Questa è Enida

Since the mimpi was quite interesting, and I simply tak ingat apa ke kesahnya…I started making a mental list of what I am passionate about in my life. Ha’ah, at four-thirty tu lah. Sambil tangan menepuk Cik Kit tido. The list was like this:

· Be

· Kitreena

· My family, both mine and the Johnsons

· Cik Nan & Co.

· Lindt

· Nik Ja & Co.

· Books

· Singing

· Writing

· Reading

· Traveling

· Teaching

· Psychology Studies

· Emails

· Fancy writing pads

· Sunflowers

· Butterflies

· The color blue

· Beaches

· Oprah show and the ‘O’ magazine

· National Geographic and Animal Planet

· Reader’s Digest

· SEARS and IKEA catalogues

· Sudirman’s old songs and his book “Dari Dalam Sudirman”

· Fresh tofu

· Yeo’s soy milk and Rice Dream rice milk

· Special ‘K’ cereal

· Old friends

· Long-lost friends, like Rozie, Razlita and…huh? Aniza Ismail!

It wasn’t long before it all came back to me! It was a mimpi about Aniza Ismail. We were classmates from Darjah Empat at All Saints’ to Tingkatan Satu at SMK. Her family moved to Kota Bharu halfway through form one, and I never saw her ever again. I did get hold of her once when I was in my first year at university. We talked for hours, trying to catch up for the lost time. And then we ‘got lost’ again. It wasn’t really a small world, after all.

Then that I had awaken to the dream, I could remember that it was a strange one. In it, we had found each other again and she was looking extremely tired. So I just let her sleep. She didn’t have to tell me anything, I just knew why she had been so exhausted. Pelik kan? Dreams can be. It was then that Kitty had mengiau and I stumbled my way to her room. Hmmm. “Mimpi itu mainan tidur” I once heard. Perhaps dreams are there to evoke our minds, eh? To play with our memories and to awaken old passions.

I couldn’t go to sleep afterwards. My mind then sibuk berbalas pantun. Ahak! Honestly! My mind just wandered about, mengarang pantun. Apekebende lah. I told ya, dreams can invoke, provoke and evoke our minds and rekindle old spirits, did I not? Well, here’s a couple of them, the pantun. (These are no “Pak Ali-pergi-ke-kedai-pergi-ke-kedai-membeli-something” punya pantun, mind you.) I hate when people come up with these Pak Ali pantuns! Our language is so rich and so beautiful, all people can think of is one Pak Ali who asek lah going shopping tak sesudah. Ek eleh!

Banyak suka perkara suka,

Macam suka berinai merah;

Banyak luka perkara luka,

Apa luka tiada berdarah?

Banyak tanak perkara tanak,

Bertanak nasi biar selabu;

Banyak anak perkara anak,

Anak siapa tiada beribu?

And this is one of the many pantuns I used to jual during the many berbalas pantun competitions I participated in…way back when:

Banyak macam perkara macam,

Macam si dayang menganyam gelugor;

Ribut tiada bayu pun rencam,

Seludang mayang mengapa gugur?

Hah, jawab bang, adik kakak tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sekelian…jangan tak jawab!