Today is Monday. Not just any Monday but a Monday after Raya
Holidays—I think the worst day of the year. The office is eerily quiet giving
signs of mourning souls being dragged out of the on-going Raya festival. But
like it or not it’s time to get back to
work— to the ever-piling up paper work, trainings, class preparations and of
course meetings. So we know life is not all the time a sandy beach—it’s just a bitch!.
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| Abang Azli at Kg Puteh, KB now a headmaster of SMK Cini, Pekan, Pahang |
The travelling was fun. On the way back I enjoyed the
serene darkness of Bentong forest at 3 am
while driving at 0km/h on the steep Karak Highway. So it’s the fact that
most of us were nocturnal drivers. And where is the fun of ‘balik kampung’ if
there were no bumper-to-bumper highway traffic. But you know I realised one
thing about us, Malaysians (Malays in particular), that we have all learned how
to queue up. I think the message has reached everyone and now everyone has
tried to behave and wait for the turn.
It’s obvious when we made our stop at R and R. We saw many queues; at the surau
people queue up for wuduk, outside people lined up some more for the wuduk as
Fajr time was passing fast, at the toilets we queue some more. No one seems to
jump the queues although everybody has to go. They all seemed calm and inched
their way forward. I have never been so proud to be among these people who’s
held their integrity and civilised behaviour so dearly. We even queued up at
the petrol station which took us almost an hour to reach the pump; but everyone
just stayed in the queue and moved slowly. Then one stupid lady tried to cut
into the queue and some one let her in—see how sopan these people were. I
smiled as I saw that lady’s car bearing
a red diplomatic plate; aahhh of course she’s a foreigner, I guess they don’t
practice this in her country.
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| Masjid Kayu Besut, Terengganu |
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| Ahmad at the anjung Masjid Kayu, Besut |
Abah, are we there yet? I heard my son asking from the back.
The journey was terribly long and I took the longer route through the east
coast. So everyone was complaining. I used to work and live in Dungun Terengganu
for almost 15 years and this route had been our weekend route for so many
weekends that we commuted between Kota Bharu and Dungun. I wanted to see the
trees and the muddy trails again, the abandoned fruit stalls by the road side,
the many mosques that we used to make a pit stop, and the kampung folks that
stared at us for god-knows-why. Maybe those folks reminded me of my growing up
years in the kampung. Back then everything would be happening at the “tembok”
refering to the main road that went through our kampung. It would be livelier
during the Raya season when the city folks came back and drove around in their
fancy cars and glittering clothes. We just stood there by the road side and
watched them like they were some creatures from the outer space that had invaded our sleepy
kampung. Not much has changed over the years, I think; I could feel, see and
experience the same things from those
days. They have replaced some of the old mosques ; the move that cost someone
an MB position. Well you don’t bulldoze an old mosque you know, that’s a terrible
thing to do. An old place of worship carries a lot of history, traditions and
barokah. It sholud be preserved at all cost; but for this stupid man it’s just
a pile of dead woods. Hope he learned the lesson well. The new mosques are all
big, outstanding and lavish. Some were deserted with a handful of local people
came to join us for noon prayers. You could even feel the emptiness of the
space with dusty windows and lizard wastes all over the place. I drove through
and made some stops at the regular stalls that we used to buy kueh and stuff. A
young lad was manning the stall; I guess it’s time for the kids to handle the
business now. The kueh tasted sweetly the same and heavens know that it has been the taste
that I missed for a long time.
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| Beautiful anjung of Majid Kayu Besut |
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| the traditional high wall and ceiling |
This time around the raya mood wasn’t much of a jovial but a “numb” of some sort. When you go to a dentist,
the doctor would jab you with something before taking your tooth out and you
will feel numb through out. You don’t feel pain no more no matter how the
dentist hack your tooth out; you just feel nothing. This Raya I felt the same numbness. I did not feel a need for a new baju
or songkok or new pair of shoes—no rush for the shopping rituals. I braved the
traffic without thinking the long journey home because I did not want to miss
my Ramadhan prayers. I did not feel bad for not visiting some relatives ; there
was no need to rush here and there. All these years that we have been making a
point to visit them—none has returned the favor and visit us back. So that’s it
no more. I planned to skip the whole balik kampung thing but you know things
just would not be the same. Being among the kampung folks reminds you of how
life could be so simple. They seem to have nothing but happy nonetheless. How
much do you think a makcik selling a few heaps of chillies and some bananas will
make? More than your small change, I reckon. But she sat there as if making a
career out if it....well actually it’s her life. When PM made a statement,
people see political. We feel ashamed for people calling us poor because we did
not do anything about it not
because we think it’s untrue. I went
back to feel and experience the
so-called “ poor people of Kelantan”. I didn’t feel ashamed at all but proud to be
among them because they are a bunch of happy folks that realize life isn’t
defined by the rich politicians from KL but by themselves. Awesome, isn’t it?
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| Dewan Solat |
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| Attending a wedding in Dungun , Terengganu |
My Raya was sadly ushered by two deaths; one of my brother’s
MIL and another of a close friend. In the midst of a celebration, death is still
ultimately sad . I felt numb like a burning fire being splashed by a bucket of
water; all’s left is the smoking ashes. Nothing else to cheer about.
So life goes on. Shah Alam is still quiet as students are
still on their semester break. But come
next week there will be a different
story.
Enjoy your Raya mood folks!
