The Ku Klux Clan

After a job interview my son complained to me they were asking why he's not a Ku like ayah. He said luckily he has no Ku in front of his name so he can give any reason he can think of. If he's a Ku like his father thing will get worst, they might ask what Ku is,which he has no idea at all.( with due respect to all Ku family especially from Kedah ).

When I first knew my husband I was confused , because in Pahang we have Tengku or Engku. I know in Trengganu they have Che Ku. That was the first time I came across a Ku. My husband told me that Ku is decendant from raja i.e. raja kalah perang --raja kebun pisang. I really menyampah when he pulled my leg like that. His family never talk about it either. He told me when his mother used to tease his father, like-- Ku apa? Kucing? Kuku? and I add up to the list, Ku klux clan.

My husband has got seven sisters and two brothers. Except for one all his sisters are married to non Kus therefore their children can't use the surname. When our children didn't have the Kus his brothers and sisters jokingly said -- lama-lama hilang nama Ku di dunia ini. My husband told them not to worry because their youngest brother already produced 12 Ku juniors even before he reaches the age of 40.

My husband was not so sure whether his granfather Ku Din or his great grandfather Ku Yaakub who was the court writer hence the title Ku. They were well known for their good handwriting ( in Jawi of course )and he showed me his eldest brother's handwriting that is almost similar to the Quran writings. Then again there are tens of thousands of Kus in Kedah ,they can't be decending from the court writers. My wild guess is maybe Ku originated from Siam.

My husband said in fact there is an island in Siam where the people are all Kus. They are Malay originated but they don't speak Malay. Hmm....I think we should go to look for adik beradik ( relatives ) there. First, must learn cakap Siam since all of them are Siamese speaking.

Believe it or not I was once snubbed by a Ku for not mentioning the Ku in front of her name. Come on sister, janganlah begitu , kalau ular itu betul-betul berbisa bak kata pepatah ular menyusur akar tak akan hilang bisanya. Same goes for other titles like Dato' or Datin atau lain-lain hatta haji dan hajjah -- janganlah tarik muka kalau orang tersilap panggil, sampai nak hilang kawan. Tak hilang title tu kalau orang sekali sekala ter tak sebut atau terlupa atau tak tahu pun bila depa tu dapat title.

Me husben and his fish pond

My husben never allowed the children to have cats in the house. He is astmatic and our children have the tendency to be astmatic too. My first daughter loves cat since small, she will pick any stray cats she found ,kissed them, cleaned and fed them and hid them behind the kitchen for fear the father might find out. Of course when he found out he will constantly nagged her, don't ever allow cats in the house and when they poo you have to clean them yourself. Finally, she decided just to hug and kiss any cats she found and with heavy heart just let them go.

When I took my optional retirement, I got somebody to make koi pond . It was my present for my husband who is about to retire later. He loves fish and he bought about 25 small koi for the pond. They were so beautiful and colourful.My husben really loved them, fed them and talk and sing to them morning and evening. As the fish grew bigger he became more ambitious, he added up 5 new fish to the pond. A few weeks later the fish floated tummy up one by one due to the fish virus. In the end he had to clean the whole pond and the few koi left he threw in the lake so that they had better chance to survive in there.

This time around he bought only 15 fish for fear they might catch virus. When the fish grew about 1 foot long ,he got ambitious again so he bought another 5 to add to the pond. Again the fish died one by one. He was so disheartened at first, but of course they had to be replaced. This time he bought only 10 kois and vowed not to add up any more new kois in the pond. Sure enough when the 10 fish grew about 1 foot long each he brought back two new koi and about a week or so later history repeated itself.

This time around I called Syed the garden and pond designer ( I knew him since 12 years ago when he just started landscaping ) to clean and service the pond . I told him that ikan dalam kolam dah jalan one by one ,please come and do something about it. Syed said kak, saya demam,tak dapat datang hari ini. Ok lah bila sihat nanti datanglah. Meanwhile my husben is in denial. I waited for another 2 days and called Syed again. He said his fever got from bad to worst. Syed, baik mu gi jupe doktor ambik sample darah mana tahu kena denggi. Mu gi le ni jugok jangan tangguh-tangguh,ingat sikit anak-anakmu kecik lagi ,binimu come pulok tu!. Three days later he called from the hospital,suara macam apek tua telling he's comfirmed with denggi berdarah and he was being quarantined. But alhamdulillah today he was discharged when his blood pellet count back to 100 from 18. In the meantime our koi floated one by one except for ikan sepat Siam kaler biru and orange have survived.

