b3 b0rn.. c0nf0rm, b3 si|3nt .. di3

this is a piece of work by kakak… she drew this while being home-quarantined ..a decision made by both her parents in light of the H1N1 scare and also the fact that her pre-school had cautioned us of an outbreak of HFMD in the neighborhood. she produces works like these whenever the fancy hits her, which is nearly every day. most of the time, it’s black and white… extra effort in coloring would be made if she feels extra good on that day…

and since i was blardy bogged with work yesterday that my plans to hop over klcc or pavillion to get a card or token gift for amir’s birthday was crushed – immediately suggested to kakak that she address the drawing to her baba! (yeah, cheapo mommy.. LOL.. sorry ayang… mmg nawaitu dah ada dah… but time didn’t permit)

then this morning after sahur.. did the usual rounds on my google reader feed and came across the updates from emilayusof.com… especially love her moleskine series of illustrations.. and was reminded that in those distant days of bukit merbah, i was quite fond of doodling myself…

it was an outlet from all the studying *cough*cough* that we did – boarding skool kids are a hardworking bunch you know!… i especially recall doodling the backs of the heads of my classmates after being done with my exam papers… it was a common doodle on the extra foolscap that was distributed for our answer sheet.. wish i had kept those..

anywho.. since kakak regularly draws (and goes through the full ream of paper in 2 months or so).. i loathe thinking that i’d lose those extra good drawings she made – so am considering getting (making?) her a proper folio so she can keep her loose pieces of work.. and also buying those sketch books (which makes my life much much easier).. should also consider getting one myself and see whether i still got that drawing/doodling bug in me..

after dropping of jie at klcc parking, i raced back home as we had left the office after 6:35pm.. luckily the elevated highway (e33 e12) was clear so managed to reach jln jelatek in less than 5 mins (albeit with a tad of annoyance of having same ass driving a toyota vios not comprehending the use of indicator lights when trying to cut into the queue at the smart tag lane)

jelatek was of course packed but thanks to understanding motorists coming from jln ampang, it wasn’t a problem merging into the main traffic again.

was approaching the flats nearby al-amin integrated school in AU1… when i spotted a maroon ford ranger coming from the opposite traffic.. immediately felt myself getting up uptight and pissed of… i eyeballed the driver (who was a 20-something guy) and wondered whether this was one of the culprits of the trajedi julai. noticed that the vehicle turned into the flats and my thought to my prejudiced self – most probably he is, living in the flats but owning a car like that – he may need to resort to stealing to fill up the fuel-guzzler of a machine.

there goes my pahala puasa.. and that at 7:05pm ….

i may never get over this but i hope i do.. ford ranger was my favorite truck model for the longest time – but freakin’ culprits had to be driving one when the trajedi happened.

*sigh*

i think i came to the realisation that fasting is one of the tenets of islam only when we came back from papa’s posting overseas. i do have vague recollections of mama & papa refraining from eating, but never actually made anything out of it. we did have fun though gathering at malaysia hall and getting all dolled up in our baju kurungs to celebrate with the other malaysians.

i was already 8 by the time we were back on tanah malaya, and as such had a late start (worse for ayu though as she was already 9).. mama had somehow managed to persuade us that this is part of our ibadah (apart of the requisite 5x day solat) so as dutiful children, we woke up at that ungodly hour to stuff our face with iftar sahur spread.

i did remember though that mama promised that if we were unable to last the whole day, half a day of fasting should be sufficient as a start. that became the rock in my attempt of being a good muslim child. so for the following few weeks… true to what mama had said, i did fast for half a day… from the time i left for school until we came back….

only catch was – i was in the afternoon session! .. so i’d happily grab something to eat after mama headed for work and left us at our own devices before the school bus was due to pick us up. i remember scavenging the kitchen for food – any food, since of course, no lunch was prepared… i even recall having sugar cone slathered in jam as a snack.. our appointed childminder never knew as she who would check on us every hour, having her hands full with iqmal who at 5, was placed at her house.

then when i arrive home from school and mama questioned whether i managed to fast that day, i would proudly say ‘puasa setengah hari!’ … and she would take it at face value.

it was only the year following that i truly understood what mama meant by fasting for half a day.. though i only managed to fast the full month once i turned 10…

now, what’s your story?

wishing all family, friends and acquaintances a very blessid ramadhan.

may we return to the true meaning of this chosen month above all months and not get carried away with temptations