Ramadhan

Of late I have felt simply lazy to do anything. I begin to wonder why I should feel this. Is it to do with the fact that I am progressing in age and hence I have lost the zest for life and beginning to see life in a different way. As I see it, in today’s world, there are more violence, hardship, turmoil, unprecedented and provoked wars, cruelties of all kinds and lost of compassion, consideration, and love towards others and our environment . The more we read the daily newspapers or read the Internet, the more pathetic is the world picture that forms in my mind. At times, I just do not wish to read the papers or even see the news on TV. Nowadays, Ainul seems to take a serious look at the local news on TV 1 or 3 and she remarked to me that I should start doing so too. She said there are so many interesting and alarming things being shown, which is exactly what frustrate my thoughts of the eroding world of today. Ainul used to be not bothered about looking at the news or even read the papers seriously, but these days, she has changed ! It is good for her to be aware of goings on but to me, these are sometimes over blown or over sensationalized to get better sales for the papers and for that matter for the TV news too. Why have we become what we are today ? When we observe the weekly attendance's of mosques and churches and other places of worship, the throngs of worshippers seem to grow by the day. That alone should result in a better community of people who are God conscious and healthy in minds and bodies, but yet we get the opposites. Why must it be so. Can it be that these worshippers are trying to atone themselves of their sins and hence their attendance's at these places ? One thing is sure with the Muslims in our country and I believe in Indonesia too, when it comes to the holy month of Ramadan, the mosques will see full attendance.

The month of Ramadan is here again and as usual, all Muslims begin to or for better words, they try to be more God conscious, by full attendance at Friday prayers, and perform the Magrib and Isya and of course the Terawih at the mosques. In short, a lot of us make time to do obeisance to the Almighty. What wonders in my mind is, why do they not do so at other time of the year? Eliminating the Terawih of course which can only be performed during Ramadan, all other prayers could be performed at the mosques too. Why do they not do so for the rest of the year ? It is a question of making time for them, just as we do with other things that we have to do when it comes to our daily chores. As retirees, meaning for Ainul and I, our daily chores are centered on the household needs such as daily provisions at the groceries, sending clothes to the laundry, buying presents for birthdays and weddings, attending invitations to weddings, birthdays or just making friendly visits to friends and relatives houses and of course to our children's houses too. Of course it cannot be overlooked that our favorite past time is to the movies and international performers at the Clubs and Hotels and occasional attendances at the Philharmonics and play houses. Unlike those past years of our time, these days Kuala Lumpur is full of entertainment of all kinds if one wishes to enjoy oneself. In short we can afford to be choosy ! Anyway, back to our Ramadan month of this year, as always everyone is busy with his own things such as buying clothes or dresses for the family, making preparations for the big day , the Hari Raya, or plans for the days that follow. This year for instance, Ghazali Nichol has planned for all of us to spend time at Port Dickson. Forty three members of the family will embark to the sea side there at chalets all inclusive for full board and lodging.

That reminds me of the good old days in College, when the classrooms were well utilized two weeks before the terms exams and more so for the big exams such as the Cambridge School Certificate ( Form Five ) or the Cambridge Higher School Certificate ( Form Six ) of those days. That was the time too when quite a few of the boys would get boils all over their bodies for no apparent reasons other than the fact that they felt stressed by the forthcoming exams ! The classrooms would continue to be used right after prep time to the very last minute of lights off when the Duty Prefects would ensure their closures. Study time continued after lights off in the dormitories with studying by torch lights or inventive bulbs attached to the mosquito net tops. That was the time too when the sales of Maxwell coffee ( Nescafe was not a known entity at that time in the early Fifties ) must have shot up in Kuala Kangsar since the boys believed this coffee helped keep them awake for the night studies. There were also special pep pills out there which prevented sleep. Later on it was found that those who took these suffered almost total mental black out during the exams. I did try it once and that was when I was in Form Four. For the second term exam, I almost failed ! I was second last in my class much to the alarm of my Form teacher, Encik Abu Huraira and of course the Headmaster HWD Howell, who wrote a special comment in my report card for the attention of my father. It so happened that my dad was a member of the Board of Governors for the College on that particular year. The old man took me aside upon receipt of the Report Card and showed me The Headmaster’s remarks. What I saw relieved me. His comments were centered on my high involvement in music and playing the guitar ! Anyway, that became a lesson to me, and after that as a responsible Prefect I went round to tell the boys to stop the pep pills and that if I catch any of them indulging in it, I would send them to the Detention Class - something that nobody liked to be punished for since it involved lost of personal reputation when one’s name was announced to the whole College during the weekly assembly, plus being deprived of weekends outings to the town. There might have been some impact on my efforts because I noticed the pep pills regulars stopped taking them completely. However, drinking Maxwell coffee remained since the side effects were never observed to be detrimental apart from the lost sleep which made itself up in classrooms with nodding sleepy heads ! Altogether, it was innocent adventures for us growing up kids which made College life very interesting and memorable.