I suggested to my husben to change koi to ikan lampam or talapia but he was not amused by it. I told him since the economic downturn we should do something that is profitable! My neighbours who were being entertained by him became curious as to why there is no more singing the fish song every morning and evening........

Patin sangkar,patin buah.

Hari ini seorang kawan mengajak saya makan tengahari di sebuah restoran baru di sekitar Lembah Kelang. Restoran itu menyediakan pelbagai masakan ikan sungai. Sebenarnya kami ingin ke Temerloh makan gulai tempoyak ikan patin,tapi bila dah nampak restoran baru kami batalkan hajat nak ke Temerloh.

Kami tiba pada pukul 11.50 di sambut dengan penuh mesra ( kalau makan di gerai tak perlu sambut menyambut,duduk aje dan pesan makanan apa yang hendak! )Saya cukup kagum dengan deko restoran yang bertaraf lima bintang ( lebih kurang macam restoran dalam channel 707 atau 703 ).

Saing ambo tu tok laki dio is in the food business. Nya madah dengan kamek restoran kedak tok is not going to make it. Sebab yang diberi ialah ianya sangat klassy, bertutup, berhawa dingin, orang susah nak masuk. Lagi pula makanannya hanya sejenis iaitu masakan ikan sungai ( walau pun ada juga menu sampingan spt laksa dll ).

Gulai tempoyaknya sungguh sedap sepadan dengan restoran,tapi seketul ikan patin ( patin buah ie ikan patin yang hidup dalam sungai Pahang dan makan buah-buah yang jatuh ke dalam sungai dan patin sangkar pula ialah ikan patin yang dipelihara dalam sangkar di sungai Pahang dan makanan yang diberi ialah makanan ikan yang diproses ) yang agak nipis potongannya senipis potongan ikan tenggiri, berharga RM35. Dan seketul hanya cukup untuk seorang makan.

Sehingga pukul 1.30 t/hari kami berdua menjadi customer of honour for the day. Selepas makan dengan kenyangnya kami mula ber( betting )selama manakah restoran itu akan bertahan. Pakak-pakak teko buleh tehe ne bule jah! Tapi mungkin restoran itu dibuka bukan untuk semua orang tapi untuk pelanggan tertentu sahaja.Bak kata orang kalau nak murah pergi mengail sendiri!

Cinta yang tak kunjung padam.....

Kekalahan Umno di KT memang sudah dijangka oleh ramai orang. Kami di kampung dok rimas,dah berpuluh-puluh tahun menyokong Umno sejak masa mak ayah masih hidup hinggalah mereka berpindah ke alam baqa',tak pernah Umno kena rejek sebegini. Nak tukar parti lain pun takkan pulak, bukan kita sakit hati kat sapa-sapa atau bukan tak dapat jawatan yang diidam-idamkan sehingga mengamuk sakan nak hancurkan kerajaan atau bagi tunggang terbalik negara.

Rata-rata orang kata rakyat dah jelak dengan Umno er..pemimpin-pemimpin Umno yang hanya mesra rakyat bila time nak mengundi saja. Masa-masa lain susah nak bersua muka, mungkin sibuk dengan hal negara/parti.

Tapi daripada kita asyik mengutuk pemimpin-pemimpin, eloklah pakat-pakat beri pandangan apa yang terbaik untuk mengembalikan kasih sayang rakyat terhadap parti. Contohnya kalau Pak Lah dah berundur, janganlah PM saja yang bertukar tapi lain-lain perkara dalam Umno tetap seperti yang orang dah meluat tu. Buku sama kulit je lain. Lama-lama api cinta terhadap parti padam macam orang bercerai talak tiga, takde can nak rujuk balik melainkan di Cina butakan.

Best buddies last forever

It's nice to have friends especially close friends. I have a few best friends that I gathered along my journey of life.Two of them were my childhood friends , we grew up together, went to primary and secondary school together.We parted when we finished our form five, after that we went on our different ways. Even though we live apart and we rarely meet ,deep inside us we are more like relatives than friends. They are Raja Mariam ( Allahyarhamah ) and Norehan ( she is now a retired school teacher). Norehan got a very good voice and she is a ghazal singer as a second vocation .She used to appear in Johor Baru radio station.

I've got another close friend when I was in sixth form. Me and D.M. were classmates and hostel mates for two solid years. Even though we live a different life but we are very close at heart. We call each other every few months just to update of what's going on in our life.

