SIBLINGS 47: FIRST DAY RAYA

In the early moring Hari Raya, we were dressed up to receive our children who would seek our forgiveness which they do no have to do because thay have not done any wrong to us


We have got to wait for Marini who would be relieved from duty only at 9.30 am

Family photograph without our Nana as she has to spend her first Hari Raya in Ipoh in compliance with the rotation consensus


It seems Marini is catching up with Shiwar or rather Shiwar is leaving her far behind


Marini seeking forgiveness from Shiwar

We were very lucky because we did not have to prepare heavy menu for the first day of Raya at our house because Pak Chik Mat and Mak Chik Sayang's tradition of hosting the first Hari Raya day with their special home cooked nasi beriani. Although Mak Chik has seeked limited help in the preparing the kurma dishes from Mak Teh but Mak Chik and her daughter in law are also supered cooks themselves. Mak Chik also has the assistance of very abled food testers.

Pak Chik and Muzli waiting for the arrival of the guests while Pak Teh was searching for foods which could phsycologically accomodate his precious stomach

Pak Chik Mad welcoming the guests.


High quality food testers


Zam and Farli giving their helping hands in welcoming the guests



From left: Marini, Mak Su Bariah and her grandchild, Zam and Linda.

Basri with his new partner in life and his family

The ever smiling Adik Mal and family in their royal colour

Pak Chik Mad was very happy with the attendance but the other two were happy with the foods


Even in her parents house, Nayah has got to be served by Bakar obidiently



Nayah advising the blogger on the need of having more regular high quality postings in tandem with her free time









Every one should go green to improve the quality of our environments

Pak Chik, Pak Adik and Dr.Osman seriously discussing about next year's menu stressing on health food

Being good hosts, Pak Adik and Muzli sending their guests off or rather that they were very relieved that there were less guests to entertain

Atan, Pak Wan Chik and Ejey enjoying their foods


For the first time in years, the gates were fully locked leaving potential guests empty handed or empty stomach

Disgrunted regular guests who were unaware of the fact that the house was not opened for Raya this year. They have got to find other alternative food outlets . Pak Chik Mad's open house was one of the alternatives

Afraid of the influx of guests, I was assigned by Pak Chik Mad to guard against any unwanted intruders

With my cane in my hand, I think I was able to carry out my assignment effectively

However, I did not have the heart to chase away this smiling boy on his special bike from going to Pak Chik Mad's house


Similar in size but different in dress.
Shiwar's samping was kept in place by a belt while Farli was happy with his samping which has gone down below the tropic of capricon




Most eligible bachelor in town , says who?



Very impatient to wear the new Raya shirt. Marini has got to help Pak Teh in peeling the tag or otherwise the shirt would have been torn apart

Very contended with the new shirt

Hari Raya is for the young and old alike

Back to Lorong Kampong Pisang waiting for the arrival of Abang and his entire family members

Chef Wan preparing his famous grilled chicken and beef


Shiwar preparing his famous satay

Amalina preparing satay for grill

Farli the potential satay seller and already established satay eater

A very lonely figure when the score was

Manchester United 3 Manchester City 3

MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN

REMEMBRANCE 40: RAYA EVE TRADITION

Second generation of Syed Abdullah busy at barbeque pit.
From left: Shahir, Sollehin and Ashraf

Supervisors checking whether the beef and chickens were properly cooked

Waiting to take over from their elder brothers. From left: Ashraf, Fariz and Hanif.

Just minutes to spare before the break of the fast, Syan arrived at Hutan Setali after being send by his girl friend who has to rush back alone to Perlis. I do not understand what is the special pull factor that Syan has which has attributed to the level of sacrifice that his girl friend gladly has got to endure.

Syan busy explaining about the accusations of mistreatments of his girl friends that his aunties has hurled against him. Form left seated in front of the table: Zam, Ezman, Najwa, Za and Sollehin
Sollehin listening attentively to the advice by his aunties that he should look for candidate who is better cook that his own mother.
From left: Najwa, Za, Sollehin, Dollah and Norlia.

Kamal, the favourite grand son of Mak, busy fulfilling his appetite after a hard day work. His ambition in life was to buy his mother, Norin with a new MYV which could reduce his mother's stress on her knees while driving.

Without his fireworks, Faiz was kept busy by Ryan

The first couple to leave the gathering was Firdaus, Fairuz and Ryan.

On the eve of Hari Raya Day, it is a our family tradition to gather at Mak’s house for our annual family gathering. The tradition of having this Raya eve family gathering started when Lid was still alive. With Lid’s demise on 13.05.1989 and followed by Mak’s demise on 18.12.2000 and with the blessing of Allah we have managed to keep the tradition fully alive.

