Ngomelan dipagi Raya (ketiga)

This Raya is a funny Raya.

No, it is not funny in the sense that you will laugh your a** off. Or that you would be rolling (or is it lolling) on the floor because someone has tickled your funny bones or sense of humour.

It has been awhile that I've been wanting to celebrate raya in KL. I am tired of joining the traffic jam heading North every raya holidays, so much so last year I decided that to take the train for Raya.

This time around it was forced upon us to Raya in KL by virtue that Mak was hospitalized in KL practically the whole month of Ramadhan. I do hope it would be the start of new raya tradition for us - raya-ing in the city!

Tired as I am to join the Balik Kampung rush, I was more tired commuting between home/office and hospital. May be not as tiring physically; it was more mentally than anything else. It is not easy taking care even your beloved mother, no matter how much you thought you love her. 

When dad died after a sudden hypertensive attack (it was during dawn, and he was dead by noon), many (including yours truly) wished that he would live irrespective of his condition. If only he would survive, we would take care of him in any state.

Great hope. Love the what-ifs scenario, and the wishful thinking.

You thought you are the filial son; the greatest gift to your parents.

You know you would never know how you would react and perform until you experience it first hand. I have always said that until I am offered multi million ringgit bribe and I rejected it out right, I can never claim I would never behaved in such heinous manner as many of our politicians.

A blogger friend called me on the day before Raya night. Actually he is my mother's generation, so he is more than just any friend that I knew over at the cyberspace. He was giving some advice on alternative medicine for mak which I would not elaborate here until I have ransacked his blog for more info.

Then he told his own story of caring for his parent (not sure if the mom or dad), and as you may have guessed it through the saying that "mak seorang boleh jaga anak sedozen, but anak sedozen belum tentu boleh jaga mak seorang."

Not without infighting over who should take care of her and who should be contributing for how much. Typical Malay families.

I thanked him over the phone saying, "You made me fell much better with your own story. Now I know I am not alone!"

Anyway, so by the solat Raya time, we had two families converged at my sister's house to be-raya with Mak. I have decided the day before that I would solat at my sis' place and not at my own to ensure that it would still be a joyful (read: noisy) early Raya morning, just like in Taiping where most of us would converge every year without hesitation.

Now that by default that Mak has to raya at my sister, I would accord her home just like our family home by virtue of Mak being there. There was no question over in my mind of the suitability of solat-ing at my own place. So by 7 am, we were out of our home and headed to Ampang.

Thankfully the day before my bro from Penang had made his way to KL, so at least there were 3 families with little children around.

Early Raya breakfast with Mak at my sis home. This was taken before solat time.

As for others who could not, or would not, or would prefer to celebrate Raya like you did not have a family (especially the bujang one, and the not so bujang ones up North), I could not comprehend your reasonings. If you think your friends are more important that your own mother, I can only sympathize with your twisted thinking. 

At noon, we decided to head to Seremban to celebrate Raya with my inlaws, but not without hiccup. The whole of KL-Seremban highway was congested with cars that at one stage it was not moving at all, so I decided to detour to KLIA and use the old road to Labu and Sendayan to reach Seremban.

Oh boy. This is getting ridiculous. What's going on? Too many car in Malaysia that I could not even visited Seremban for raya without it becoming such a pain?

May be next Raya I would stay quietly at home!

With the inlaws in Seremban. By the time this pic was taken,
we had ditched the sampin, except for Akmal. We stayed in Serembang
until magrib time.

Honestly I was still cursing on Thursday and Friday on KL traffic. It was still heavy despite the fact that schools have closed by then. "When are you guys heading out of KL and leave the city to myself?"

I thought that I could even sleep on the city road during the raya holidays, but I did not see that even on Saturday. The traffic was still reasonably heavy even then.

Aah well, just my luck. This is a city in her own right and with her own citizens.

EPILOGUE

Why did we only have a 29-day Ramadhan this year? I thought normally we would almost always not see the crescent moon and hence would almost always have to fast for 30 days. This would give us an extra day to prepare for Raya.

I always dread of having a 29-day Ramadhan especially when I used to celebrate raya at my inlways in Batu Kurau. They would always prepare the lemang for Raya (tak main la beli2 macam kita sekarang), and once my wife's grandma knew that Raya is tomorrow, by isyak time we would be having a party preparing the fire for cooking lemang that very night, and we would normally finish in the wee hours of the morning.

It is tiring not to mention sleepy. I can't escape from helping them/her. Normally many other would still not arrived by then - conveniently or otherwise (hahaha). I am not sure if this is worse that a 20-day ramadhan. In such case, we would be cooking during the day at around 11 am, why late afternoon, one would be extremely thirsty.