Malam Tujuh Likur Part II

Akmal in 2004 preparing for Malam Tujuh Likur. Fortunately
it is now designed like an obor, so to satisfy our religious
requirement, we now have our own identity, just like the
old days in  P Ramlee's movie.

Now that we done our reminiscing and take that out of our way, let us move back to the present, and enjoy the roses while we can. While we can't do it the Talang way here in KL with their mammoth meriam buluhs, I am sure we can find ways to enjoy ourselves, despite the constraint of space and the fact that the government has banned everything that would let kids enjoy themselves.

These pictures were taken at our home in Cheras. Most were taken the past few days during Ramadhan 2010, a couple of them were taken in 2004, including this video.

Pelita as I have mentioned in an earlier entry, is a must for us. Even though we now have enough street light, I thought the kids can still enjoy lives as they were as I have experienced it before. It is a small price to pay I guess for that privilege.

The main problem with lighting up the pelita is the difficulty in having access to kerosene aka minyak tanah.  You can't just buy kero anymore from your friendly neighbourhood store; definitely you can't get it from your local supermart.

Hakim and his younger bro enjoying playing at night, a
a special night for sure.

In my case, I would have to travel quite a bit to Ulu Langat and go the rural mom-and-pop grocery store to find our supply of fuel for the pelita.

In my case, it costs me five bucks for a 1 1/2 litre bottle of kero. At least, they are available. I am  not sure what they would use it for nowadays. We do not the kerosene stove anymore. So the demand for kerosene has dwindled quite a bit.

With that we were able to have our Malam Tujuh Likur this Ramadhan.

Arif overseeing his younger cousins having fun

Akmal and his younger cousins a couple of weeks ago when they dropped by for a two-family buka puasa session at my home.

Fortunately we have something to keep the kids entertained that night albeit old stocks of bunga api from a few years back.

I guess Arif and Akmal have all grown up, so playing with crackers and fireworks are not in their  list of things to do. But they were responsible enough to oversee their younger cousins having fun.

In the end when the bunga apis run out, the kids decided to have fun by blowing out the pelitas while their big bro Hakim continue to light them again and again.

Akmal on the other hand is having fun on his own. He used long exposure to capture these figures - match stick man, this time around made from light.

Akmal,  you should have tried writing Selamat Hari Raya using your bunga api. I am not sure if he is in the picture or how long the exposure was.

And I have more axe to grind.





As I have mentioned before, I am not sure why KLites seems a bit lazy in decorating their home in view of the arrival of Syawal.

And for some reasons, the Chaser lights we bought last year did not last us a lifetime, so we had to buy new ones and we decided to go blue this year.

And this is the result.

Being lazy fellow that we are today, Akmal and I quickly wrapped the lights onto the grill and I thought it was not too bad an idea. We could have made it look more systematic, but we were hungry by then

I am not sure how it would look externally, but I thought it should brighten my house and at least create a cheery atmosphere.

Akmal took all the pictures. I love the diode light (LED), and it was supposed to last much longer than their mentol bulb.

As long as it does not resemble Christmas, I would not mind the bluish chaser light. But to create that effect, I had to buy two sets - that 200 LED burning throughout the night.

I forgot about another aspect of Malam Tujuh Likur, and this one came from the old days in Kampung Sira Lenggong. It was a wooden house on stilts, and bapak used to hang a tanglong in the shape of a star. Come to think of it, may be it was (aruah) PC Ajis punya kerja. It would be made from bamboo and a transparent paper would be used to wrapped around the bamboo structure.

Then we would use candle to light up the star tanglong, and we would hang it on the ceiling near the main entrance. 

Obviously we adopted this from the Chinese.

I still have some paper star tanglong from 2005, when we bought them in Penang, so this afternoon I decided to hang it outside the house. Unfortunately I randomly picked a red one, so it may look like it is Chinese New Year. I will change to another blue or green tanglong tomorrow night.

Obviously nowadays, we don't use candle anymore. It is now powered by the electricity. TNB would have loved me this Ramadhan like no other for contributing more money to their coffer.

I hope they won't be suing me for saying this.

But whatever I have is nothing compared to what the Banjarmasin people have this Ramadhan. I leave it to you to decide and form your own opinion.

The Ramadhan procession in Banjarmaasin

Even their floating market is well lited