Raya Reminiscence...

Dalam dingin subuh hatiku terusik
Kenang nasib diri di rantauan
Bergema takbir raya menitis air mata
Terbayang suasana permai desa

- Sudirman's "Dari Jauh Ku Pohon Maaf"-

One of my earliest memories of Raya, was when i was about 5, and we were still staying in the kampung house in Gombak...my mom had prepared some rendang, like she always does every year, and it was sitting, simmering in its glory, on the ancient fire-engine red coal stove we've always had....it was supposed to be the eve of Raya, but we weren't sure, and my mom was alternating between sitting in front of the tv, waiting for the official proclaimation, and outside, by the back door, attending to her rendang, worrying that it might spoil should Raya fall on the day after..so what happened was, when the Penyimpan Mohor Besar announced that Raya was going to fall on the next day, my mom give this loud whoop and jumped in the air! i was shocked! well, as shocked as i could be in my tender years...hehehe...

every year, my mom would make a trip to Singapore to visit her elder brother and his family...we would travel by train which took up a good 10 hours..we usually leave from KL on the 2.30 p.m. train, and by the time we reach Johor, it would be about 10.00 p.m....fill up custom forms, and had a general 1/2 hour wait, before everything was cleared for the entry to Singapore...i could still remember me, my mom and other siblings (if they came along as well) would be sprinting to the customs officer counter...well, if you don't hurry, then you would be in for a long queue..and the one thing my mom hates is waiting, especially after a 10-hour ordeal on a rocky 2nd-class carriage...with my brother asking at every station "brape station lagi, ma?", "lepas nie station ape ma?", "lepas tu station ape ma?", "pukul brape kita sampai ma?"...i'd be driven nuts! i would be the quiet one with a bagful of books to keep me company...and after surviving the custom officers, and those scary-looking Rottweilers, sniffing your suitcases for drugs, we would meet up with my uncle, who, being a custom officer himself, stays near the station, and we would be dragging our suitcases over railway tracks to get to his flat..

actually, the hidden agenda to my mom's yearly visit to Singapore, is to memborong curtains, and materials for our baju raya...so, imagine that? i've practically memorized the shopping complexes my mom would frequent, in her search for raya fineries...one thing that came out of this trips was my independence in choosing clothes..or, in other words, the fussiness that comes along with choosing my baju raya...my mom would be spending hours and hours in the shops, and she would always tell me to go and choose something for myself...so, i've always, always choosed my own baju kurung pattern, even at a young age...she'll come later to approve it, or point an alternative for me...the funny thing is, my sister didn't have this chance as we would have chosen something for her, for we would leave her at home with my dad, cuz my mom would have her hands full...nowadays, whenever we go out shopping for raya clothes, it seems natural to pick something up for my sister as well, regardless if she comes along or not! hehehe...we would have our musim...one year, i wouldn't have any problems in finding what to wear, the other year, she would have that problem...but, it helps in choosing, cuz she's a ruthless critic..."ee, soo ugly laa!!"..'so like makcik!"...while i would go "ee, aliaa nie suke sangat colour pale-pale laa!!"..hehehhe...i'm not missing that this year, cuz we already went raya shopping much earlier, and depleted my mom's bonus...whoops...hehehe...

my brother have it easy..every year, we would choose a colour scheme for him...but the most memorable one was when he wore this hot-pink baju melayu!! hahahaha....and those were his growing up years, so he wore that baju melayu till it was so short, it skimmed his calves! hehehe..i've always tried to get him to wear those teluk belanga type of baju, but he would always have his excuse..."macam gay la", and whatnot....cheh....this year, i heard that my sister is bugging him to get a baby blue baju melayu...and he always leaves it till the last minute to get his baju! a few years back, my aunt, who's the family's designated tailor, had the task of sewing his baju melayu, and our 2 cousins' (her sons)...kesian my aunt, nearly pitam-pitam! well, what do you expect after days of sewing billowy, silky materials, of huge proportions to accomodate the boys, who, according to my aunt's exact words "panjang-panjang semuanye!"..hehehe...my sis and i, would be giving her yearl headaches with our instructions for our baju raya...my sister is of delicate form, excellent for those tiny kebayas, and other trendy forms of raya fashions...while moi, of a chunkier version, would always be advised to stick to baju kurung...cheh...nak jugak...hehehe...but she's the best..all our baju would turn out beautifully, even though she always claimed that "aku dah nak masuk hospital dah, jahit baju engkorang nie tau!"...thanks Mak Engku!!

when we first moved to Subang, my siblings and i are all below the age of 10, so firecrakers and sparklers were part of Raya too...hehehe, i remembered one time, when we were playing with the sparklers, my brother and sister, and the rest of the neighbouring kids, had this brilliant idea of throwing the partially burnt sparklers into a pile of grass laying on the vacant lot in front of our house...well, they kept at it, till it caught fire, and the blaze got bigger! my mom and the other neighours were panicking already, each running into their home to fill up pails of water and trying to put the fire out...finally, it went out..and what were the kiddies doing while everyone was busy with the fire? they continued playing with the sparklers!!! sabar je laa...hhehehe.another funny incident was when we brought a bunch of firecrackers to my aunt's place in Bangi for a family buka puasa do..now, my dad always managed to procure some firecrackers, even though there were none to be found..apparently, he's asked his driver, then Uncle Muthu (who's scared of my dad, hehehe), to search for some in Kepong or somewhere...anyways, there was this type of firecracker that shoots colourful sparks, but you've gotta point it in the air, away from everyone...well, my cousin, has never played with this type of mercun before...and she light up the stick, and point it out, NOT up, and started asking "eh, macamane nak main nie?", with the sparks flying out of the sticks, and everyone jumping out of the way! heheheh....

