Dalam banyak-banyak lagu sempena bulan puasa ni, ada satu yang sedang berputar ligat tak berhenti-henti di benak saya sejak petang. It’s not even Raya yet. But you know how time is marked by songs. And you know how some songs can follow you like a langau for a few hours, days and – in some serious cases – months at a time, don’t you? Some songs even stay to be your lifetime theme song. Cue: Ally McBeal.
Well, the Ramadhan song I’m talking about is:
Bulan Ramdan yang mulia
umat Islam berpuasa
menunai rukun ketiga
beramal dan ibadat
kita di bumi Allah
ingat hari akhirat
Bersatu dan berusha
mencapai cita mulia
seia dan sekata
maju hidup bersama
untuk diri keluarga
ugama bangsa dan negara
Jangan leka
laburlah segera
Amanah Saham Nasional sedia
menjaga pelaburan setiap ketika
laburlah segera
segera labur segera
Does this song ring anybody else’s bell, I wonder. Oh! It has been ringing mine like a broken alarm clock every time I come online and see the word Ramadhan these past weeks. The same song keeps playing in my mind actually, about this time of the year every year. Especially now that I am away again. It’s louder and clearer. Clear melear!
Funny though, how the new Ramadhan songs just don’t sit with me. They don’t even stick to me. I keep going back to this probably 1979’s Ramadhan song. Or was it 1980 when Amanah Saham Nasional was first introduced? Ever wondered why Permodalan Nasional Berhad used Ramadhan to encourage investing in ASN? Relativity theory anyone?
I so lah derailed nya. I know.
Anyway, I can almost see the choir that originally sang this song in front of an astaka for the Musabaqah that year. How their hands put together before their chest, left thumb resting on the four other fingers of the right hand. And how kembang kempis their noses went, singing the song ever so enthusiastically! Almost patriotically – if not religiously.
And I can almost smell what was cooking in Mom’s kitchen of our one-bedroom rumah sewa (RM45 per month in the 70’s) beralamat 745-U Lorong 2 Kg. Jana Baru. Seriously, that tiny house only had one bedroom and the bedroom did not even have the daun pintu! The only pintu you could find inside the house was the bathroom door. Made out of a piece of zinc and cheap plywood Z-frame. Well, we were just grateful we didn’t have to do our business terang bulan!
Life was simple then. We never over-ate in Ramadhan like a lot of people do now. There was no excuse to have one Bazaar Ramadhan in every half a km ridiculous radius! Pasar minggu was always enough for a week stock-up. All kuehs were homemade whenever we had extra tepung. When there wasn’t, biskut lutut, biskut jari, biskut bulat masin, biskut mayat, or any biskut kering was always in store. Though we always had to ration, always had to share, not once did we go hungry. Not ever! Of course I did, bila mogok lapar tak dapat 15¢ beli sepeket bunga api cap kepala kucing hitam! We were poor and yet we had everything. Yes, every thing.
Uh… what was I talking about asalnya tadi? Aaahh lagu bulan puasa! I was going to move on to write about lifetime theme songs, sebenarnya. But really think I should make my way to the fridge scrounging for some leftover jarred sardines I tumis-ed the other day with ginger, garlic and lotsa bawang besar.
They do have canned sardines here of course. (They have canned everything! If they could can snow, I bet they would.) But feeling a bit curious the other day when shopping at Alye Parusa, I got me some jarred Norwegian sardines. They are not as good as the Cap Ayam ones, but no less than Cap Ligo. Definitely not the kind of food Abramovich would eat. His sardines might as well come in gold cans. But hey… what money can buy.
All said, I often think the word PUASA should be spelled without the ‘a’ at the end.
Questa è Enida 
I love sambal tumis sardin.
Kan! The sambal aroma and the fishy smell always linger in the house – and you know, it is the ‘sweet smell of home’.
My favorite smell is ikan goreng with only garam dan kunyit (digiling dengan batu giling) dimasak dengan dapur kayu kat belakang rumah! And my favorite sight is of a pair of terompah just outside the back door for one to use between the main house and the dapur kayu. P.Ramlee song in the background. Ooooh divine!
Enida, sekarang ni dah tak de dah bunga api cap kucing kepala hitam tau. It seems that kids can make bombs out of it and they stopped importing. But the kucing kepala hitam was my favourite too. My father used to cucukkan the besi at the end tu onto another batang of soft plant so that the percikan api tak kena my tangan. And later when we were bigger we would bend the dawai and gantung the bunga api whilst terbakaring dekat2 pokok bunga, konon macam pokok krismas la kan. Well the aftermath could be seen and heard the next morning when my mum screamed ” what did you guys do to my pokok bungaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!?” he he he
Nasib baik my Mom tak tanam pokok bunga! Hehe. My dad never layan us with all this bunga api bull. “Bakar duit!” he would say, “I might as well give you a dollar (masa tu dollar lagi, mana ada ringgit-ringgit nih!) and here’s mancis api, hah bakar! Bakaaaaaarr!” I was so resentful because he bakar his duit every day and night with his Gudang Garam, Kretek and 555!
My mom would sometimes have mercy on our kids’ soul and was kind enough to get us a packet each. We were so berjimat playing with it, a packet would last us until malam Raya!