Where am I?
Oh, I realized that I am in a foreign land. It is summer season now. The day is much longer than the night! I went to sleep at 12midnight. Then, I woke up @3.30am for imsak. Waited till 4.30am for Subuh Prayer. I went back to sleep again and now it is 5.30am. And I can't sleep anymore!
My mind soars to Happy Village ...
I vividly saw Mrs HRHR was having her Imsak with Sister Sofia. They were eating white rice with chicken soup and omelette. Also fried long beans. Wow! That was nice ;) as compared to me just a bowl of cornflakes with fresh milk. They had hot milo. And this made me smiled since I, too had hot milo to keep my tummy warm.
Then, I heard taharim coming from the loudspeaker from the mosque in front of Mrs HRHR's home. I loved the sound. It was followed by soothing Azan by the Bilal calling for Subuh Prayrer. The Imam was leading the prayer. I could hear the citations. When I was young about more then four decades ago, it used to be the voice which I am truly familiar and well verse with. The voice of my late Abah who led the prayer.
While my ears were all out following the voices, my Chinese eyes saw Mrs HRHR and Sister Sofia took their ablutions and they later prayed together in the hall. It was a calm moment. After the prayer they made their Doa. And, from Mrs HRHR's mouth I saw she was making the Doa for the well being of her children. That shows the Mother's eternal love. Oh! How I wished I could join them. For the time being only my mind and heart vividly saw the events :(.
ALL these happenings B4iC The World ...
There was a family of ten people who lived in that house @Happy Village. Mom & Dad. Also Nyai (paternal GrandMa). Seven siblings comprising of three boys and four girls. And I was the youngest among the girls. My late Abah used to nickname me as his 'Seventh Princess' LOL. By the time I was six years old, only four siblings left because the other three were already married and had life of their own.
By then, the other three siblings above me had gone to secondary school. I went to primary school @ESK, which was six miles from my home. I went to school with some of my friends in a mini school bas driven by the late Pak JO. My friends in the bas were Noli, Maria, Hendon, Kemala Dewi and Sabar. There were other girls, but I could not remember their names. Oops :( There were boys, too. But, I could only recall two. They were LanZai and NadHam. These were my school friends from the same village.
But, at home I have childhood friends who were my immediate neighbors. They were Mini and Saloma. These two were my buddies. The boys were Salleh, Amat, Omar and Mail. Since they were my sister's age, so we never played together except my late Dad told Omar and Mail to look after me at school and to take turn to carry my school bag when I was in Primary One! LOL. So no chance whatsoever for them to kenen me, the so called AnakPakImam :D
So what did I do apart from the normal duty to go to the school, both the primary in the morning and the religious school at noon? I am not a sports girl nor am I a girly girly home type. I can't have an active life because I am quite a sickly kid :( Also, I am not a domestic type who liked home chores. In particular, both Mom and Dad manja me so, I am not used to doing house works. Most of these chores rested on the shoulders of my two elder sisters :D
But, I did like reading very much! Hence, I used to pass my time just read and read and read any material be it books, magazines or cartoons which I could grasp on! And, my late Dad was my reading companion. Most evenings just after Asar prayers we used to sit at the anjung and late Dad will narrate stories to me about prophets, about his young life and about how he met Mrs HRHR.
During these time, in front of my house was full of people mostly my sisters' friends. They were playing sepit udang or baling getah gelang atas tin dengan slipper. They also ran round and round playing rounders. Sometimes, I joined them if the games were less strained like ting ting or capteh. But of all the games, I always enjoyed the batu seremban. My elder brother Man will look for beautiful rounded pebbles from the river. But, my Mom taught us to use bags of sands. We sewed small bags and insert the sand in them. They looked like squared 'pebbles' that made it easier for our hands to hold while playing the game. This game also good for eyes because it made us alert as well as taught us accounting!
When I was already in primary school, our games had changed to more of indoors. We played the snake and ladder, also quizzes or teka teki. By this time many friends from the religious school like Norma, Maznah and few others came to my home after school. I used to read to them story books which I borrowed from my school library. I also shared with them shair or poems. And we used to act as students and teachers where we swapped roles. We also used to imitate our religious teachers' teaching styles from Ms Trustworthy to Cikgu Burn and Cikgu Ali :D
That was truly fun and while I wrote about these memories, my mind went to my childhood days in my village, to my late Dad, my Mom, my siblings, and to all my friends. Indeed, I missed them all and the innocent fun life we have had together. Some of them even have left this world for alam barzakh especially my late Dad and also some of my childhood friends. My prayer and Al Fatihah to ALL of you. Amin.
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