REMEMBRANCE 10 : INTERGRATED

MY FAMILY ON 1ST JUNE 2007

Shiwar and Marini were married on Friday, 1 June 2007. Marini chose the date as it was her birthday. After perusing over my traditional references, I agreed with the date as it was supposed to be an auspicious date for wedding or any other form of dealings. The marriage was solemnised by the Imam Masjid Negeri, Syeikh Roslan at the Zahir Mosque.

After the Akad ceremony at Masjid Zahir

The wedding reception on the bride's side was held at KIM and the bersanding ceremony was held at the Dewan KCS. The invitations were limited only to our immediate family members from both Zam and my side. We were suprised with the response from Marini's family whereby nearly 70 Marini's family members flew down from Sarawak.

For me it was a very significant event for me indeed. For the first time, we managed to influence our family members on both sides i.e Zam and mine to participate actively in the various wedding ceremonies. All the surviving uncles and aunties of both side of the family performed the merenjis on the wedding couple. I was very jubilant since my only maternal uncle, Syed Ibrahim agreed to perform the merenjis. Zam's uncle Pak Teh even rushed from the hospital after his gallstone operation to perform the merenjis. To make him more presentable, he agreed to wear Ezman's full Malay traditional dress.

I was also in cloud nine because for the first time, I managed to tie or bind the tengkolok in the style of Dendam Tak Sudah for Shiwar to wear as the head gear for the bersanding ceremony.
Apart from that, Shiwar was also made to wear my personal keris which was handed down to me by my sifu. Luckily I managed to change the original hilt with a new kemuning wood hilt in the style of Jawa Demam. It was for the first time that my personal keris was worn in any ceremony.

Dendam Tak Sudah head gear @ tengkolok tied by me

I was very thankful to Zahari Ismail, the DO of Pokok Sena who introduced me to the hilt maker specialist from his Kampung Kubang Teradeh, Mukim Guar Kepayang, Pendang. The hilt maker goes by the name of Egok whose main livelihood is a rubber tapper. His skill of keris hilt making was acknowledged by the national craft paternity when he won the second prize in the National Hilt Craftmanship Competition. However in his own village or rather in the State of Kedah, he is only known as a rubber tapper and not as a keris hilt maker. What a waste of talent for the State when it did not recognize the special that was was inherited from his elders.

Jawa Deman style of keris hilt and the keris cover of kemuning wood perfectly carved by Egoh

Except for my youngest sister (Norliza), all my other sisters attended the ceremony. I symphatised with Za as she has to attend to another urgent family matter. However in place of her absence, Norliza send her children Najwa and Ashraf to take part in the ceremony.

For the wedding procession, all my nephews and nieces took part with my three grand chlidren leading the procession. I tied the tengkolok for Afiq since he agreed to take part in the procession. Zam's nephews and nieces also joined in with the procession. Shiwar's cousin Wan Mohd. Fazli whose body size was identical to him obligingly became his bestman.

For the wedding dais, Mak Chik Sayang's daughter in law, Muzli and her family did a wonderful job in creating the magnificient dais within a day and it was dismantled within a day also. It was like the chitmore biscuits where it appear and dissapear at the same time.

The suprise of the day was our daughter, Nana who acted as the master of ceremony for the event. We did not realised that Nana has a very nice voice which complimented with the audio needs of the microphone. Even her brothers and husband did not realised that she has a superb capabilty as an MC. No wonder, she was often chosen as the MC for various educational regional level ceremonies.

Our Nana, the superb and tearful MC

Half way through the ceremony, we were taken by suprise when tears were sunddenly flowing from Nana eyes. Initially we thought that Nana was sad that Shiwar now belonged to some one else or maybe Nana was furious with Ezwar because Shiwar forgot to instruct our chartered bus driver to wait for Nana and his family for the journey to Padang Besar. Pak Su Wan Mansur then tried to console Nana to forgive and forget. Let bygone be bygone and only focus on the future. When Nana managed to calm down, she told us she could not control her emotions when her auntie Norin entered the hall. To Nana's eyes Norin looked alike my late mother whom Nana has shared a lot fond memories with her Mak Tok.

All in all, the wedding reception was a success due the deligent efforts of every one in the family. We were very lucky that Nana could create a very cordial and jovial atmosphere for the whole duration of the wedding reception. We are anxiuosly looking forward for our next wedding ceremony in the family.

My sisters

From left: Norain, Norlia, Shiwar, Marini, Me and Hindon.

Salleh Khir's legacy

From left: Noraini, Zamzam , Shamsul Bahari, Shiwar, Marini, Mohd. Nasri, Alaina Nasmi and Rohani Jasmani.

My only maternal uncle, Ami In performing the merenjis

My only surviving paternal uncle, Ami Leh performing the merenjis

Pak Chik Mat performing the merenjis

Mak Chik Sayang performing the merenjis

Mak Chik Salmah performing the merenjis

Marini's father, Omar performing the merenjis

Pak Teh Khalid performing the merenjis

Abang performing the merenjis

My sister, Hindon performing the merenjis

My sister in law, Alaina Nasmi performing the merenjis

Alaina Nasmi's family

Rohani Jasmani's family

Noraini's family



My three grand children leading the wedding procession

All my nephews and nieces