Our menu of the night is very simple but very enticing to the mouth. The main menu is the barbeque of beef and chickens. While the main dish is mee/beehun sup with the ingredients prepared by Za which has inherited it from Kak Nab. Zam feels that the mee/beehun soup’s quality is comparable to any four star hotel in the country. Apart from that, there is also the laksa from Telok Kechai. All the foods were prepared by the members of the family collectively with Norin taking most of the brunt of the works.

Without realizing it, we have perfected our share of jobs. Fadzil is the master planner who is in charge of the logistics ably assisted by his five sons. Abdullah is in charge of the barbeque. Syed Jaafar is in charge of preparing the drinks whether it is carbonated or otherwise. However this year’s Hari Raya family gathering was very significant for us because it was the year of changing of the guards.

As our children has grown up, all the chores that has been done formerly by their parents has been taken over by their children completely. Fadzil and Abdullah has more time to relax and chat. Our tradition of having Laksa Telok Kechai has also changed into Laksa Kuala Perlis which has been ordered by Fairuz, the daughter in law of Hindon. Although Syed Jaafar has gone to Perlis before the breaking of the past, yet he has not abandoned his responsibility in preparing the drinks. He has taken the pain to prepare the drink mixture before hand and we just need to add water and ice. All my sisters has been elevated to the post of quality supervisors.

My four sisters and I

It was also my first assignment to collect Lid’s land lease from Pak Mat at Kelubi from Ami Leh who has been doing it over the years. So on the Raya Eve family gathering, I took the opportunity to distribute the takings to all my four sisters.

As I was very concern about my children and also my nephews and nieces who are having difficulties in locating the burial plots of Mak and Lid on their own without our assistance, I bought two sacks of marble pebbles to be spread over Mak and Lid’s burial plots. Kamal has bought red marble bricks to form the box for the marble pebbles to be contained. Kamal and Abdullah has done a good job in finishing their jobs on the burial plots of Lid and Mak. With that , I do hope that it would be much easier to locate Mak and Lid’s burial plots.

Mak and Lid's burial plots at the Pulau Maharaja Burial Ground has been spruced up by Abdullah and Kamal on the evening the last day of fasting @ 19.09.2009.

Mak's burial plot

Lid's burial plot

I would not know for how long we would be able to sustain the Hari Raya Eve Family Gathering with the participation of all the siblings. At the moment, only Za is staying outside Kedah but she has never failed to attend the annual gathering. Furthermore her mother in law is staying with Kak Chik in Kangar, Perlis and naturally Syed Jaafar would come back to be with her mother.

With the blessing of Allah, Syed Abdullah's family would be experiencing another expension as I would made to understand by Norlia that she would be receiving proposal for the hand of her eldest daughter, Siti Fairuz. She requested me to be free on 25.12.2009 to receive the proposed delegation. Her other two daughters would also have suitors from the farthest south of Peninsular and beyond the South China Sea. Even our sole post graduate lady is also making up her mind on her choice of her life companion. So I am very happy that Syed Abdullah's family ia expending beyond leaps and bound.

I cannot predict about the future but I think we would have a thought time maintaining the present status quo when every sibling would have their own extended family themselves. If I look back at the family of my grand father, I think we are also getting far apart. I even do not the children of some of my cousins. To add salt to the injury, a few cousins tend to annoy their cousins by their unwarranted remarks and attitudes. Their adverse remarks and negative attitudes has produced frictions amongst the family members which are beyond repair in the near future.

I would always pray for Allah's guidance that Syed Abdullah's family members would always stay united to face the various challenges in the future.. Insya Allah.

SIBLINGS 46: DISCOVERY OF NAMES

From left: Mak Ngah, Zam, Kak Fuzna and Syun reminiscing about old times at Lorong Kelompang

At 11.03 am, on the third day of Raya (22.09.2009) we received SOS from Abang @ Syun asking for direction to Mak Ngah’s house. Although he has been all over the world without experiencing any loss in direction, yet he was at a loss at Taman Muhibbah, Alor Setar.

We were on the way back from Kuala Kubang Rotan Market with Nana in the driver’s seat when we received the SOS. We immediately .rushed to Abang’s rescue and we landed at Mak Ngah’s house safely. Following the standard procedure of entry into Mak Ngah’s house, we managed to open her door through the self service method.

