A childhood revisited
I can't sleep, so I decided to do something useful other than laying on the bed fantasizing naughty thoughts. I looked at the collection of my vids and since I felt nostalgic tonight, I picked out Mukhsin, a film by Yasmin Ahmad.
Well, basically the story evolves around Orked and her first love, Mukhsin. While my first love is nothing romantic like what was depicted in the film, the childhood stuff is eerily similar to mine. And right now, I wonder do all Malaysian have the same childhood as mine, or I'm just special. Kidding.
Bicycle.
If you are a boy, having a bicycle is a must. While most of my friends have either BMX's or DIY custom made chopper-BMX hybrids, I had a special thing for Raleigh bicycles or Basikal Tua. I remember, riding the bicycle for the first time is a bitch especially the falling part. Once, I scraped my chest and belly after a jumping-off-the-bicycle stunt gone wrong. But there is one incident that I will always remember if I spot a Raleigh bicycle.
It was like one of my first attempt to ride a bicycle, solo, and the bicycle was so big, once I sat on the seat, my skinny short feet could not reach the ground. So I rode the bicycle for like 5 miles nonstop in a burning hot afternoon sun because I just could not stop, or I will fall like a bitch. Not even extreme thirst or tiredness could stop me. Eventually, I got off the bike when I bumped on a crossing sheep and fell down, and I never been happier falling down. Needless to say, I walked home to my grandma's pushing the bike. All 5 miles of it. And FYI, I ride my bicycle again just only ONE day after I was circumcised. After like 100 meters, my grandpa noticed and turned berserk. Haha, I love you Atok!
"Life is like riding a bicycle, in order to balance it, you have to move forward" - Albert Einstein
Kite Playing
My grandma's house don’t have many open spaces save for the road. So one day, me and my older brother, Abg. Zul decided to play kite since we were bored. He made the kite from scratch, using newspaper and bamboo sticks. We managed to fly the kite on the road in the midst of coconut, rambutan and durian trees. The sole kite flew so high, it almost touched the sun. However, due to our miscommunication (Read: my stubbornness), the thread snapped, and our baby disappeared. Undeterred, we initiated a search rescue party (of two) but it was fruitless.
The next day, we both ride to the shop (like 5 kilometers away) and brought 2 plastic kites. By the time I reached my grandma's, my butt was completely numb and I felt legless, because I have to sit at the back legs dangling while Abg. Zul paddled the bike. The second voyage was another success. It even flew higher and there were other kites on the sky, as if yesterday's kite was a challenge invitation, and other Muar's sons accept our dare. That night, I kept staring at the kite, wondering how it feels to be so high.
**Side note: In the middle of our journey home, we fell from the bike, and I broke Abg. Zul's kite.
Abg. Zul is the best brother you could ever ask, even though he's not my real brother. In my eyes, he's the coolest person, ever.
The Gang
Don't be surprised, but there are triads among the children. They have their headquarters and strong holds. Me and my cousins were basically a clan, and we played everything together. Unlike sibling rivalries, there's no backstabbing when we had an internal or external fights (external: fight with other gangs). Basically there were two major period, the morning period and the evening period. In the morning period, we played indoor games among ourselves, like a game of talent search singing competition, or an action packed bank heist (or polis polis), or melodrama soap opera (emak emak/masak masak where at least one character will die). In the evening period, after a green light from the higher authority (read: parents) we descended to the battleground where several clans met and have a duel of our life. Every activity come to halt once the summon siren is heard (Read: Mothers' yell).
Religious Class
One of the dreaded period of the day. The class usually started after twilight, at the mosque or fierce old people's home. Other than being force to read under duress, other loath factor for this period of time was the way back home after the class. Mine was across a creepy and dark cocoa farm, a place where hantu pocong and pontianak lurks. To avoid being eaten by these ghouls, we move as a herd and recite prayers in loud unison, and when panic attacks, we run as fast as we can, abandoning the group and weaker crying girls behind. Every man for himself bitches.
Nature as a playground
Before the invention of TV/video games, or at least before everyone could afford it, nature was a vast playground for children. I did almost everything. I especially love pitting spiders (or what we called ‘King’), and killing innocent stupid birds using sling shot. At least that’s not my intention, but all of my prey turned up dead. I also love to have a good bath at the then unpolluted river, against my father’s warning of course. Once I was spotted by my dad (who was tipped by my backstabbing sister), and I didn’t dared to return home for the whole day. Other than that, I enjoyed stealing fruits at other people’s orchard. On one occasion, we were caught, and I expertly flee the scene leaving behind my sister. Haha. Turned out the orchard was one of our relative’s.
Ahh... The age of not so innocence...Labels: moments, movie, quote, rant |
so nostalgic la kem.nicely written.pohon untuk ditempel di blogku sbg kenang2an.