Questa è Enida

I realized this long time ago actually…that I can get all teary and emotional just watching orang menari tarian Inang. Silly me. I was in grade one when I had my first musical turn-on – watching my seniors’ melodrama performance. It was then that my ears flung open to Ahmad Jais and Rafeah Buang’s ”Ku Siram Selasih”. Strange but tarian traditional can get me stimulated (read: going). Not just the Malay dances, Tionghua‘s & Indian’s do the same thing to my brain.

Two years ago, though, I blamed it on my pregnancy when I got extremely patriotically emotional at the Calgary Indonesian Cultural Night. Tari Piring, Tari Endang, a plate of Gado-Gado, a bowl of Bakso Sapi and two or three Kleenexes later, I admitted to Be that I was homesick. I even shocked myself when I could recall most of the lyrics of Begawan Solo. I was brought up listening to Ayam Den Lapeh and Bugih Lamo. What is Begawan Solo.

Last night I was neither homesick nor pregnant, but smoke got in my eyes all the same. Came Tari Trendak Johor je, my nose didn’t know whether to get runny or stuffy. It went kembang-kempis profusely bila menengok those youngsters having fun on the stage. I really miss good ole days when I was THE Cabaret Girl on campus. The popular-for-all-the-wrong-reason girl, I was. Le Femme De Jogette!

Grand Hyatt Muscat is having a ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’ promo – Food & Cultural Festival – from February 7 – 11. We went on the 7th, cik main kobar. But the first night was just the launching night – private dinner reserved for the Malaysian delegates. I heard the news about this festival on the Oman radio. There was even a phone quiz thing. The question, though, was too mind-bonking! What is the largest city in Malaysia? D’uh!

I should not have trusted that Oman radio DJ. She is known for giving either misleading or incomplete information. (You should listen to how she baca berita. News on people wounded, or people get hurt in a car-bomb somewhere…would sound like somebody just won a trillion dollar lotery! Tak kena langsung intonation and rythm nya. Some people just don’t realize that our voice does reflect our ‘depth’.)

Anyway, the whole show was good. But one would wonder if it was truly Asia. There was no Chinese, Indian or the lain-lain dance. At all. There were the Johor Zapin, the Mak Yong/Gamelan, the Joget and Inang. Even some modern Arabic influenced Balkish-ish dance. All Malay dances, though. No tambi in white sarongs menari with sticks, or siew cher in qipao with long ribbons or kipas tangan. I was kinda longing to see some Kanang Anak Langkau look-alike dancing some Ngajat, if possible. Nope. I became quite ralat for the kesifaran of these other dances.

The food was okay too. I was quietly surprised to see a couple of English ladies berebut scooping up some cencaluk. They knew what cencaluk was, and seemed fond of it too. Of all, I was a bit disappointed with my Pengat Pisang. The bananas were pisang muda meh. So kelat loh. Good thing I had some Kuih Bangkit to sagat my lidah with afterwards. The teh tarik was menarik.