THE BEGINNING - JALAN DURIAN DAUN

Take a good look at the photo and spontaneously, describe what do you see. A house? A hut? Are you sure?

By the way, Kiff took this picture on July 14, 2007 (Saturday) after the Aqiqah at Najah's mum in-law house.

THIS IS HOME TO ME AND MY FAMILY FOR AT LEAST 15 YEARS (1965 - 1980).

But, mind you what you see is not actually the original house. This is how the house looked in 1980 before we moved out to the bigger house located just next door. The house were much smaller before (about 350-400 square feet). Much "daif" looking compare to what you see. The only different is when we live there, we keep the house in much better condition - more manageable, neat and clean. My mother is very particular about it. She says, it is okay if we are fated to live in a hut as long as it is neat and clean.

The monthly rental was RM15.00 only. Did I say "only"? So arrogant, am I? I should not say the word only as RM15.00 during that time was big, huge amount of money to my family. But, I really adore and respect my mother. She manage my family well. My dad is lucky to marry her (at the same time, my mum is also lucky to marry him). She managed the income (what ever given to her by my dad) well. Our rental never fall under the category "tunggakan" as we always see in our monthly bills nowadays. We also never bogged down with loan or worst, unpaid loan. She doesn't believe in creating loan. My family own our first dining table when I was 14 years old!

I don't know how but she is "damn" good (forgive me mum, it is rude but I meant well as this is the best way to describe your talent, I love you mum) Housekeeper/ Financial Controller. Imagine if she goes secondary school and then maybe, university? I think if she is the CEO of my company, I guarantee you profit rolls in and, bonus paid to staff would be minimum 6 months across the board, annually. Or maybe, by now, she is in Idris Jala' hotseat.

When my dad marries my mum, he works as one the cinema ticket collector in Cathay, Melaka. Due to his citizenship complication, Cathay can't put him under their payroll. He is now out of job. Out of humanity, the management allow him to be a parking boy at the cinema (mind you, majority chinese in the management but still have HEART unlike some Malay dominated management, heartless macam tak tau ajaran agama! kalau terasa, sori lah yea). I still remember that his daily collection comes in a form of coins (10, 20 and 50 sen) placed in one small glass bowl at home. He and my mum are happy if there is matinee or mid-nite shows. It means, more coins in the bowl but if it rain, the coins are much, much lesser. Later, I would see my mum's eyes red. It is fated but I believed "ada hikmah".

To supplement the family income, my mum bake some traditional malay kueh for me to send to coffee shops or even brings to school to sell. Later, she also does laundry at 2 houses, 1 chinese and 1 malay family. I also help by going to few houses to collect dirty linen from 2 chinese house and the bring it home. She will wash, dry and fold it at home before I send it back to the respective houses. During school holidays, I worked at the mamak shop nearby my house from 7 am - 6 pm for a "salary" of RM1.00 (in case you read wrongly "Ringgit Malaysia Satu Sahaja") a day. Few years later, as we grew up my dad changed job. He became a Security Guard. That is is last job until he retires some 10 years ago.

Trust me, no fun being poor. People don't see us. In short, we are almost invisible. Orang melayu panggil "Pandang Takde Mata". We get bullied. We get nasty remarks. We get our slippers thrown into the thick "lalang and keladi gatal" bush when we accidently left it outside the house (when it happen, my mum will start nagging us for being careless). Sometimes, our laundry hang outside the house ended up as "carpet" on the ground.....macam-macam lagi la. But, we have to endure it. Just keep quiet. They seems to have every rights over us.

Sad memories. So sad. I am not able to continue typing. Allow me to go to bed. Good nite.

To be continued.