We are especially glad to know that Faiq is going to Tuanku Ja’afar College next year. He would make a very good Collegian since he is well-mannered, intelligent and an all-round sportsman, a quality that any College needs. Tuanku Ja’afar College was modeled upon my College, the MCKK since the Founder, His Royal Highness Tuanku Ja’afar was an old boy of MCKK . In fact, keeping up to the old College tradition of the British colonial days, Tuanku Ja’afar College has a British Headmaster. This is to ensure that the boys become gentlemen of breeding when they grow up. Faiq will find nothing new in this because he is well brought up by Ghazali Nichol and Aini Kassim. Only thing we fear is that he should not have too much pocket money - something that could lead him astray with the influence of some of the boys there. This kind of things happened in all Colleges of this kind when they are fully residential. Regular visits by the family more so by Ghazali and Aini is essential so as to keep Faiq on the right track. However too much visits should not be practiced as Faiq might be ridiculed by the boys as being spoiled "baby" ! Let us wish Faiq all the good wishes and success at his new place of learning. Of course as grandparents, we would wish him to be at our alma mater the MCKK, which saw the last of our clans there in Izzat and Akasyah in the Eighties. Getting into MCKK and even Tuanku Ja’afar College is not easy these days. Entrance selection is strictly based on academics. When Izzat and Akasyah got in to the College I had to pull a lot of strings. With the merit points that I had as an active old boy for MCOBA ( Malay College Old Boys Association) plus a strong letter from His Royal Highness The Yang Di Pertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan and personal visits to meet the responsible officers at the Education Ministry, it took all these to ensure the entrance of the two boys then. These days, I was told, it is even a lot tougher. Hence for Faiq, we are very proud indeed that he got in to the Tuanku Ja’afar College purely on his own academic merits and his sportsmanship background. Good Luck Faiq !

As I mentioned in my earlier writings on life at the College, the one thing that Faiq will and should experience is the lasting friendship that will be treasured once he leaves the placed later on. College friendship or comradeship with it will be the trademark of all Collegians in their later life. It will open doors of opportunity and networking. Take for instance Farahat and Fairuz today. They remain the best of friends which bind their immediate families too. I experience the same too with the likes of the late Din Ahmad, Ibrahim Ariffin , Hakimi Hashim, Zainal Annuar, Abdullah Ahmad, Abdullah Zawawi, Mohd Khatib, Amir Yaakub, Rahman Ali, Baharon Azhar, Hussein Brunei, the late Azhar Lokman, Mokhtar Yaakub and not forgetting of course my brother-in-law Sabri Rejab and many others. For the last five years my weekly outing friends are Idris, Mohd Nor, and Badarudin. We seldom fail to meet because we make it a point that no matter what happens, we will make it happen every week. Occasionally when I happened to go overseas for longer than seven days, or any one of us happen to be doing so too, the weekly meeting would still be maintained to ensure continuity. Others have tried but failed because of failed personal commitment. Sabri had his group too quite some time back and they initially met each week at the Lake Club but a short while later it broke up.

As Sabri said, it was contrasting personalities and interests. It is very common that we all become different persons after leaving the College. I have a very close friend who today acts as if he has never known me all his life ! But that is an exception rather than the rule ! There is always an odd fellow in our life’s circle, which makes life interesting.