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.

AERO-SPACE, SOCIO-CULTURAL & LANG TRIP

TRIP OF THE YEAR

A mega-department Internationalisation Programme overseas trip was conducted by the Humanities, Science and the Mother Tongue CL Departments from 2nd -8th June 2010. The trip provided the 32 students an overseas exposure to deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of China’s Modern Technology, History, Culture and Geography through this cultural immersion trip. The meaningful and rich-learning trip formed an integral part of the educational experience of our students for them to develop a global mindset and cultural awareness. At the same time, in line with the school’s vision of ‘Quality Minds, Caring Hearts’, the programmes and planned itinerary were specially designed to create a holistic internationalisation experience for our students and to launch them on a personal life-changing journey, combining academia with a school visit. The six-day trip covered a two-day visit to Shanghai Gold Apple Bilingual School where students were immersed on space-rocket technology and aerospace studies and classroom observations for Chinese, Science, History and English lessons. The students had a hand in making and launching their rockets as part of the highlights of the school visit. In addition, the Maglev train ride which whooshed by at a speed of 301km/h put their physics learning to test. The socio-cultural aspects of the trip saw the students traversing 5000 years of Chinese Civilization and understanding what makes the Chinese society and culture at the Shanghai Museum. They experienced and marvelled at ancient Jiangnan Mansion design and exquisite garden architecture at Yuyuan Garden Chenghuang Temple and the Seven Treasures Ancient Town. The Bund, the boat cruise along Huangpu River and the night scene at the River Promenade got the students to view the world-famous piers of Shanghai and appreciate the foot prints left by its colonial leaders. With Shanghai expanding rapidly, the study on the concept behind designing Shanghai Metropolis at Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center was an eye-opener for our students. A learning journey to Chongming Island, Dongtan Eco-city with its cultural sediment of over 1300 years of history, natural landscape and artistic inspiration awed our students and let them see the importance of having an eco- balanced environment. The trip culminated with a visit to the Shanghai World Expositions where we got to visit the Singapore Pavilion and our twinning YOG country, Slovakia.

WHEN ANA CAME A VISITING

Some sweet memories here....

Till we meet again

Hope you have enjoyed the simple spread, Ana

Hubby with Mama Karim

Deco items I used for the table setting. Ice-yogo in the background.

Mum, the matriach in my home

The way to a man's heart is thru his gullet

My late father looks like Mama Karim

Ana forgot all aboout her calories intake and klj that night

The dishes to salivate and make you drool Haslina and Nina

The Tomato Rice in the right foreground

One keepsake for the album

All waiting for dinner to be served

The setting before the dishes was brought out - black for elegance

DINE WITH ANA

When Cousin Ana who has been residing in the States for the past 18 years dropped by with my Uncle Mama Karim, I thought I would serve them a meal they would never forget for a long, long time.

I had fixed a dinner appointment with Ana earlier on after having failed to meet her up downtown due to her tied engagements with lots of friends and relatives like Alban and Kumar. Since it was dinner which I had invited them over, I planned to serve my guests tomato rice with ayam masak merah, my special fried prawn with chilly padi recipe, acar timun, nenas pachri and salad with sambal kacang.

Hot boiled home made lemon tea was served to my guests. Concoted my own dessert of ice-yogo to end the meal! It was basically ice-cream with yoghurt and sliced banana sprinkled with milo powder and crushed Oreo biscuits. You gotta try this.....out of this world experience when you need the sugar fix into your system for that quick adrenaline rush.

Ana and her dad gave the meal a thumbs up and the Yishun ambience a 5-star rating. Everything on the tbale was polished clean it was so good to see Ana and Mama Karim relishing every mouthful of their Basmathi Tomato Rice with the condiments and side dishes which accompanied the main meal. The ayam masak merah had been cooked with fresh tomatoes, chilly and lots of onions - some sauteed while some fried golden brown and mixed with the gravy.

I set the table with some stuff I bought from my recent trip to Shanghai. You can laugh your head off when I tell you that I had used hair clips and bangles for my table setting. Of course I have not used them before on my head nor on other parts of my anatomy. Ana can swear that there was not a strand of hair on the clip which I used on the table.

Cousin Ana got to bring home one of those hair clips which I bought from Shanghai too! Are you wearing it my dear?

NAQIB NIZAR

A birthday card for you Nizar!

I will repay your kindness Mama and Abah, I promise

Some hard and cold cash here! Gonna save this for my studies!

BURSTDAY

Son Nizar had his birthday recently. No big affar but big bucks flew from our pocket. He was prancing on the bed like a lion dance performer and asking us to sponsor his trip to Batam. Still owe him a makan treat.

