While absorbing his childhood story, it brought my mind and heart to trail down my own childhood life which is far different from him as far as siblings are concerned where instead of being surrounded by some jealous brothers, mine was with full of love and protection from my brothers and sisters. Being the youngest they poured all their love to me. In almost every thing which I had shared with them, I always received the best and preference over them.
In fact, I vividly remembered whenever our parents bought some mangos from the town, my sisters and brothers had to wait till I came back from school before Mom peeled them and all of us will eat together. Mom always said, "We'll wait for Little Sister."
Similarly, at the end of the month after our late Dad (Abah) received his monthly salary, we always had makan besar meaning our foods on the dining table would be extra special than normal days. Abah would come home with fresh chicken where Mom will cook ayam ungkep, a special style cooking which used lots of herbs, spices and very thick fresh coconut milk which is one of my favorite foods. It was also my Mom signature dish :))
And the best part was all the two drum sticks will be mine because then, I will only eat drum sticks and not other parts of the chicken! Mom will also deep fried for me the hati ayam berempah. Yummy! Ironically, I did not feel bad then, but now when the flash back rolled once again I felt truly selfish and remorseful ;(
My life then was so carefree :)) I have no worries or any responsibilities to shoulder :D My daily routine apart from finishing my school work then was only to spread the mat or colouful tikar mengkuang which was hand woven by my Mom in the main hall for mengaji Quranic reading session. About fifteen to twenty children learned Quranic reading lessons from my Abah. I used to see them holding wet hand towels to wipe their faces if they felt sleepy. LOL
Every night after the maghrib prayer except on Friday night my Abah will teach Quranic reading to my siblings and our neighbours' children. Perhaps being the youngest in the family, Abah was never stern with me in reading or reciting the Quran which I wished he had. It is because all my siblings are hafiz and hafizah, whereas I am no where near compared to them. They, especially my Big Bro Man and Sister Sofie even went to represent their schools and districts in Quranic Reading Competitions. I always felt envious of them :D.
Also my siblings were very good at reading Berzanzi and excellent at singing Nasyids or religious choir. They always came up first place or second places for both competitions whenever the competitions were held in their schools or in the district levels. I truly like if they entered the Nasyids Competition. It always came as a group choir where either my brother or sister will lead them. But, I never joined them because I have a lousy voice. Hu Hu Hu;(. My late Abah would console me by saying, "Little sister, don't be sad, you'll take the prizes home." :D
But I always loved the time when they practiced the Nasyids, just before the Competition Day. About fifteen friends of my siblings will throng our home to practice the singing or choir! Sometimes, if the competitions were held at weekends they normally slept at our home with my sisters and brothers. My late Abah would conduct the singing practices and their sweet enchanting vioces would hail the night.
Now, flashed back to all those lovely days and nights gave me nostalgic feeling. Oh! I truly missed that beautiful moments spent together with my Abah and siblings in Happy Village. But, I know nothing could bring me back to those moments again except heart rending memories ...
Memories of Carefree Life ...
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