Story from the past

Tomorrow will be the Maulidurrasul, birthday of Prophet Muhammad, the last Messenger.. I would like to write down a story from my grandfather on the subject of “taking care of parents” as told to me my mum.

The Holy Quran says,"Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor." - Surah Al Isra (17:23).

Abu Hurairah, a companion of the holy Prophet, has said that "a person is indeed disgraced, who does not earn Paradise by caring for his parents during the life time and old age of his/her parents".

In the Holy Quran, Muslims have been urged to pray for the salvation of their parents as shown in the following verse: "And say, My Lord, Have mercy on both of them as they cared for me when I was little".

We normally go to PokDe Renek sundry shop in Kampong Pulau Ketam half an hour before sunset and would reach his shop just a few minute from sunset after a leisurely walk on a small sandy pathway. There was a 100m stretch, between Duyong Besar and the bridge that demarcated Kampung Duyong Besar and Kampung Pulau Ketam, that we have to walk in between thick undergrowths.

PokDe Renek would normally closed his shop at sunset after he has finished dealing with the customer who came before us.. He would close his shop before attending to our need.. I guessed he did not want us to be embarrassed as we were taking a loan for our food items and perhaps set precedence for other village folks some of whom were equally poor.

We would have finished our “purchase” some 15 minutes after sunset and would rushed back to our grandfather’s house in Kampung Duyong Besar, where we were allocated a room there. Granpa was known as Che’ Him Tukang (carpenter), Che’ Him Cermin (mirror/glass) as his house has the most glass pane windows on the island) and Che’ Him jangok (smartly dressed) as he “selit” his sarong like the ladies do as opposed to kilas, the way the men used to wear the sarong).

To the outsiders, my father did not fare too badly as we stayed in a big house.. but for the fact that my father work for pittance as an apprentice carpenter. There were times that we pay our zakat fitrah in the evening of Aidilfitri as opposed to a day before.. as money collected during Aidilfitri by my siblings will be used to pay the tithe.. I believed for most of my childhood, our family was qualified recipient for Zakat but was not considered as we stayed in a big grandpa's place.. but my mum did recalled that we have received zakat once when our close neighbour became an Amil (a person qualified to collect zakat fo the Government).

Ah too much intro.. my apology.

On one of those trips back from PokDe Renek sundry shop.. we stopped to take a breather at a big tree stump.. I remembered very well that particular evening.. my mother has my sister (four years my junior) on her “dukung sisi” (carrying my sister on her side) and a basket in her other hand grip... I was about six then..

She recounted my Grandpa story from that old tree stump. There was an old man that has lost his spouse and his ability to walk for quite some time. He has many children that could not keep their father in their houses for long without having some nagging and perhaps harsh words from their spouses.. So the children keep on shifting their father from house to house taking turns to take care of “the old man”.

Picture from Uncle Google..
As there was no other way to carry an old man in the old day except to put him on your back.. one of the old man son did just that and has to stop at a tree stump to take a breather after carrying his father for some distance.

The father told the son “I used to stop at the this same tree stump when I carried your grandpa to your uncle’s place”
“Why do you have to carry grandpa to uncle’s place” queried the son
“Ah your late mother was not happy to have your grandpa with us for a short duration of time” the father replied.
The son immediately lifted the father and carried him back to his place instead of carrying him to his sibling’s place. When queried by his unhappy spouse, the son said “I do not want to repeat my father’s previous actions and my children to follow my footstep “..
Have a nice weekend to all and have Happy MauludurRasul and a nice long weekend to my Malaysian readers ;))

Light-hearted day

I felt light-hearted this morning.. partly due to the fact that my better half has served ketupat pulut goreng (fried "glutinous rice in palas leaf") and serunding daging (meat floss bought from our Puan Zafar in Kerteh) for breakfast this morning. She has been toiling with daun palas since yesterday afternoon preparing our family favourite Trengganu fare.. ah never mind the cholesterol ;)

By the way, I heard from my Taiping friend today.. that Perak also have the same ketupat..

On reaching the office, I noticed a good friend (that I missed his presence :)) has came back to office after 3 weeks leave. We have a briefing on the drilling progress, then came the good news, our hydrocarbon gas sample has been analyzed and the corrosive carbon dioxide content found to be well below 10% . We expect that ample volume of gas that can be produced.. augurs well for our country’s electricity suppliers ;).
You probably have read that some of them have threaten to increase the electricity cost/tariff if we cannot meet their gas demand ;((

We will conduct some test soon and hopefully we can call it a day in 10 days time.

Like Ninot said.. It is time to smell the flowers.