Happy Birthday Sonny!

IN MEMORY

TO ALLAH WE RETURN

Inna lillaahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Raaji'oon



Shahrin, Allahyarham's son

Hubby and Shahrin

Getting ready for the Tahlil to start

Abang Ahmad (centre), Allahyarham;s twin brother

Tok Latif, led the Tahlil session

Tok Ansari and Abang Ahmad

Shahrin with his uncle

Cik Rohemy helped to serve

We ate Nasi Arab from Kg Melayu after the kenduri

Jugs of tea were made by Noraidah

Packs of Nasi Arab on the table

The house at Taman Suria

With Rozeenah, a cousin, whom we gave a lift to JB

Allahyarham's widow, Saedah with mum

Who's consoling who?

Noraidah with Saedah

A shot in the house

Saedah's daughter was in Sabah when her father passed away

Saedah;s friend helped her a lot that day

After the funeral

Saedah's family members from Singapore

Family members from Singapore

Aunties and cousins

My uncles - Cik Latif and Cik Majid

Ahmad exchanging numbers with Cik Ansari

Khatijah (2nd f left) also came to 'melawat'

Cik Ansari with nephews

Allahyarham Muhammad Bin Ali Hassan

27 June 2010

Al-Fatheha

I was flipping the morning papers when the phone rang. A voice through the mouth piece asked, "Have you heard the not so good news, already? Cik Ansari enquired. I felt uncomfortable with his tone and question for it only meant the passing on of someone we all knew.

My cousin in JB had passed away in his sleep peacefully, leaving behind his wife and two grown-up children. Allahyarham Muhammad was close to us. When I was young, my aunty (Allahyarhammah Jamilah Bte Sheikh Madar), whom we called Mak Long would bundle us into her car and drive us up across the causeway to 10 Jalan Storey. She had no daughters so her nieces became the apples of her eyes. The bungalow house was so huge that there was ample space for a badminton court, an orchard where mangosteen trees grew, a huge compound for a marathon to take place and seven bedrooms to boot. All of her children had their own room and as visitors we dared not stepped into any of these rooms. Forbidden space!

Come every holiday, we would wait anxiously for Mak Long and her driver to ferry my cousins and I faithfully across the Straits of Johor. There were no projects, extra lessons or homework to bother us. We had time and childhood in our hands. The time I owned allowed me to pursue my passion in knitting, tatting, embroidery, cross stitching, floral arrangement and dabbling with still life. Notice I did not mention cooking or baking. Not my forte but throw me some silver thread and a golden needle and I would stitch your life on the plain material.

That was also the time during the 70s, mind you, when I was introduced to whole-meal toasted bread and I started my love affair with dairy products - Fernleaf fresh milk and butter from New Zealand. This was because my late Pak Long, Allahyarham Ali Bin Hasan (a famous architect in JB in those times) had those for his breakfast and dinner. I would slurp the milk like a cat, relishing its creamy taste at the same time extending and flicking my tongue to lick every drop which remained at the bottom of the glass. Milk had never tasted so good for me because my dad could not afford such enriched-calcium luxury nutritional drink for his underweight and bamboo-stick like daughter.

So where did Allahyarham Muhammad come into the picture you might ask? He was the youngest of a pair of twins out of a family of four boys. He would be the one to fuss over us - bringing us around JB, sending us to the circus and carnival to occupy our time and buying hawker food and ice-cream for our forever growling stomachs. We also exchanged some serves and drop shots at the court.

There was once during my JB holiday retreat, I noticed a red, yellow and black striped snake beside a drain near a fig tree. I alerted Abang Muhammad. Grabbing a stick, he relentlessly combed the area and hunted the reptile with his 'killer instincts' looks. Though the snake outwitted us and was never found, he made sure that our room was not intruded by that unwelcomed guest. He was rather stern and serious looking but behind that facade and persona lay a warm man with a soft heart. He had our welfare in his heart and truly ensured that we were entertained every time we spent our holidays in JB.

The last time we met at Abang Muhammad's terraced house, his hospitality did not stop though he was not too well and looked frail and weak. He got us drinks and we ended up talking about old times and his present state. He even offered us his Mersing Chalet should we need to use it on our drive up to that coastal town. Sadly, his last days were spent on a wheelchair. His demise was too premature but Allah loves him more than us. We could only send him off with Surah Yasin and Alfatheha.

May Allah Bless Allahyarham Muhammad Bin Ali Hassan.

Al-Fateha.