Ramblings

The other thing about Malay tradition involves the "kenduri aruah" which in almost all cases involved a three nights affair, which to my mind not only drains the living of money unnecessarily spent but also entails members of the family and friends a demand of their time to attend such events.

In these days and time when time is the essence to earn one’s living, these "kenduri aruah" is a bane to the society. My late father never condone to this thing and before he died he told all of us not to have it for him when he dies. And so it was never done. Considering that my dad died it Kuala Trengganu in 1960 when the society there was very conservative and steeped in traditions, it was an out of this world thing to the local folks when on the night after my dad passed away they witnessed no event at our house. A few did ask if we had forgotten to hold one, to which I came forward to tell them it was my father’s wish that it should not be done. One thing is good about our custom though. The wishes of the dead remains respectful to the living, although these wishes could sometimes become ridiculous and unreasonable, especially when they tell their family that when they die they must be taken home no matter where they are.

My dad told us to bury him wherever he was and hence when he passed away although the then Tuanku Abdul Rahman ordered that his remains be brought back to Sri Menanti, our family stick to our dad’s instruction. Through Allah’s Grace, at the news of dad’s demise the Sultan of Trengganu at that time, commanded that he be buried at the Royals Grave compound. With my mother, however, I wanted no kenduri for her but this was vetoed by my sisters. Hence just to prove a point, I attended only two days out of the three that took place. Indeed when my time comes, I hope my children will remember my stand in this matter.

Well, time flies so fast these days and before you know it 2006 is already half way and when we measure it by the things we have accomplished up to now to fulfill the needs of the year, it is all so little. How many novels or factual readings have we done up to now? Align that with our career progress, have we gone any further or better for that matter. Religiously speaking, what have we contributed to the society as a whole by way of donations or physical help? Religiously speaking as a Muslim, what have we done to learn and acquire more knowledge on Islam and the spreading of it to our families and others? Do the mere frequent visits to Mecca and Medina a justifiable effort on our part to cover up our own shortfalls in Islam as a practicing religion. We are very unlike the other religious groups which claims theirs can be a non-practising religion. Islam is firm in its belief that a Muslim must live with the religion and as such the word "practice or non-practice" simply do not exist.

Woe betide the day when our Muslim society adopts this alien concept to the religion! My consolation is, if ever that time should come, I would no longer be here to witness it, left alone to experience it! It’s changing time, that’s what the world is today. But the strange part is, with the so called civilized and modern world of today, people and nations are still fighting one another and at wars too. The most strange of it all is, these wars are propagated by nations who claim themselves to be civilized.

What hypocrisy! No wonder the Holy Quran frequently mentioned never to trust the hypocrites which in this case were the Jews of the time. Anyway, less said on this is better for now. Subject is hereby closed.

It is always nice to reflects on the characters and antics of our grandchildren, grandnephews and grandnieces, although in the latter we have not much observation since not many of them are around us. To begin with the eldest amongst them Faiq Nichol, he is now a young man in many ways and ever a gentleman by his nature. Next with Zharif, he is the scholar type and bearing unlike his younger brother Adzri who shows business acumen in his attitude, especially when he condemned the sale of one of their houses by Ghazali Nichol, their father.

Ghazali and Adzri

Maisarah is a different cattle of fish altogether. She is growing fast as a big girl and dislike being called a small girl or kid for that matter. Her exposures to the media through her other grandparents have a great impact on her life’s outlooks. She craves to grow up fast to the extent she got it all mix up with her studies! Muhammad on the other hand remains the elusive one who refuses to condone to family traditions to honour the presence of the elderly. Muhammad, however, proves to be consistent in his studies.

T. Muhammad & T. Maisarah

Aiki is another cattle of fish as the expression goes. He is hypersensitive and very conscious of whatever is happening around him. Hence he cannot take any remarks from anyone for his own benefits to do so. In point of fact, he now dislikes our company because of certain remarks we both made to help him improve his English speaking when he remains Japanese in his secret talks with Yasmin. We are yet to know how Hibiki will become. Since the family is now back in Malaysian soil and surroundings, hopefully things will change for the better in their languages at least.

T. Hibiki & T. Aiki

Comes Omar and Emir, these are robust kids. They seem rough on the outside but each of them seem to know what they want to do. Emir is ever curious and involve himself in anything that appeals exciting to him, much to our consternation and worry at times and yet they all seem natural to him. Omar on the other hand still continues with hiding things that he wants to places that he alters or finds difficulty to remember! But Omar loves the computer and the games that come with it. Hence in our house the PC is the main attraction to Omar, but the unfortunate part is, he insists that I helped him out with operating the games, to which things I remain illiterate to this day.With the PC, I remain in the region of letter writing and writing articles for my Sunrider members and of course for this web site.

T. Omar & T. Emir

Next we have Fairuz and Ranthy’s children who are no less considered as our grandchildren too. The big girl Marsya is not only intelligent but also very responsible and careful with her belongings, but on the side she is more attached to her grandparents in Jakarta than to her own parents. The trend seems to be carried over to Affi and the youngest brother too. That was how I felt then too during my childhood days when I chose my grandparents rather my own parents for solace and comfort. I can understand these kids feelings.

Marsya, Afi & Audi

Other kid that very regularly spend time at our house , especially during gin sessions are the three boys of Azlan and Fazlinatun. Whilst Irfan shows maturity compared to Imran and Ikmal. It amazes us how these kids could survive the long hours of almost complete inattention by their parents when we are at play with gin rummy. Of course if we let go, they would ransack our house to achieve their funs, whatever they may be. Because of this, Ainul made it a point to disallow anyone of them to be upstairs. On the whole they are lovely kids but the want of attention they do get into fights or quarrels, which remain harmless at the end. The more they visit us, the more we seem to feel fondly of them. I think that goes true to all aunties and uncles. The nieces and nephews that visit or live with them in the past will always have a weak spot in their heart for these kids. I can say that for sure about my auntie, the Tuanku Ampuan Najihah and Tuanku Jaafar.

When I was small and lived with my grandparents, I almost always followed them wherever they went and enjoyed their gramophone records, which I helped play for them whenever they wanted me to. For the information of my young readers, the gramophone was what the modern compact disks is to your generation, with the difference that it was all manual and involved winding to make the record spins at the right speed on its moving plate. On top of it all, real sharp specially made needles had to be used to emit sounds from the records groves. Most times the winding fell short of the required speed to maintain correct musical tunes and hence the need to have someone ready to do the winding. I was there at the spot always for the couple. Hence to these days, I can assume that they have soft spots for me and my children, adequately proven when Farazil and Farah’s weddings were held at Istana Negara. As for Farahat, they made their presence at the wedding and they being the Yang DiPertuan Agong at that time, it was indeed a great honour to have their presence.

Only Izzat was unfortunate on this. His wedding coincided with their absence from the country. Just unfortunate !