time: 10.00 pm
I was born as the eldest child of six to a struggling young dad who was only 27 and a homemaker mom who was about the same age. Life was tough, especially when Abah decided that he wanted to venture out from his comfort zone of being near to his family as well as Mama's in Johor to secure a better future for his own family. My Mama used to work as a secretary but she stopped working when we moved to Malacca. Abah was promoted to a junior officer post at that time and both of them felt that Abah's salary was enough support us. Everything went well at first but then fate rolled its dice. What we wouldn't know for years to come after that was moving to Malacca had became the starting point on our arduous life journey.
Just like the old saying goes, 'when it rains, it pours' but in our situation, it could very well be called a thunderstorm. Money was tight and my parents had tried everything to make ends meet. We moved quite a lot due to various reasons and Mama's exceptional talent in sewing really came in handy. She was also a very good cook and that also helped us a lot, especially when she did some small catering business. I could still remember vividly how she cooked and sewed until late at night, sometimes till dawn. Since I was the eldest, the image of her back which was always bent on sewing baju kurung or baju kebaya or even preparing curry puffs was forever imprinted in my mind.
However, my parents; bless them, believed in one thing. Education was super important to them. Wait, before anyone could say 'oh well, another too good to be true tale' or claim my story as too Rider Digest-like, I would like to ask all of you personally, how many parents would prioritize their child's tuition classes and was willing to pay the expensive fees and to compensate for that we had to eat fried rice for the whole week or sometimes almost a fortnight. Fried rice, in the true sense of word, which was white rice fried with only long beans, onions and sometimes anchovies.
Many of you would wonder why did I choose to write all this as a tribute to my beloved Mama on her birthday. Truthfully, we just got back from celebrating her birthday and this year, we chose a special Korean restaurant as her birthday treat. The food was superb and the ambiance was fantastic. We were also personally served by an attendee who grilled the beef, seafood n mushroom. Here's a picture of the wonderful delicacy we had just now.
After dinner, we casually asked Mama about the food and this came out from her mouth.
"Mama bersyukur sangat korang semua belajar rajin-rajin, kerja elok dan bagi Mama peluang merasa makan kat tempat macam ni... "
"I am grateful that all of you studied really hard, have good jobs and gave me a chance to eat in a place like this... "
This simple yet meaningful sentence made me all teary because suddenly memories of my past; no, our past flashed in front of my eyes. Us eating plain fried rice everyday, painful memories of my Abah having to sell his car, then his motorcycle and in the end us going to school with Abah using the public bus or perhaps remembering how I had to split RM 1 and gave 30 cents each to Angah and Uda everyday as our recess and lunch money and so on and so forth.
Some sceptics might say, 'ah, so what? Some people don't even have rice to eat' but bear in mind, my parents were not some illiterate, uneducated people. They started as a young couple who did well in school and by right, should earn enough to start their own family and feed their children but sadly, they became one of fate's cruel ironies. Perhaps my story was not at the same par as Cinderella's but I know now for sure that eating all those bland fried rice and always being hungry in school and waking up early and running to catch the public bus with Abah didn't even matter anymore. We'd hit a rough patch but in the end it was Mama's happy smile on her wrinkly face which sealed it all; yup, we did well and we managed to make her proud and that's what really matters!
p/s: mama, along sayang sangat2 kat mama n along harap mama sentiasa sihat dan gembira. terima kasih di atas segala pengorbanan yg mama lakukan pada kami dari dulu hingga sekarang... bukan mama yg patut bersyukur dengan kejayaan kami, kami yg sepatutnya bersyukur kerana mama ngan abah x pernah putus asa menyuruh kami belajar sehingga ke tahap yang paling tinggi... terima kasih kerana percaya yg kami boleh berjaya...
Just like the old saying goes, 'when it rains, it pours' but in our situation, it could very well be called a thunderstorm. Money was tight and my parents had tried everything to make ends meet. We moved quite a lot due to various reasons and Mama's exceptional talent in sewing really came in handy. She was also a very good cook and that also helped us a lot, especially when she did some small catering business. I could still remember vividly how she cooked and sewed until late at night, sometimes till dawn. Since I was the eldest, the image of her back which was always bent on sewing baju kurung or baju kebaya or even preparing curry puffs was forever imprinted in my mind.
However, my parents; bless them, believed in one thing. Education was super important to them. Wait, before anyone could say 'oh well, another too good to be true tale' or claim my story as too Rider Digest-like, I would like to ask all of you personally, how many parents would prioritize their child's tuition classes and was willing to pay the expensive fees and to compensate for that we had to eat fried rice for the whole week or sometimes almost a fortnight. Fried rice, in the true sense of word, which was white rice fried with only long beans, onions and sometimes anchovies.
Many of you would wonder why did I choose to write all this as a tribute to my beloved Mama on her birthday. Truthfully, we just got back from celebrating her birthday and this year, we chose a special Korean restaurant as her birthday treat. The food was superb and the ambiance was fantastic. We were also personally served by an attendee who grilled the beef, seafood n mushroom. Here's a picture of the wonderful delicacy we had just now.
After dinner, we casually asked Mama about the food and this came out from her mouth.
"Mama bersyukur sangat korang semua belajar rajin-rajin, kerja elok dan bagi Mama peluang merasa makan kat tempat macam ni... "
"I am grateful that all of you studied really hard, have good jobs and gave me a chance to eat in a place like this... "
This simple yet meaningful sentence made me all teary because suddenly memories of my past; no, our past flashed in front of my eyes. Us eating plain fried rice everyday, painful memories of my Abah having to sell his car, then his motorcycle and in the end us going to school with Abah using the public bus or perhaps remembering how I had to split RM 1 and gave 30 cents each to Angah and Uda everyday as our recess and lunch money and so on and so forth.
Some sceptics might say, 'ah, so what? Some people don't even have rice to eat' but bear in mind, my parents were not some illiterate, uneducated people. They started as a young couple who did well in school and by right, should earn enough to start their own family and feed their children but sadly, they became one of fate's cruel ironies. Perhaps my story was not at the same par as Cinderella's but I know now for sure that eating all those bland fried rice and always being hungry in school and waking up early and running to catch the public bus with Abah didn't even matter anymore. We'd hit a rough patch but in the end it was Mama's happy smile on her wrinkly face which sealed it all; yup, we did well and we managed to make her proud and that's what really matters!
p/s: mama, along sayang sangat2 kat mama n along harap mama sentiasa sihat dan gembira. terima kasih di atas segala pengorbanan yg mama lakukan pada kami dari dulu hingga sekarang... bukan mama yg patut bersyukur dengan kejayaan kami, kami yg sepatutnya bersyukur kerana mama ngan abah x pernah putus asa menyuruh kami belajar sehingga ke tahap yang paling tinggi... terima kasih kerana percaya yg kami boleh berjaya...
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