When I got married I followed my husband to Temerloh then to Kuantan. In Kuantan we met Halim and Minah and we became very close since . At that time both of us only had one child each,and it added up until we had four kids each. We spent a lot of time together -- took our children for picnics, balik kampung, stop at each others kampung , went for holidays (Frazer's Hill) , visit Zoo Negara , camping at each others house and etc, etc. Yes, we are more like family than friend.

After Kuantan we moved on to KL then Tg Karang (Sel) . In Tg Karang we met Ibrahim and Habsah. I taught in the same school as cikgu Braim . When we got transferred to Kota Bharu and Alor Setar they came to visit us. We went on to stay in Kuching and lost contact for a while. When we got transferred to KL 3 years later we meet again in KL (Cikgu Braim joined NST and Habsah opted for early retirement ).

On we moved to Kota Bharu and we stayed there the longest, five years. There we met my dearest Dr Fatma and family. Both our kids were small and they grew up together during that five years. I used to accompany Dr Fatma to most of the places when she taught tafsir Al Quran. She even went to the remotest of the kampung ( all over Kota Bharu , later throughout Kelantan and Southern Thai) to do tafsir and all for fi sabilillah. She is very committed in her teachings and she studies a lot. One thing she has that many people don't, that is old kitabs. Being a Mesiriah she can explain the content most accurately because Arabic language is her mother tounge. She is also well verse in English and Malay and......she speaks Malay with Kelantanese dialect.

Since life in KB was so serene, we had so much time together. There were so many good memories , for instance she had this Arab guests at her home ( somehow the Arabs from all over the world who came to Malaysia will come and visit her in KB , including His Excellency The Ambassador Of Saudi Arabia and his family ), sometimes she invited me and my husband too for dinner. As she spoke Arabic to her guests she then translated to me in English/Malay. When she spoke to me,she will explain to her guests in Arabic.The conversation became so rancak that she eventually forgot all the rules. She then spoke to me in Arabic and spoke to her guests in Malay. Of course it became so hillarious!

One night after Terawih prayer she came to my house and asked me what was sembahyang tolak balak (they had sembahyang hajat that particular night in the mosque ). She couldn't quite catch what was the sembahyang sunat for. So she asked a young girl beside her ( daughter of a friend ) what was the sembahyang sunat for. The girl told her that was sembahyang sunat hajat tolak balak. Then she asked me why they pray to tolak kayu balak.I told her ,maybe not tolak kayu balak but sembahyang hajat tolak bala' ....Oh, you mean tolak bala'? .. yes, it is.We couldn't stop laughing.

And she told me this story, when she first came to KB,she greeted one of her friend with "saikong". To this her friend asked what did it mean in Arabic? She said.. I don,t know , it is not Arabic but those who came to my clinic will say 'saikong doktor', so I ikutlah. Her friend then explained that was assalamualaikum. Ya ka? I ingat that was Kelantanese word to greet people!

There were a lot of funny stories that happened due to miscommunication and the differences of cultures. During the 80's ladies went to the mosque with proper telekong and kain sembahyang i.e. all in white. She used to tease me... datang masjid lambat ,jalan tegak gi masuk saf depan, orang pakai kain sembahyang putih dia pakai kain batik kaler-kaler ( kain sembahyang corak batik terap buatan Trengganu ), tak lain tu auntie...lah ,orang KB tok paka kain corak lagu tu dia sorang lain pada orang! Now it is very common people use batik terap for kain sarung sembahyang.

After KB me and my family moved to Alor Setar later Kuching Sarawak for 3 years in each place. In Kuching Neni became my close friend and later I'm close to her sister Aishah (KL). I regard Neni as my own sister, after all I only have one younger sister.

When we finally came back to KL ,Dr Fatma is already a public figure. Now she belongs to the masyarakat and gone were the sedentry life that we enjoyed more than twenty years ago.

I learned a lot from her, that is to love and to treasure the very friends that we have. She instilled in my daughters good behaviour and to respect guests. She always relate the Quran or the sunnah whenever she tegur me about certain matter. And me being so keras kepala sometimes will bantah her teguran by always saying ye ke? Then she will recite the ayat Quran or hadith as proof. For example I hanged many wind chimes on my window sills, when she came to my house,she heard the wind chimes quite noisy because of the strong wind and she told me it is not good to keep the wind chimes at home. And I said ye ke? She related this hadith saying,there are 3 things that forbid Malaikat from entering a house that is patung, bunyi-bunyian and dogs. After that there are no more wind chimes.

