Susah dan senang : Merantau ke Deli

Sebelum
"Demi Allah saya akan melindungi engkau Poniem!Dan biarlah Allah memberikan hukuman yang setimpal kepada saya, kalau saya mungkir"..

Selepas
"Kau boleh pergi dari sini! Kau orang Jawa!Boleh turutkan orang Jawa, kau boleh kembali ke kebun! Sebelah mata saya tidak boleh pandang pada kau lagi. Pergilah dari sini, mulai sekarang saya jatuhkan kepada engkau talak tiga sekali. Pergilah!"

Things change with time,people change with so many reason and sometimes reason that are hard to swallow, bitter..and the sweeteness and excitement of love will just fade away. This a an extract from : Merantau ke Deli by Hamka (2002)Maybe some of us have read this book but I just finished it today after spending two day concentrating only on this book :-)

It happens everywhere in every culture and love and marriage is a sacred bonding that need to be build each day not only the first 7 months or 7 years..but forever. I have the courage to finish up this book not because of the thickness (181 pages) but it reminds me of my own friend who are still in this chaos of finding a solution to bring back the light to their marriage, at the beginning everything was so perfect with rainbows of colours and now there are only dark cloud and waiting for a disaster.

This is a good book as a guide in not only marriage but also culture where people sometimes blindly follow and push themselves hard just to please these unreasonable expectation.

"Demikianlah keretapi itu mengerjakan kewajipan yang wajib dipikul setiap hari, mengangkut dan menghantarkan, membawa dan memulangkan; baik yang berhasil maksudnya merantau ke Deli, atau yang datang kosong pulang pun kosong. Banyak yang telah pergi tetapi lebih banyak jua yang datang. Banyak yang putus asa lalu pergi, kemudian datang kembali, kerana ada pepatah orang yang telah lama tinggal di Deli : "Jika sekali air sungai Deli telah diminum, nescaya akan datang lagi dan minum lagi."

Sastera dan sejarah

Based on one research that I heard on a radio last week, women are smarter when they are pregnant..? maybe because of motherly instinct that we need to nurture, educate, cherish and love the child ,that turn a mediocre women into smarter one..I wish that it is true and I want to believe that I'm turning towards the same phase.

I just finished two books by A.Samad Said- Di Hadapan Pulau & Sungai Mengalir Lesu; the scenario and context are almost the same, revolved around suffering and hardship during Japanese occupation. It was told thru a different perspective and it was all well written. The first time I read Pak Samad books was in 1992 right after SPM and I managed to complete reading 5 of his books in three months (Salina, Langit Petang, Hujan Pagi, Sungai Mengalir Lesu and my favourite - Daerah Zeni).and also Shanon Ahmad's.I don't think whether I could have the same motivation now.

Those two books were actually not in my reading list, it's supposed to be The Fountainhead, but after awhile I felt like I don't have enough time and I don't want to waste my time searching for far and foreign literature when at the same time I don't know much about our local literature scene.Fountainhead is related to work so that could be finish up later.

My mini research are moving slowly now with 10 pages already in Words format and I'm getting more interesting info thru the internet. Next step is to contact Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia cawangan Kedah, MTPNK, Muzium Negeri and most important local people..people on the street, especially elderly..

Sweet and Sour

The season of the year has arrived, everywhere we go there are rainbows of colours, red hairy, green spiky and golden yellow jack..by the road side, at pasar tani, nite market..you name it..and this is the best time to pack your things and head back to kampung (especially for those who seldom have time to do it..?) jenguk-jenguklah orang tua di kampung..sambil penuhkan kereta dgn buah..;-)

Living in Alor Setar with no orchard and relying on pasar malam makes me excited when the season came. I remember when I was about 7, we had a visit from my granny who lives in Yan, she came with a gunny full of fruits especially mangosteen..she was too old for her age to take a bus ride all by herself..I hardly knew her and I think that was the last time I ever met her, and until now everytime i look at the purple fruit i will always remember her..semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat ke atasnya.

Some people might hate the smell of durian but to me its heavenly..how can't we not enjoying this smooth yellow flesh with strong aroma? There are some with bright yellow and firm flesh,some with smooth and greyish flesh..there are also different names for these durian..some call it kucing tidur, maybe because of the form of each ulas. And the worst nitemare is durian with big white worm...yucckkk!!! I was told not to eat durian during this period, its too hot for pregnant woman..but different people will give different piece of advice..mom said ok..as long as I take it in small amount, but I just want to be safe.

I'm not an expert in agriculture but I think there are some species of fruit trees are common in Kedah especially nipah, this is not seasonal fruit and there are easy to find along river bank, the sweet white flesh are best enjoyed with it's juice in a hot sunny day.Has anyone tried nira nipah? there's one stall before plaza tol (A.S Selatan )selling fresh nira nipah.

