The month of May was one of many challenges. I promised myself that I would not let Legends of Hikayat go beyond the first week of May with only about 20 or so stories to be finalised. Iman helped me get through the last stretch, she typed all my longhand written stories in record time.
Here I owe a great deal of gratitude, first and foremost to my Mother, Puan Kamariah Jaafar for contributing all the ancient malay comedies - which I finally admitted - is a wealth of unrivalled treasure. She wrote the full length of Pak Pandir, Lebai Malang, Si Luncai and Pak Kadok stories, some of which I am sure I have never heard before. Mum studied geography and history at the University of Hobart so her stories have a beautiful atmosphere surrounding it.
Secondly, I must thank my darling Iman without whom I would never have finished this book. I wrote stories - quite a bit of them, in long hand and it was her job to retype them. She also researched stories from China, Indonesia and Nepal.
My sister Khadijah researched stories from Thailand, Vietnam and general Asia. Inas selected the best of Korea and Japanese stories for me to rewrite. Together, we all managed to pull off re-collating, retelling, editing 366 Legends of Asia in four months. Thank you all.
In May too, we had a surprise wedding held at our home in Rawang. My brother in law was supposed to bring his bride home to Kelantan after the wedding. However, logistics made it easier for the 'sambut menantu' to be held at our place. So there we were, busily painting, repairing and cleaning up here and there. And suddenly, the porch roof, which had been needing repairs, crashed to the floor and the fridge door fell too! Well, the fridge had been around far much longer than it should have been since 1996.
Rudi and I decided to repair the ceiling and since there was going to be kenduri, we did a good job out of it. It was money well spent - even if we were pushed into it. And we replaced the fridge consoling ourselves surely this is a better thing than worrying if the door would fall on Ikesha one day. We treated ourselves to an aircon in the master bedroom, with the excuse that the 'bridal room' should be comfortable even though it was just for one night.
So May was an upheaval.
That was not all. Iman got her driving license. That was great. Then suddenly, after months of preparing to enrol for A levels at Taylors, (she decided against University just yet) her father decided it was best she goes to Matriculation. Her aim was still to study for best results to qualify overseas. They agreed, she'd start sooner and it was lovely college in Banting. I was not happy but supported the decision. It was hard watching my lovely girl grow up - so suddenly - I guess, she has grown up quite a while...ever since she was three years old.
Yesterday, Rudi decided to take Ilena and Ikesha for a train ride. So we took the commuter to KL Sentral and the girls had a LOVELY ride. They played tag with the shiny poles and exclaimed at every factory, river and huge trees they saw. On the way home, it was no wonder they slept throughout the journey.
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Special thanks to our neighbour Cikgu Rohani and Cikgu Rahim who were, as always, our life-savers and perfect neighbours. They lent their home for us to welcome the ladies for dinner, and Cikgu Rahim organised the tahlil - which was held in our house and was packed from wall to wall despite the late invites. Thank you to Mak Teh Yam for organising the home-cooked delicacies for 100 people including the hit - agar agar kentang from Rantau Panjang!
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Took Iman, Irani and Ilena to Bukit Rotan for some volunteer work in our quest to find kids with citizenship issues. Distributed clothes and the girls helped the doctors and dentists who were giving free consultation. It was a lovely and very clean country-side. A totally different world just 15 minutes from where we stay. Rudi was content to Iman drive and she found the way.
I was quite amazed.
