GRAND CHILDREN

Having three sons and a daughter and two foster sons, we now have fourteen grand children. Their ages ranging from sixteen years to nine months. Unfortunately or fortunately we have eleven grandsons and only three grand daughters.

Faiq, being the eldest is studying in Tuanku Jaafar College in form four. He is blessed with good looks and we know there will be many girls who will swoon at his feet ! He is very loving, caring and an outdoor type of person. He excels in tennis and won many trophies in his younger days. He also plays rugby ,soccer, futsal, and squash as well indulge in scuba diving. He is doing well in studies and received trophy for working very hard, a kind of unique trophy given by his College.

Faiq, even though he looks tough but he is a softy at heart. He is compassionate and will help those in need without being asked. His tears will roll down his cheeks when he hears sad stories and when his maternal grandpa passed away recently he was really devastated. Only his mom can console him.

And his younger brother Azrhy is such a chubby and cuddly boy who can understand only English, since the whole family speaks mostly English. His spattering Malay sounds like "orang puteh cakap Melayu" and he is shy to answer you in Malay for fear of being teased. This boy loves all types of games and is a good scuba diver. He loves foods too but will not take fish nor vegetables. From what one observes, he is also very caring and helpful, but sorry to say, he seems at times quite clumsy. He falls a lot of times due to his hurriedness to do things ! He can go far in his studies because for his age his knowledge of things surpass that of eight year olds.


His elder brother to him, Zharif, is one to look out for. He looks like a professor , and very knowledgeable in computers, medicines etc. This Zharif can go far. We predict he will become a doctor like his mom or perhaps an astronaut. He too, like his brothers, loves all types of games and revels in deep sea diving (his family’s hobby) squash, tennis and what nots. He is patience as well as loving and caring, He is in standard six in Sri KDU and just finished his UPSR.

Tunku Maisarah just turned twelve this 17th August - my dear grand daughter ! How do you describe this child ? Her parents and us cannot understand how she can be the duplicate of our daughter Farah. She is of course the apple of both sides of the grand parents. When she was a baby, she has to be sung to before she can fall asleep and wonders of wonders, the songs she listened to by her paternal grandpa was "Only You". Until now she still insists for that song to be played in the car when she is with us.

Tunku Maisarah as we see her is a very sociable person. She has no fears at all when meeting new people which in these present days , very scary since so many bad unwanted happenings happen if one is not careful. At present she is into Korean stories and songs and she can memorise or comprehend and sing songs very easily. We hope she can go far in her studies with such good memory !

One thing that is the trait of this family is, clumsiness. We spill waters, overturn a chair, drop plates or saucers unintentionally and Maisarah happens to be living it. This happens when we are in groups or company, in big events. Very embarrassing though but it cannot be helped !

Tunku Maisarah loves food - anything is good for her just like her Ma’Wa Farah who eats anything that is laid in front of her, be it cold, hot or the food going bad ! She is fun to be with - cuddly loving and now she measures her height by standing near me and exclaim - "Tok Mama see, I’m taller than you now " and she jumps for joy and smiles broadly ! The person she is at loggerheads with is her brother Tunku Muhammad, who is eight years old.

This boy is the opposite of his sister and has adopted his father’s attitude to being at home. He is a home body and finds a lot of excuses to stay away from school. He is content by staying a home with his PSP and being fed by his maid Mimin who takes to him like water to duck. At the slightest command from him Mimin would rush out and do what he asks her to do mostly to cook him whatever he likes. Muhammad is in a world of his own ! A world of mystics, stories of ogres and witches which he loves to read. He can be very possessive to the extent of being cocky, stingy with his things, but with reasons he can part and shares his toys easily.

His favourite foods are chicken, and loves any type of soups. Rock melon is the fruit for him. He aspires to be a chef like his Ayah Teh, Tunku Farazil. Little wonder we see him adding weight of late and that makes him look handsome, somewhat !

Recently when Zharif, Azrhy, Maisarah and Muhammad slept over at our house they all had a great time playing in the rain whilst at the same time using the rain to wash and scrub clean our car . Making sure that all our grand children get together whilst growing up has always been our motive so that one day they will always remain close to each other.

Not forgetting, of course, we have Tunku Aiki Hussain and his younger brother Tunku Hibiki Farid who both not only look Japanese but they both speak more Japanese than English or Malay. If not for the fact that Farazil got posted back to Labuan and later on to Kota Kinabalu where the family now lives , both the kids would know very little English and Malay, which is not unusual when their main language at home has always been Japanese, since their mother Yasmin Yoshie is Japanese. Looking at their future, they and us are blessed with kids who will be multilingual - something which is rare in any of our family members. Aiki is a very active boy and loves outings and adventure, just like his dad and as such the family almost always spend their weekends out somewhere exciting such as to see and explore new places and events. Aiki is especially good with his hands when it comes to assembling all those modern toys of today to which oldies like us two are at a lost to understand let alone to assemble them. Aiki is fully adapt at these toys. As for Hibiki, he is still trying to comprehend what languages are being spoken around him and kind of seem confused still. Each time we speak to him he will only say " Ultra man, ultra man !" However, he is such a lively boy and most certainly feels contented just being at home by himself - somewhat like his grandpa these day.