There's one exotic fruit that I think hard to find now, maybe some of you might came across of this 'nanam' fruit. I knew about this fruit back in the 80's somewhere in Langgar, Kedah. It looks like guava trees but we don't have to climb or used stick to pluck it because it grows at the base almost touching the ground. We can't eat it fresh but best eaten as jeruk due it its strong sour taste..

Hmmm..how I miss my hometown and its exotic fruits..but I have to take care not to over indulged. From my MIL point of view, pregnant women or anybody who try to conceived shouldn't eat too much fruits due to it's acid level, even an apple! Contradict to medical opinion but it's up to us to whether to believe it or just to put it aside and head to durian stall..:-)

Parcel from Pg

For the last few weeks there was a chaos in Tg Tokong, everybody were thinking, cracking their head and rushing to courier service asking whether they could deliver this special parcel. They thought that they don't have enough time or maybe the recipient need it badly and urgently..But this recipient still have the patience and she could wait for another few months.

I received a phone call on Thursday asking me to go to one place in USJ9 to 'have' this replacement for the parcel that I should received from Tg Tokong, so on Friday during lunch time I went alone to that place and retrieved it..and it was totally different, but I can't complaint too much, just accept whatever come.

Received another phone call from Tg Tokong, another parcel is coming and I have to collect from the same place on Sunday..I've been waiting for this one and pray that it will be the right one.

Last nite my heart was beating so fast, waiting for hubby to collect my parcel..It was around 10.30pm and finally I got my long-awaited parcel..
..Sambal Tumis ikan masin with pajeri mangga...I had two plate of rice..legaa..Alhamdulillah harap-harap baby nanti tak meleleh air liur..;-)

And this morning I had the same meal while hubby drove me to the office..

How things has changed......

The best moment in life beside getting married and having lovely kids must be during our childhood time. Spending time studying and playing and make friend and being scold. I spend eleven long years in SNC - St Nicholas Convent (Alor Setar), a school where parents were dying to send their child in because of the system of maybe it was considered English school.

I entered SNC in the early 80's where the school church with pale looking nun were still around and we have to greet them whenever they passed by...'Good Morning sister..At those time they were many Serani student and most of them are good looking with long nice hair, properly dressed up with good command of English. I always fancy their English name : Elizabeth, Grace, Ann, Stephanie, Cheryl..and there were also Indian Christian with beautiful names like: Felomina, True Indian normally have these name : Nagarani, Telagawati, Bawani and a must have: Hemamalini, after famous Indian actress.

Those were the days when I always pretend that I was in English school in England !!(kecik-kecik dah perasan tu..)

We had a small school office for both primary and secondary, few small toilet cubicle for primary school with green field surrounded by palm trees and hibiscus, for secondary we had double storey building, pavilion, assembly hall, five nos. of food stall with 10sen drinks..and sister's house plus the church. There were lovely bell like purple flower blooming on a white trellis infront of their carporch. They also planted colourful carnation and few vege plants. It wasn't a Grade A school but it holds memory of thousands student.
It was the moment when Cindy Lauper, Bross, Alleycats rised to fame..and Abba and Carpenter song were recomposed by music teacher to suit us during music class.

Most of the system and orientation were into Western even though we follow Malaysian syllabus. English were compulsory, we even had an English Week, one will be find if she used even one Malay word and we had a class 'tulisan sambung' during primary maybe at standard 4..where you have to write an essay with proper italic font instead of one independent alphabet to construct a word.

that was then.....

this is the reality..a reality that hard to swallow..SNC is just a name, it is now Sek Kebangsaan and they have moved to other place with new modern standard design building, no more English style classroom with big doors. Things has changed to suit current demand and the old school is now just a abandoned building. Not really abandoned but taken over by some operator selling those cheap stuff..if you look at this picture from Google Earth: the green school field has turn into a pasar with blue tent..what a sad sight..the church is no longer there..no more purple flower..I did once comment in QOTH blog on related entry that 'i hate looking at the school now, it feels like looking at your ex..'
One day I passed by the road going to the roundabout and I notice that there were still few abstract painting at the corridor..the same old painting..I almost cried..

Terubuk masin and deep dark shaft

He arrived safely on Friday with tired face and dirty pant but extra luggage with sourvenirs, buah salak (pi jauh2 beli buah salak) and ikan terubuk masin. He was so excited telling me how he went to that huge site and how they went into 70 meter (at first i thought it is just 15 or 17 feet )deep dark shaft. I know it was his opportunity to learn and explore new things but looking at the photo and heard about their guide who almost faint because of the pressure down there and maybe lack of oxygen enough to make me nervous.

(*this is the only photo that i could attached, the rest kena minta permission dulu :-)

Before he came back I craved for ikan masin and now ikan terubuk masin is still in the freezer untouch ! dah depan mata tak nak makan pulak..any good terubuk masin recipe? or just fry with onion..yumyum