A HILLOCK GATHERING

OUR BRIEF ENCOUNTER


The gathering of four generation of the Madar Clan family
The powerful ladies of the Madar Clan

Tok Latif enjoying his tea

Mum with Hadi

Cik Munah with Manap

Cik Majid with Syukur

Cik Ansari with Rashid, our eldest cousin

With Noraini from Penang

Ratna, Ros, me and Ina

The bride and groom - Haimi and Ratih

We love all of you, Ros seems to be saying

Kak Dah, Cik Timah and Cik Amy with Hassan's wife

With more relatives from Malaysia

Manap, Rashid and Ahmad - all brothers

Having teh tarik amidst the cool evening breeze

With Datin Yati

A shot with the newly-wedded couple

Hussein and Bayah in the centre.

Shap, Hussein and Yusuf

A reunion after so many years of not meeting up

Mum, Cik Amy, Baayah and her daughter-in-law

Rashid with his bevy of lovely girls

With cousins from Penang

Lat, Hussein and Isa

The lovely new house of Hussein on top a hillock

Nani and Syukur offer us their warm hospitality at Kemensyah Heights

Two sisters, Hajjah Maimunah and Hajjah Sabiah

Peace to the world, says peace woman Ina

The familiar faces again

THE MADDENING DRIVE

The nine of us left Singapore at the unearthly hours - five minutes past midnight. Our destination - Cousin Nani's Kemenshah Heights bungalow, 255 km away, an exclusive residential area at Taman Melawati, tucked behind the KL National Zoo. We whizzed along the deserted N-S highway to catch up for a wedding high-tea reception at our Cousin Hussein's place in KL. But our first stop was Kemenshah Heights before proceeding for the reception.

Stopping at Air Keroh around 3.45am for a refresher, we had the murtabak which I had brought along. Some ordered soto and nasi lemak while others had our caffeine to pump in the adrenaline rush and to keep the eyes open for another 100km away drive.

The calling of the subuh azan welcomed us when we reached Nani's house. After a quick hello and salam, all of us headed for our long-awaited rest and slumber on a more comfortable place you and I know as a bed. We had been on the road for six hours and had not slept behind the wheel, only catching forty winks when drowsiness forcibly overtook our conscious state of the mind.

Our next drive in KL city in the evening was to Hussein's house where the tea-reception was held. That was the main highlight for the short weekend trip and getaway. It was the gathering - The Madar Clan gathering which we had been waiting for. It was time to meet up with my cousins and their children from Johor, Kluang, KL and Penang.

A close to 80 relatives had come to celebrate Hussein's son wedding on top of a hillock overlooking a golf resort. In between the prata, mee and dessert, we flitted from table to table to chat and update ourselves with the latest news. The bantering of jokes and the shrieking of our laughter enveloped the golf course. There were endless hugs and kisses when we met. It was also a tough time remembering the names of long-lost cousins whom I had not met for more than three decades.

The passage of time had changed our weight, size and looks but somehow that little flicker of recognition of the familiar faces was still present. Our conversation or more of our giggles and shrieks, took us through our mini-skirt and Elvis Presley's epok-epok hairstyle days at Haw Par Villa, Changi Beach, Katong Park and Botanical Gardens till our tudung present moment. We also ploughed through our single Beatle heydays of "Hey Jude" and Rolling Stones' "Under The Boardwalk" to the current reality that soon many of us would be expanding our family circle when our our own children would start their own family, just like what Hussein's son had done.

We truly enjoyed the meeting of uncles and aunties with their nephews and nieces, the cousins with their second-cousins and the reunion of the fourth generation of the The Madar Clan when Nazri (Ahmad's son) brought his baby. The oldest family member presence was 88 years old and the youngest a three-month old baby girl. That was a gathering of four generations of the Madar Clan family under the white marquee tent ontop of a hillock for me to remember by. The drive up to KL had been worth it. I got to catch up with Fredo & the Flintstones at Concorde as well as a short shopping trip at Masjid India.

Am loking forward to more of such nostalgic congregation of cousins whom many I had grown up with. Our last mega gathering was in 2000 at Royal Scotts.