NOw I got another best buddy .Syarifah knew me since I came back to KL about 12 years ago. She always find times to be with me or to say hello to me.And she is very easy to get along with. At this age I don't want to have any complications in friendship or to choose wrong company. What I need is good and reliable friends to grow old with.

SS Blog

My husband encouraged me to have my own blog. So I asked my daughter to set up one for me. It took some time for me to write my first story , and I am not very productive. Since I'm going to write about things that intrigue me , I find there are not so many things that really intrigue me. Maybe because I rarely go out and I don't read much these days ( due to my malasness ).

At first I had to edit my writings many times before I published them. I was so scared when my daughter told me people can get access to my writing.I'm scared people might laugh at me,for writing merapu things with sentences tonggang terbalik.

After writing for sometimes I started visiting other blogs ( as first time blogger I only read Che Det's blog ). I read all the comments by other bloggers in respond to CD's writings. My family used to tease me 'Baca blog CD aje ke? Bacalah blog lain sama!'

I told them I'm a syok sendiri blogger, I only read my own story and CD's writings. Only lately I venture into other blogs like Sakmongkol, rocky's bru, JMD, Another Brick In The Wall and a few more. Thus I feel so inferior compared to those bloggers who can really write and they have visions in writing. They have knowledge and do a lot of references.

I don't read any anti-govt blogs ( except about AAB and his precious s.i.l ).To me if you don't like the door of the house, just change the door, don't demolish the whole house. I always remember during my father's time our country was not as develop as it is now. Even though many people become super rich due to development or they get every opportunity to become filthy rich or they have the right connections to be in business or politics, well,that's their choice. I took other opportunity that is given by the govt like to equip my children with proper education ,get proper jobs and serve the country in any way they can. I have no reason to be unhappy in my own country.( Bakpo gak dok beci krejeen sokmo )

Now that I discover my new blog layout is similar to one other prominent blogger's, I might as well change it. Err...helo ,kalau boleh balik cepat hari ni, mak nak tukar layout blog mak ni yang sama pulak dengan..............!Tak...tak boleh tangguh lama-lama sebab..................!

Israel sedang rakus

Umat Islam seluruh dunia tersangat marah terhadap perbuatan Israel yang dengan sombongnya menyerang Semenanjung Gaza dari udara dan darat ,menghujaninya dengan peluru-peluru yang (sudah tentunya) antara lain adalah buatan Amerika.

Israel dengan sekutu kuatnya itu ada sebab yang kukuh untuk menghancurkan Palestine, ekoran dari tindakan pejuang Hamas yang menghantar roket-roket yang mengenai perkampungan Israel. Bush dengan angkuhnya mengumumkan melalui corong-corong radio di Amerika menyokong tindakan Israel itu (takut nak buat pengumuman terbuka ,takut kasut buruk atau telur busuk naik ke muka),kali ini mungkin dari rakyatnya sendiri.

Penduduk dunia memerhati serangan Israel ini dengan perasaan yang tidak tergambarkan,dengan penuh kemarahan, kebencian ,geram --- kerana kita semua tidak dapat berbuat apa-apa untuk mengatasinya. Ada pun PBB, konon sebagai badan pengaman antara bangsa,tapi tak ada kuasa bertindak.Kuasa Amerika lagi besar dari semua yang ada di dunia ini.Bila Amerika jegil mata sikit semua kecut perut. Pelan damai yang dirancang selamanya tak pernah menjadi. Yang menjadinya ialah penindasan demi penindasan terhadap Palestine.Membina tembok di sempadan Gaza,menyekat saluran makanan,air ,api dan lain-lain keperluan asas manusia iaitulah tindakan mengepung dan menghancurkan Gaza. Kini mereka sudah ada pasport untuk terus menerjah masuk ke Gaza melalui darat dan udara dengan mempamerkan kekuatan ketenteraannya. Sedang dunia memerhati dengan bisu seribu bahasa.

Persoalannya ,apakah yang perlu dilakukan untuk menghentika semua ini? Pelbagai perkara telah dilakukan ,tunjuk perasaan, desakan dari pelbagai negara, salurkan bantuan perubatan dan bantuan kemaknusiaan dan lain-lain lagi.Selagi Amerika menyokong perbuatan Israel,selagi itulah serangan akan berterusan sehinggalah Israel mencapai matlamatnya. Bagi kita umat Islam pula paling mudah kita boleh memberi pertolongann ialah dengan sembahyang hajat beramai-ramai atau bersendirian setiap kali kita sembahyang fardu,insyaalah.