Of the olders who care too much about us

Salam dearie,

During raya, we spent our time to visit the olders. The atok, aunties and uncles. For my family, raya is significant with visiting the olders. True enough, takkan the olders nak visit anak cucu kan? I visited my atok (the only atok that still alive) everytime I went back to my hometown. He’s not feeling well after the surgery last May. Sad to look at him, not as active as before. I pray hard for his long life and good health.

After married, I realized I love to spend time talking with the olders. Their topics are random and usually lots of nasihat between the story even the story may sound irrelevant to us at this moment. Like our last conversation, atok did talked about the price of house in KL which is very ridiculous (so trueee) and he suggested us to build a house in kampung instead. RM300K dah boleh buat rumah macam istana kat kampung. Nanti orang lalu mesti orang recognized and asked, ‘rumah sape tu?’..owh..’rumah cucu tok malik’. He’s so funny btw, to relate his name on the ‘rumah istana’. Haha. When I met him before leaving for KL, he said to me he got nothing to give. I was okay, what to expect kan? And when I’m about to get into the car, he asked me whether I always prepare air asam? I was like, Ha? What got to do with air asam suddenly? Haha, rupanya he wanted to give me belacan. I got 2 packs of belacan. Did he knew that his granddaughter rarely cook for the husband? Ekeekeke. He’s too funny.

On the 2^nd day of raya, I went to the kampung again, as promised with the cousins to main mercun. I went there quite late (we still received guests until 10.30pm) and to realized most of the cousins slept already. My husband and I had a talk with PakTam and Mektie. It was about our preparation for the little ones, and then changed to more serious topic, like it’s important to buy a house when we still young (boleh buat loan lama), not to forget our parents, appreciate money and all the grown up stuff. I felt matured. Haha. Useful advices. Paktam quotes that I still remember, ‘Kalau nak beli rumah sekarang, memang duet rasa tak cukup. Tapi bila dah beli, duet memang akan cukup. Jangan risau pasal takut tak cukup duet nak makan. We will adjust our finance based on the new commitment, but to adjust the finance (for saving) to buy the house, memang takkan pernah berkesan’. I found it true. I can relate to myself. We both should really looking for a potential house soon.

I did visited family on my father’s side. My Mak Njang shared lots of pregnancy advices with me, the petua orang lama which is no harm to try pun. One of it, to ease the labor process, after shampoo our hair and cleanse it properly, take the hair to the face and drink the water (yang jatuh dari rambut) sambil niat dalam hati moga proses bersalin semudah air yang jatuh menitik dari rambut. This is my first time heard about it, will try soon. It’s a part of the effort.

I had also encountered one auntie yang joyah kepochi which I found out she was really annoying. Sorry for the bad words used. I want to shake her hand and she didn’t bother, instead she touched my tummy and gosok-gosok and said something like, ‘awat kuruih lagi perut hang, bila nak mengandung ne. dah kahwin berapa lama? Haish, tak rasa nak ada anak sendiri ka?’. OMG, I yang dah pregnant ne pun sentap dengan the way dia cakap, how about kalau I tak pregnant lagi by time I met her. Mau touching sumpah seranah dia. Why doesn’t she say nice things, or pray for the good things to happen. I don’t bother to answer her, I just shake her hand quickly and trying my best to avoid her. Later that she knew, my sis-in-law (SIL) and I are expecting and she said, ‘hampa dua ne belawan ka nak tunjuk sapa lagik hebat?’. I turned to husband and saw his blank face, then I know he didn’t understand what that auntie was saying (Auntie I ne punya loghat Kedah sangat pekat and most of the time husband didn’t understand what we were talking about. Thank God for that). I let my SIL answered her and I noticed my SIL pun tak kuasa nak layan dia. Haha. Mulut puaka betul.

Sometime, it’s better to shut your mouth than saying the things that might hurt others. I’m glad, most of the olders surround me very caring and know how to say nice things. It just somehow, there’s a torn among roses. I am grateful, I got lots of roses with not so many torn. Haha..