Selamat Hari Raya Aidul Adha

We took 2 days off KL to be in Raub for the qurban. Mcm biasa, masjid buat makan but this year, breakfast pun was provided for, not only lunch. Our lembu was so garang.Tahun ni lembu kurus-kurus but bila dilapah, banyak pulak isinya. Alhamdulillah and we got more sebab orang masjid agih-agihkan lagi daging2 orang lain tu. Sepatutnya tak payah. I ended up distributing to a few houses (sedara mara) bila balik KL cos' we are trying to cut down red meat also.Semoga ibadah qurban semua diterima Allah.

The best part about raya is of cos' family get together. I have not seen most of them for almost a year.Tau2 dah masuk uni. Tau2 dah nak kawin. Ijat and Afif dah masuk uni. Like oh wow..mcm semalam je baru kenduri berkhatan. Big boys already.

I got to know the smaller ones. New toy : Seth. My god, he's so funny! We must make it a point to see them more. We went for a family picnic at the newly open river picnic spot Jeram Bangking. Air tak dalam, tak byk batu. And air sejuk gila. My nephews and cucu sedara took good care of me going down the river slopes. Bagus mereka ni..hormat orang tua. :)

Went to visit my parents' and sisters' pusara. Waktu afdal is after asar Khamis till sebelum asar Sabtu but I can only go Khamis pagi. I hope my mom and dad were "home" and heard my salam.Miss them a lot waktu2 macam ni. And we pi kutip buah durian which my mom dok tanam "for anak cucu makan". Akhirnya hajatnya dimakbulkan Allah..memang anak cucu makan di Jeram Bangking (the kebun is now given to Eishah but she has kindly allowed the buah to be eaten by all).

Then we called two tukang urut to Long's house. One for me (lady), one (man) for Nik. Ni yang best bila balik Raub. It's like a holiday. :) At this age, it's important to look after ourselves.Jgan dok sibuk mengejar duit sehingga health diabaikan. The body needs servicing ..mcm kereta so put aside some money for that.And do it on a regular basis.

And be very careful with that daging qurban intake these next few days. Selamat Hari Raya. Bak kata Ustaz on the radio tadi, it is not about sup daging/sup ekor. It's a day to remind us that that lembu could have been us. So say thank you Allah for Your mercy and kindness.

Pelombongan emas di Raub

I'm picking up bits and pieces on this subject. Very interesting. If only Persatuan Sejarah Pahang dan Kuala Kubu ni mengangkat telefon like they are really thinking sejarah 24/7, rasa I hidup I lagi bahagia dari menunggu mcm buah tak gugur. I wish we are all serious about doing our job well. Cuba you call jabatan kerajaan..BN ke PH ke sama je..sebab yang bekerja tu tak bertukar! Haha.

Jawaban paling mudah saya tak tau..tiada dalam simpanan kami...bukan extension ini..saya tak tau..telefon tak berjawab. Yada yada.

But that guy who took the trouble to call me back after finding the info I needed must be applauded. Suka hati dia nak menyampaikan maklumat. Semoga berjaya dalam dunia akhirat, dik, :)

So I want to compare info cicit pelombong emas yang terawal di Raub ni dgn local naratif. Iya ke tidak Tok Gajah humbankan mesin pelombong Australia tu ke dalam Sungai Bilut? (dah lah nak bawak mesin2 berat tu sikit punya susah ke dalam hutan belantara tu semua..senang2 je Tok Gajah humban?). Dan siapa yang sampai dulu dan ambik emas yang banyak kat padang Raub tu (dulu tobek) sampai apabila disedut dgn pam oleh pelombong Australia, tidak ada barang setitik emas yang tinggal? Tapi mereka pergi pulak ke Bukit Koman melombong di situ. Byk dapatnya sampai nama Raub meniti di hujung bibir dunia.

Memang interesting so ingat ni, Raub was not built by the English but Australian miners (ya betul they were born in England sebelum berhijrah ke Australia but most of them considered Australia their home.Hugh Clifford tu datang apabila kerja-kerja melombong dah lama bermula. Kat Penjom it was a British mining company based in Hong Kong tapi Penjom tak banyak mengeluarkan emas like Raub).

Pulang the movie

Since everyone is talking about it, Nik and I decided to check it out.Both of us think it's overrated. The making of it we loved (not being technical people, we thought it was well done.I read a review that it's full of technical shortcomings.We didn't see them. Heh heh)

I was not convinced it's love that kept Othman away from pulang. But how do you criticise a film based on a real story and Othman is long gone? tak sopan kan? But my gfs and I had a nice discussion on this. They loved the film but I told them why I wasn't sympathetic of Othman. I was over his wife and son. Plot dia tak masuk akal. There were too many gaps before we could fully appreciate the plight of Othman or claim it's true love or epic love. Cik Thom's love was true love. Omar's love for his dad was true love but I doubt Othman's sincerity in loving his wife and son.

Bak kata Pakcik Mat Nor (one of the surviving Malay sailors in Liverpool who I know so well.He knew Othman who died in 1966) sailors are full of adventures..they only think of their parents (read home) when they encounter bad storms (the turning point in Othman's life too). We will never know why Othman didn't pulang or sent money (although the film said he thought Cik Thom had married another). Takkan tak singgah tanya? Main lari je ke?

I also find it annoying Puteri Aishah tu dok sebut Ot-man for Othman instead of Osman. 'th' biasanya bunyi 's'.

If you have not seen it, go.It's not too bad if you have nothing to do on a weekend.

Reward or punishment?

Sometimes kerja masuk bertubi-tubi.Rasa macam punishment la pulak although in the end it's rewarding.

Prof Amir Zikrgoo invited me to introduce his book at his book launch 2 weeks before the event.I was reluctant cos' time factor but he said simple introduction of him and his co translator and the book. I thought oh well, okay.

Then the official invitation listed me as a panelist! say what?To speak on Hamzah Fansuri.Saya pun ingat dia ni orang Iran! Dia sebenarnya orang Melayu.Orang Melayu pertama yang tulis melayu jawi tentang Islam dan pelopor sastera melayu, sastera sufi di nusantara.

I texted Amir tanya apa hal ni? Dia pun terkejut.Dia pun tak tau dia kena jadi panelist.Ingat key speaker ke.
So I had to work extra hours in the library..baca itu ini.The Istac librarian is fabulous.He emailed me stuffs yang berkaitan. You need to be a fast reader to absorb. Nasib no class la ni.Boleh le I spend pagi ke petang membaca.

Tiba harinya I negotiated. Syed Munawar who was supposed to moderate was kind enough to let me do the job.So off we went happily and I thought we had a great discussion.Tan Sri Aziz, Dato Kamala all said it was good and they enjoyed the session. Alhamdulillah.I learned much too.What an amazing mind this Hamzah Fansuri was.Sayang sekali karya dlm jawi dia tidak diterbitkan dalam rumi.Orang Iran dulu beat us to it: they translated Fansuri to Persian.

I hope those reading this and can read jawi faster than me will find ways to translate Fansuri dlm rumi.Setakat ni orang putih je buat and according to Naguib Al Attas, banyak salah dari segi vocabulary, tanda baca dll.