Hari Raya

I'm dedicating myself to work for these two days...two more days to my Raya break. I've my performance contract to complete, some pending issues with the contractors in Belgium, an underpinning contract to sign-off for Qatar and the list goes on forever. Woman...you got to prioritise.

I've to finish all those silly 'work-in-progress' that keep on bugging me, like those irritating langau - garbage flies! And then I can fully balik kampung...la la la la...balik kampung....

This is my very first year to balik kampung. I'll spend the malam raya in Mak's place so that will be the event that Opi has been waiting for. Lots of food...lots of playing....lots of laughing...and lots of quarelling and crying. Opi has been counting his supply of bunga api and mercun..one for him..one for Aboy...one for Apiz...one for Pak Su...and none for Isya. Which without fail, makes Isya let off her ear-deafening shrieks! Isya has been trying her Raya shoes on a daily basis..with socks, without socks, with socks of different colour and let me tell you...that pair will be worn off by Raya time.

I put up some Raya cards on the front door last night. Husband gave me his 'look' and I replied "kalau ada pokok kering...I buat Raya tree tau..". When I was small, Mak will collect Abah's collection of Raya cards, stapled them together and decorated the walls of the house with the self-made Raya cards banner. I would watch with great delight and Mak would give me a bunch of cards and the stapler. I would choose the brightest and nicest ones and stapled them on the leaves of Mak's pokok buluh.

I would watch Abah came home daily and would glee in anticipation when he opened his briefcase to show us the dazzling 50 sen coins which he just changed in Bank Negara. I knew then my duit raya will be 50 sen. Those were the days when the thought of holding 50 sen meant several trips to the nearby kedai runcit.

When I was small...our nights were definitely the highlights. After berbuka, we would wait for Abah to solemnly nod his approval to us. And when he did that, we would jump out of the house and Bang Li would bear the responsibility of lighting the candle. Jim Bob and I would be the ones jumping up and down, making silly shapes with the flickers of our bunga api. One time, I burnt a hole in Jim Bob's pyjamas and burnt his thigh. But whenever he wore the pyjama after that, both of us would ask each other "bila nak raya lagi?".

We never experience balik kampung ourselves. So every year, we would dress in our best on Raya morning, salam-salam and received our duit raya. Then Bang Li and Bang Jai would take us around for any open houses...well in those days, any Malays houses which open their gates were considered as open houses and the owners would always serve us with a glass of air gas each.

As we grew up, the Raya experience changed. Instead of house-hopping, we would then go to Ampang Park for some games. Later we grew up from arcade games to bowling and pool in Yow Chuan Plaza.

My memories of Raya may not be the most traditional. But the joy is the same. All my brothers and sisters grew up in boarding schools so Raya time was the only time we would actually gather and enjoy Mak's ayam masak lemak.

We'll do it again this year...I can almost smell the cooking ketupat with the bubbling water...