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.