Songkok Mahal

View from Vista Amani taken from my new phone,

Sony Ericsson W660i, not bad really

It’s Monday and another 2 days for all Muslim and fellow Malaysians to celebrate hari raya. Aidil Fitri is no longer a celebration of the muslim or the malays, it’s the celebration of the nation, not only the big day itself, but also the ritual and the practice to celebrate Shawal right from the first day of ramadhan. The daily fasting, the awaited fast breaking, sahur, the ramadhan bazaar, the window shopping and occasional bargain for discount, giving and receiving of duit raya (which is actually very Chinese) and the open house tradition is so uniquely Malaysian.

Not to mention the balik kampong and the unavoidable nation wide traffic jam from the coastal of Johore right to the Isthmus of Kra, to and fro, both on the right and left side of the Banjaran Titiwangsa and also across the Banjaran also and occational deadly collision involving a whole family in a very cramped van. Everyone must balik kampong. It is just not trendy not to.

Unless you don’t have any kampong to balik too. i.e.

1. you were born in KL, by parents who were born in KL, and all other ancestors are either dead or don’t even know of your existence,

2. or if you are not born in KL, but all your ancestors are dead and your house in the kampong looks something like a house in a horror movie,

3. or your family balik kampong, but you did not because you have a lot of work to do in the office, although you know there wont be any work in the office because there is nothing to do in the office, it is just you are so lazy to go back balik kampong and meet your still living ancestor (read: your nosy aunty) who will ask you the same question without fail every year, until one of you (hopefully the nosy aunty) die first.

So nobody in the office, I am working alone. I managed to submit my papers on creative teaching a few months over the dateline and reviewing some papers for few conferences in Malaysia. How I wish I have a conference paper in Hawaii or Tahiti or Phuket or anything like that so I could go on a holiday trip using government money from the taxes gain from rich people around Malaysia. I am so bored of going to a conference where a karipap and a mee goreng will always be in one of the menu, and not forgetting the ever popular roti jala.

Ah something about not being greedy and succumbs myself of glut, this year I managed to refrain myself from eating out a lot in the expensive restaurant or hotels which beyond ridiculously pricey. A normal buffet this year alone can cost a person at least RM80 ringgit, and the price getting higher if the hotel serve oysters and grilled lamb (oyster and grilled lamb has always been the benchmark of a perfect iftar in a hotel)

So I only went to 3 outings the first one eating seafood in Klang with Richard and Peknga, the second one iftar with Dr. Im and Dr. Ting in and the last one eating BBQ seafood in seafood terminal. Only paid for the last one, the rest are paid by someone else. Other that those 3 outings my breaking fast is spent with friends and my mother.

Seafood terminal, we don't really eat but we force the food

gracefully until our stomach get upset.

Another thing to mention this ramadhan is I bought a ready to wear Baju Melayu, which to my surprise actually fits me, and also I have bought a RM 216 songkok!!!

Bloody expensive songkok you might say. That price is actually including my parking summon that I need to pay after I indiscriminately park my car in the main road of Jalan TAR KL. Well everyone else is doing it, I just follow suit, in fact its already 3 o’clock in the morning and why must the traffic police be so fucking moron and give out summon to everyone parking at the side road because everyone is doing it. Something is unlawful and illegal, illicit, illegitimate or against the law only if a person is going something out of the ordinary which is not accepted by the society.

Mahathir called it a social contract; especially there isn’t any fucking parking space available at that time.

So there goes my RM200, or was it RM100, I am not sure, but that songkok which only cost me RM16 after I wrestled myself through the millions of people in Jalan Tar and ever annoying salesperson and demanding he sell the songkok to me less then the price he paid to his supplier, is ladies and gentleman, the most expensive songkok I have ever bought in my whole life.