On our extended family members we have the ever charming Marsya who always dress smart and pretty. She is quiet and smart in school and like her younger brother Afi, seem to be more attached to their grand parents in Jakarta, which leaves little Audi to fend for himself. However Audi is a survivor and makes the best of his surroundings to fill up his time. Both Marsya and Afi seem to have directions of where they are heading, just like their father Syed Fairuz who is doing very well in his life career. We cannot sidelined Ranthy, their mother, who is ever resourceful when it comes to earning that extra income for the family. She has an ongoing weekend refreshment stall at the condo’s swimming pool area which sells fresh fruit drinks to a sell out reception each week ! The family enjoys quality life together with their family outings and excursions to near and far places during the school breaks.

The child film star of the family has always been Tunku Omar who has taken part in a few commercial advertisements. Omar by nature is a very imaginative person who immerses himself into his video games characters such as Ben Ten or even Skywalker. Hence whenever Omar talks or plays games of any kind, he almost always begin to assume a new character for himself and acts as one too. Quite amusingly, Omar even tries to argue out of not wanting to do any of his workbook using words he hears from his video characters. When it comes to shirking workbook exercise, you cannot beat Omar. With Farid he is able to procrastinate and perpetually moan with excuses for not wanting to do the workbook. However, whenever I happen to take over this task, Omar seems to give way and comply well to advice and instructions. He can also be classified as the best talker in the family, next to Maisarah who used to be the same when she was at his age then.

The opposite to Omar is Tunku Emir Zikri who is about the most mischievous boy in the family. Emir is always up to something somewhere some time and when confronted he will have ready excuses or denials at hand. With his soft spoken and sweet talk, he cuts a picture of innocence for himself. Emir however as opposed to Omar is ever adventurous and an outdoor person. Almost always whenever he stays with us, he will be out in the garden somewhere or at one time to the surprise and consternation of Irman and Saroji who were then working at our house rooftop to paint the roof, found Emir besides them ! He is hyper but seemingly intelligent and sharp minded. When it comes to fast thinking, he beats Omar any time. Omar on the other hand just hates any competition.

At this juncture, it is very hard for us to imagine what their youngest brother Tunku Uzair is going to be.Aged eleven months, Uzair seems a cheerful baby always smiling but soundless all the time. When we sound our apprehension on this to both Izzat and Aida, they maintain that Uzair can at times be very loud whenever he is upset over delay in his milk. These three boys will be interesting to watch later on, since they already indicate diversed characters of their own.

These past weeks we have been blessed with the presence of Aisya Iman at home. Farah is taking a long break from Chicago to spend time with the family with the intention as Arman John says to let Aisya be acquainted again with her Malaysian family and lifestyle. To this we observe it was not quite that easy for Aisya to adapt in the beginning. She must have found our approach to her somewhat hostile especially when we take for granted that we can hug and kiss her like we always do to the others as customary in this part of the world. She definitely takes a dislike to anyone looking at her while she is eating or drinking or even when she is seated by herself. To us, this seems like a typical American (as typifies in the movies) , who is ever ready to question anyone looking at them. Aisya seemed fretful when wrongly approached and she seemed to have kept her distance from us most of the time for the first few weeks Thank goodness it is gradually changing and improving for the better lately, but not without a great effort by us both. Aisya is well disciplined by Farah although at times we feel Farah is too hard on her. Aisya is witty and quite chatty too whenever she is in a good mood and she seems musical too. Painting seems to be her favourite hobby. The cousin who loves Aisya so much is Emir who would follow and be as near to Aisya all the time if he is permitted much to the annoyance of Aisya who feels that she is being crowded on by his presence ! Emir in his loving way tries to hug and kiss Aisya and she has a hard time trying to fend him off. Kids !

What else can I say about our grandchildren other than the fact that we have always enjoyed their company each time they come over to our house. Of late Omar and Emir have frequented their stay with us whenever there is a school break and even on school days too and through their presence with us we have learned to know them a lot better and of course my being always a teacher by habits, they are subjected to my house discipline and teachings, to which they seem to respond pretty well judging by the fact that they always seem reluctant to leave our place when its parting time - a complement perhaps to my ego ! It is always fun to have our grandchildren with us. Of course being grandparents we cannot help but spoilt them at times. Admittedly I have been quite strict on most things but Farid spoils it all ! They all spin their webs around him to get whatever fancies them and he obliges most of the time, but then what fun would our grand children have if grand parents are not what is expected of them. Just as once we too were with our grandparents, the things that are memorable to us have always been how much they spoilt us then. As for you young parents out there, you just wait when you become one and then you will know what and how it feels to be grand parents !

written by Ainul Mardziah