my mom would always bake cookies, and as i got older we'd both be planning the menu...i don't bake, of course, so i mainly help around the kitchen...one year, we decided to try baking the oatmeal cookies for the first time, and my mom instructed me to watch the oven, while she goes to pick my brother up from his tuition class...unfortunately, i was too busy chatting on the phone, and at the same time she arrived home, i rushed to the oven, and found the cookies burnt! arrghhh...sabar jelaa...my mom would always bake chocolate chip cookies EVERY year, cuz it's everyone's favorite, and se would also bake kuih kacang, as that would be my brother's favorite..oh yeah, comel tak? my brother's favorite kuehs are the traditional ones...kuih bangkit (!!), kuih ketayap, and his ultimate, ultimate, ultimate favorite is...Karipap Sardin! do u know how hard it is to look for karipap sardin if u don't know where to look??!!! whenever we see any stalls at the Pasar Ramadhan sellig karipap sardin, we would buy some (ideal figure would be 10!), cuz we know that we might not come across it again...it got to the point where i would even think about buying some for him, even though its not the Ramadhan month, or i'm berpuluh-puluh kilometres away from him and won't even be seeing him till the weekend or something! last year, when we first moved into our new house in Shah Alam, my mom wanted to merasmikan the new oven by baking her choc chip cookies..alas, technology proved to be hindering as she was so used to her old oven and was not able to gauge for the new oven....our cookies turned out flat and lebar...tsk, tsk, tsk....and she has since avoided the oven...which now serves as a place where we put all the manuals to kitchen appliances....kesian mama..hehehe...

my grandfather passed away when i was 13, and from that year onwards, we have made visiting his grave a Raya affair...we used to go in the morning, sedekahkan Yassin, and then shoot off to my grandma's place...it also helps that his grave is at Bukit Kiara which is near to the exit to the nOrth-South highway...but for the past few years, we have been visiting his grave on the eve of raya, due to the crowd on first raya itself...i'm gonna miss that...and my dad used to go back to my grandma's place, on eve of raya for takbir...and then come back home again...well, my grandma's place was about 30-40 minutes away..then...now, we'll be lucky if we can get there in an hour's time...sometimes i think, is the traffic jam caused by those gamblers on their way up to Genting-Casino-Highlands who found that it's easier using the same route? well, if ur stuck in the next car to us in your cheap batik shirt, it's NOT!!!! its a good thing that we always get an earlier start from home, and by the time we reached my grandma's place, a majority of my cousins are still rubbing their eyes, and waiting in the queue for my grandma's solitary bathroom....

what i'm gonna miss is going beraya with my cousins...we'll be headed by the eldest cousin, Kak Nor, who would lead the congregation of abou 20 kids ranging from the age of 4 to 24, to the neighbouring houses...those makciks know what to expect after all these years..a herd of the Sidek cucus, walloping all the kuehs, pouring drinks, and making a lot of racket as if it's our grandma's place....but it has been great fun...it's not the kueh, or even the duit raya...well, for me, they've stopped giving me duit raya, even though i seem to have stopped growing..hehehe...one year, my kurang asam cousins, toddling after us, stuck their head through one door and asked "rumah nie ade kasi duit tak?"arrghh, sungguh memalukan.... it's the general closeness that we have as cousins, and that has been developed over the years as a result of many family gatherings...

i apologize for not being able to hold my annual open house ceebration...but i think my sister and my brother is planning for one..well, according to my brother, the "Government" hasnt approved the idea yet, but the "Kerajaan Persetuan" said, no problem..hehehe...i started holding open house celebrations for my friends since i was 15..before that, it was birthday parties...haa, the first open house i had saw The Great Nads attending..she didn't even know who i was! she was just tagging along my friend Ayesha..but we became friends, the next year when we were placed in the same class, and both of us became prefect probies....my open house became a yearly affair, and my friends would be asking, eh, when is your open houselaa? and my mom would always roll her eyes at my request of a tiny open house je (siap dengan list menu tu), and every year, she would inquire, berapa orang nie?? heheheh..my sister and brother demanded for their own open house too...so, we had the major one last year...which was fun!! thanks you guys, whoever reading this that attended.....

my head is heavy..i think i wrote too much..i doubt anyone would reach this line..anyways, those were my raya memories, what i could actually sumbat here...and now, that i'm away from friends, family, and familiarity, the melancholiness and the homesick ache is even more evident....wish i could be at home celebrating even for a day with mama, ayah, zaidi and aliaa...wish i could go beraya with my best buds Afti and Eileen, and their respective others (of course), wish i could get lost looking for houses to beraya at with my gorgeous friends Nona, Ferr, Elly and Nieza..wish i could go to ur open house Neri ...wish i could hang around the others during raya open houses and gossip my heart out with the rest....

but i guess that would all have to wait...

so, i'd like to take this opportunity (macam tak habis-habis type je lagi, heheehe) to wish you all SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI.....and MAAF ZAHIR BATIN....apologies all round for any wrongdoings, harsh words, or if you have ever felt bad caused by my words....i apologize from the bottom of my heart....

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading if you have been a reader of my blog....and thanks soo much for leaving bits and bobs at the tagboard...you don't know how much it means to me....it's like a golden thread that links me back to home...have a great holiday, drive safely, and may you achieve all the blessings of Syawal....

Minal Aidil Wal Faizin....