P.s. The highlight of the day ..I contacted Ninot and we have a good chat .. and chatting with fellow blogger always make me more than light-hearted ;)

Have a good weekend..

Nicknames

I was guilty of not been up to mark as far as blogging and blogs hopping were concerned. Was rather busy with the latest exploration well (3rd well in a back to back sequence).. the drilling operations commenced tremendously well.. blessed with a big drilling jack-up that can be put into operation even in two meters of December tides.. while other wells have to wait-on-weather (cannot be fully operational). With that situation all eyes were on my team and as a team leader I was more or less have to be on my toes most of the times.. as always.. excuses :) ...

A verse in The Book told not to Defame Nor Call Each Other by Offensive Nicknames.

Qur'an 49:11 Surah Al-Hujurat (The Inner Apartments)

O you who believe! let not some men among you laugh at others: it may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): Nor let some women laugh at others: it may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames: Ill-seeming is a name connoting wickedness (to be used of one) after he has believed: And those who do not desist are (Indeed) doing wrong.

I used to have many nicknames.. When I was in standard 1, somebody who wanted to spite my elder sister called me Awang Leper ( Flatfaced? Boy) . This nickname, a modified version - Wan Sharif Leper, stayed with me whenever I went back to Pulau Duyong. So if you happen to visit Pulau Duyong in Kuala Trengganu, famous for boat-making and recently as venue for Monsoon Cup.. There bound to be some folk around my age that know me as Wan Sharif Leper ;)

At the age of thirteen years old, I was blessed with the opportunity to study in Sekolah Dato' Abdul Razak (SDAR) , Tanjong Malim. I was accompanied by my uncle and was left just after he sorted out my registration and got me a place in the hostel. I must have missed my family and friends very badly then as the leader of hostel room then (was En. Kamaruddin Ahmad who later became a lawyer and a one time Selangor wakil rakyat) noticed my loneliness or longing. He told everyone in the hostel room that I behaved like a "pungguk rindukan bulan". Translated to be "an owl that missed the moon".. Corrected by my anonymous reader to be " like a nightjar longing for the moon".. Many rhaks to that kind reader.....A phrase used by the Malays to describe someone that missed one's lover terribly.

So that was how "orang bulan" (moon man) name was brought about and that was the nickname that I was known by my schoolmates and later brought over to varsity and even to my workplace. Although there has been some modification such as OB, orebule, Marc Bolan, Awang Bulang or just bulang etceteras, The name " orang bulan" is well remembered by my peers and juniors in SDAR. For some of you who have requested my email.. you would might have noticed that my yahoo email is orebule@yahoo.com ;) an email address given to me by our group email coordinator Wan Kamaruddin or TokWan Din.

On my first day in USM, I felt nice that new friends started to call me in full name.. this situation only last for one and half day.. a friend by the name of Salman Ahmad ( now a Datuk and is/was an ambassador to Australia) who were then approaching my hostel noticed me and called me by my nickname from a distance of some 20 meters for all my new friends to hear and so the nickname stayed with me for some of my close friends in USM;).

I do not know about other places but in Pulau Duyong (Trengganu) used of nicknames were rampant when I was there.. There were three Wan Ali on the island.. Wan Ali Semin (cement in English) earned his living by making objects using cement, Wan Ali Gemok (Fat Wan Ali) was the fattest of the three.. And my father who was a carpenter in boat-making was known as Wan Ali Tukang.

Having Muhammad as the most popular name on the island.. We used to have all kind of Mat or PakMat.. Some nicknames can sound unpleasant.. As name of animal can be the acronym like Itek(duck), Ayam(chicken) and some nicknames go after character.. ghogeh (flip- flop?) and jangok (always smartly dressed).. honestly most nicknames normally describe trades one was in and the nickname were used sparingly to identify the right person and were seldom used to humiliate anyone.

There were also three Muda who were selling sundries on the different location of the island. One was rather tall and went by the nickname of PokDe Tinggi(tall), one was very plump and went by the name of PokDe Gemok(fat) and the other was rather short and went by the name of Pok De Renek (short). PokDe Renek played an important role in my life for he was the one that extend his hand to allow my family to take our need from his sundry shop and pay whenever we have money.. We only managed to pay all our debt to him after my elder sister started working if not after I started to work.

Yes, the monetary debt we owed to PokDe Renek, we do managed to pay ...(borrowing from a phrase from a song "To Sir with Love" by Lulu) but how do you thank someone whose kindness has allowed a family of six to put foods on their dining table for more than twenty years..

May Allah blessed his soul (I came to know that PokDe Renek has passed away some years ago just before his nephew became my sister's son in law).

Have a nice productive day and stay safe.