Walking Down Memory Lane....

3.7X says "Innalillahi wa innalillahi rajiun. Semoga ALLAH mencucuri rahmat ke atas roh Allahyarhamah Hajah Muslimah... makcik ku, dan jugak kepada makcik-pakcik ku yang lain yang sudah pergi. Betul-betul cakap, I'm still not sure what connects me to some of my relatives. But it's not my fault. I'm the last of the first generation of HMS family. So I didn't grow up with my parent's siblings. I didn't get to see them get together during their Hari Raya or Weddings or family gatherings. This got me thinking about what's life in the past? starting from my parents...

Dari cerita dari arwah mak, their marriage was arranged by Pakcik (mak's brother) when she was 14 yrs old. Then they lived through the Japanese occupations (or was it before they married) dan dia kena pakai macam lelaki untuk elak dari jepun time perang. And I heard some stories, that they lived at Pulau Skijang (or something like that). Bapak cerita in his younger days, he use to cycle from Singapore to Batu Pahat, and the journey would take him a whole day. I like to hear stories of that era, because other than the story above, I know nothing else.

But I like to know even deeper, like the first moment bapak jumpa dengan mak. What did he feel? Where did they meet? Was it love at first sight? Did they courted ? How did they buy a house, did they built it themselves? And how did my parents siblings get together? Did they have family sports day or gatherings ?

So how did they raised a big family? Were these children chaotic in the house? With no PCs or TVs, what did they do for fun? Running and jumping around, wrestling? I'm sure Kak Long being the eldest gets the biggest headache, handling all her younger brothers and sisters.
Imagine, wak dir, wak ram, wak atid, playing wrestling, while kak long and kak ngah were helping mak with the cooking, while bapak is working, and the whole house riuh-rendah with all the other younger sisters, maybe kak cik was playing masak-masak. I remember someone told me, if not wrong, that there was actually another brother, before or after kak long, who pass away (I'm not sure).

And I would like to go even deeper than that. Mak always tell me stories about her Bugis ancestors... She use to make me memorise from Othman bin ... all the way to Penghulu Bachok, Penghulu Saper, Laksmana Bintan. What kind of people are they like? With ranks like that, are they really powerful people, do they have weapons and have they killed anyone? And what about the Jawa people from bapak's side, his grand dad's name is Maon Sari. I'm not sure if that's a malay name, but it sounds really ancient.

You see, I only have questions upon questions, and not actual stories to tell. And I can only imagine what life was like for them, in their early days, and what life had been. There's no way to see all of it like in a movie, even if Hollywood produced them, it would not even be accurate.

So I encourage all my abangs and kakaks, if you see the younger generations, like anak-anak saudara, or cucu-cicit saudara... ceritakan kepada mereka, bagaimana hidup berkeluarga zaman Atuk/Nenek dulu, dan pengalaman membesar bersama-sama. I'm sure they love to hear it, and will in turn tell them to their own children and grand-children.

My favourite picture in my family pictures collection.

The best family story-tellers are Kak Long and Abang Atid, and recently I learn from Abang Atid, that they, Abg Kadir, Abg Ram and him actually wanted to named me Iskandar, which is a mix and match of their own names collectively. (hmmm... I don't get it too... hehehe)