Mak Ngah was very excited that Abang and Kak Fuzna had paid her a visit despite their over stretched schedule. Seing Abang, Mak Ngah was physically energetic and they began to reminisce about old times during their stay at Lorong Kelompang, Bakar Bata.

Mak Ngah told us that Syun was very mischievous during his younger days. Although he was punished regularly by his father and grand mother, yet it did not deter him from creating more mischief. While he was being punished, Mak Ngah and Mak Chik Sayang used to shed tears in sympathy to Syun.

However Mak Ngah was also very grateful to Syun for his part in being Mak Ngah Deputy Sheriff in enforcing the law on her naughty boys. Syun was her enforcer in disciplining her boys. As she could not match the speed of her agile mischievous sons, Syun would then render his helpings hands in catching or arresting the boys. The arrested boys would then be brought by Syun to Mak Ngah to be meted out the appropriate punishments. So Syun was the official enforcer of law for Mak Ngah.

One of the culprits that was arrested by the ENFORCER

Although Syun was the enforcer, yet Syun would also receive similar treatment from another super enforcer in the form of Pak Teh. If Syun created any mischief and was bound to be prosecuted, Syun would try to evade from arrest by running away as far as possible. The best escape heaven for the day was to hide in the river below the roots of the banyan tree. Pak Teh was very overzealous in his duty and he would search high and low for Syun.

If Syun was caught by the super enforcer, he would be tied up, paraded and brought to the judge/prosecutor in the form of Ata Mak Dun. With both of his hands tied, Ata would place a burned chili on Syun’s nostrils which would have a chilling burning effect to the nostrils or even to the brain.

The SUPER ENFORCER

Another strict judge and prosecutor was Syun’s father himself. With his hand bound, Syun would be caned by his father by using various form of equipments such the normal cane or the whips that Syun has created to pursue his mischievous endeavours. Syun’s father code of ethic when receiving punishments was that Syun must stand still while receiving his punishments. Syun must not produce any sound loudly or yelling that depicted the agony and pain that he was receiving. Syun would only be permitted to shed tears silently during his astonishing punishment. That was why Mak Ngah and Mak Chik Sayang would also shed their sympathy tears silently.

Despite the cruel torturous corporal punishments he has to endure, yet it did not create any dent on Syun’s pride. Instead the punishments themselves would spur him to create more mischief vigorously. However the positive impact of these corporal punishments was very constructive in assisting Syun to be a successful businessman for discipline (the main pillar of success) was already embedded in Syun’s character.

When we mentioned to Mak Ngah about our Tam’s demise, fond memories cascading down Mak Ngah’s memory storage. The effect of Tam’s demise was also similar to the demise of Ata Mak Dun and Pak Teh pet animals. During the late fifties there were two pet animals of Lorong Kelompang.

Pak Teh used to have a pet monkey by the name of Moon whose cage was situated adjacent to Mak Chik Sayang’ room. When she was conceiving Sunaiyah, she would always came face to face with Moon when she did opened her room windows. This practice has some psychologically effects on her new born daughter which depicted in Sunaiyah’s behaviour during her toddler days. She used to store her foods in her cheeks. She would not crawl but instead she would prefer to shift around. That is why Darus used to call her by the nick name SOD which refers to the word kesot.

Sod the elegant lady

When Moon attacked their pet grand daughter, Zam, Moon received her punishments by being banished to Bakar Bata Hindu Temple by Tok Wan, the super duper enforcer. It was very sad for Pak Teh to depart with his pet monkey, Moon. Pak Teh dowsed his sorrow by bringing bananas daily to Moon at the temple for two weeks.

Moon the monkey

Mak Ngah related that in the late of the fifties, Ata Mak Dun used to have pet goats of a mother and her baby goat. The mother goat went by the name of Debab because of her bulky size. Both the mother goat and her baby goat was very attached to Ata Mak Dun. Dedab was so bulky that Ata used to attach a cloth that could support Debab's fully laden milk breasts that even touched the ground itself. Syun and the late Pak Su Omar used to bring debab for grazing around Lorong Kelompang while Pak Teh would take Moon for her daily walks around the kampung.

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However Ata's attachment to the baby goat was short lived as the baby goat died suddenly. Ata Mak Dun was crest fallen with the baby goat's death and she was very remorseful and she could not shed away her misery easily. The apeace her forlorn and longing for the baby goat, when Noraini was born on 21 March 1960, Mak Yah affixed her new born youngest daughter the glamourous nick name in memory of their pet baby goat that was MEK TET.

Mek Tet the purple lady

Mek Tet the baby goat and Debab the mother goat.