towards 'aiming high'. However, people often overlook the fact that 'aiming high' is also about taking risk, and more often than not, people become frustrated and devastated if they didn't meet their expectations. True enough, 'aiming high but expecting less' is one good strategy to avoid self-devastation from an unmet expectations. Perhaps God wants me to take a bird's eye view of the situation and find for myself the next step I'm going to take from here. Maybe Medicine is not for me or this is not yet the right time for me to pursue such profession. I'm currently planning to retake NMAT this April and take my review and preparation to a higher level. I'm really desperate to at least get a scholarship because I'm not an "anak ng Diyos" (rich kid) to just leave this as it is and not do anything to alleviate my parents' financial burden just in case I'm going to pursue Med right after my graduation. And if upon trying the second time and I stumble again, I will just take it as nature's way of telling me that I'm taking the wrong path in life. Maybe that's how life really goes. But for me, NMAT is just a requirement and will not define a person's real intelligence or wisdom. If I will base it on my own goal and expectation, there will be no doubt that I really failed the exam. But life is not about winning all the time. I will try my luck again and maybe next time, God will really give what my heart desires. As for now, I will stick to another essential maxim of life: Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

"NMAT: The Aftermath"

De La Salle University: the NMAT site

I couldn't describe the intensity of my emotions the moment I woke up the morning of April 11, 2010 and suddenly realized that I was about to take NMAT, which I spent more or less a month to have a good grasp of. However, the anxiety didn't rob me of my sanity and I was able to tread forward to Dela Salle-Taft with so much excitement that almost overshadowed my apprehensions, thanks to the mantras I had used to kick off any tendencies of anxiety attack like "I can do this", "I'm good enough to make it", and "God is with me all the time". With confidence and faith on my pocket, I went straight to the testing site 30 minutes ahead of the 7:00 A.M. start time. As expected, the proctors didn't comply to the start time and left me along with the other examinees ample time to prepare our morale for the inevitable battle of the brains. On my part, I took it as an opportunity to relax and survey the scene around me. There were a lot of students and graduates from all over the country who went there for the sole purpose of finding if they will make or break it on the NMAT, which one of the major requirements that medical schools require from students/graduates who dream of becoming a doctor. Until then, I hadn't realized that I was really not alone in this predicament of RN-to-MD transition. Maybe it's just so rare in my case to find someone who shares the same interests as I have. Going back on the NMAT, we started it with so much vigor and enthusiasm and ended feeling exhausted, and overly drained of brain glucose. Part 1 was quite confusing and amusing at the same time (especially the perceptual acuity part) although I ended up randomly shading most of the items of the quantitative part due to the time constraint. I remember how most of the people who already took the exam emphasized about time management especially on the first part which has an allotted time of 3 hours for the 200-item exam. True enough, time is of the enemy especially if you're not a fast reader and a quick thinker. For the Part 2 of the exam, which we took after lunch, I consider Biology and Sociology as the easiest while Physics and Chemistry the hardest, which caused me stiff neck after straining my neck muscles trying to solve items I haven't encounter either from my classes in college or during my intensive self-review. In general, NMAT is an exam that highlights the basics but will not assure you a good place in the medical school of your interest. There is still the interview process that is school-specific that you have to overcome and of course, your GPA really matters a lot. However, NMAT is not the end-of-it-all exam that will promise you a successful career both in medical school and on practice; resiliency is still the key. That's why after I took the exam, I took a deep breath to render comfort to myself and temporarily withdraw myself from the stresses of the exam, the results of which will be posted after 10 working days on their site: http://nmat.cem-inc.org.ph/cem_nmat/default.aspx. After all, NMAT is not the only gauge of one's knowledge or wisdom. I only view it as a preparation and a mere pre-requisite, no more, no less.

"The Alchemist" and the Success Formula

              "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."- -These are the words that immortalizes the power of dreams and of the supreme influence that "The Alchemist" has rendered to all of its readers around the globe. Lucky enough, I got the opportunity to plunge into the magic world of "The Alchemist" after I purchased it a week ago. I already read a lot of reviews regarding the book's content before I actually got hold of it, and most of them labelled the book as "inspiring" and "life-changing". Out of curiosity and an extreme need for inspiration, I bought the book and finished the whole thing within three days. In general, the flow and the theme of the story make the book quite engaging to read, not mentioning the lessons that one will digest after reading this Paulo Coelho masterpiece. It's the story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreamed about a treasure hidden in the Pyramids of Egypt. He was encouraged to follow his dreams by a gypsy woman and an old man who claimed to be the king of Salem, and who eventually gave him the two crystal stones , Urim and Thummim that would help him make a decision during his journey. Along the way, he was robbed of all his belongings which forced him to work for a crystal merchant for a year, where he learned the values of patience, taking risks, and of not giving up on one's dreams. After deciding to continue pursuing his dream, he met an Englishman who had been dreaming of meeting the alchemist, a 200 year-old man who has the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone , which can turn lead into gold. Someone told the Englishman that the alchemist lives within the Al-Fayoum oasis, the reason why he, together with Santiago, headed to the place through the caravan. There, Santiago met Fatima, a girl who captured his heart and almost hindered him in his journey towards the Pyramids, and the alchemist, who taught him a lot of lessons that led him towards realizing his Personal Legend. Santiago finally reached the Pyramids of Egypt and learned that his treasures can be found by going back to where he came from.
               "The Alchemist" is more of a parable rather than a serious novel that used simple, easy-to-understand writing without sacrificing the essence of its contents. Anyone will be engaged to Santiago's story because any normal person with a dream in his heart can identify to the character's frustrations, misgivings, doubts, apprehensions, pain, sacrifices, and sufferings that are natural elements that one should face if he's ready to die to achieve his dreams. We all have our own Personal Legend but most of the time, we set them aside because we fear that we don't deserve fulfilling our dreams or the path leading to it entails sacrifices that might hurt our loved ones and ourselves. However, "The Alchemist" teaches every one to take risks, focus on our dreams amidst all frustrations, and live in our present unrestrained by our past and uncontrolled by our future. It doesn't offer a complicated version of a success formula but it gives every one an opportunity to assess his/her dreams whether hidden or already realized and reminds all of us to not quit on this dreams no matter what because this is the one and only way to satisfy our souls. God gives us omens to follow which leads to our Personal Legends; It could be employment termination, rejections, death of a loved one, accidents, or any negative events that are completely devastating to a normal person but for the Supreme Creator of all things, these are the events that will help us realize the real path that we should take in our life. These are the things that the book has taught to me. Thank God, I met "The Alchemist".
              As a tribute to this life-changing masterpiece, I have listed the most unforgettable and essential quotation I encountered while reading the book. I hope anyone who will read these will somehow experience spiritual uplift like what I have experienced from "The Alchemist".






• "It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."


• "It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them."


• "At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."


• "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."


• "We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."


• "Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now."


• "God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees."


• If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve in the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves His children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."


• "It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil, It's what comes out of their mouths that is."


• "Wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure."


• "People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them."


• "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."


• "Every search begins with beginner's luck. And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested."


• "When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed."


• "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."