I saw an old old friend on the internet the other day and had a bit of a catching up chat. She didn’t sound like she was all that new to the internet. Well at the very least she knew what Facebook, YM and Google were about.
She asked about my present whereabouts. And when I said ‘Moscow’, she responded with, “Kat mana tu?” Huh? I thought she was trying to be funny. So I said, “Oh Moscow is in Mali, just 120km south of Timbuktu.”
It was when she went on to ask, “Mali kat mana ye? Bunyi familiar je.” I honestly thought she was joking. So I gave her a matter-of-fact answer ‘Africa’. “Oh so ngko kat Africa lah pulak sekarang ni ye?” Oiiii!
“No lah, I am in Moscow.” I repeated myself to see if she was actually a classic case of listening-with-her-knee-cap or was another shower-cap-woman case. “Tadi ngko cakap ngko kat Moscow, Moscow kat Mali. Dah tu, kat Africa lah tu.”
“Isssyyy… ngko ni bior benor. Ke ko buat lawak Geography dengan aku ni? Aku kat Moscow. Pernah dengar tak Moscow?”
“Tak sure lah. Tu lah ngko! Tak reti duduk satu tempat. Pegi pulak tempat orang tak pernah dengor saper suruh?”
I was flabbergasted, lumpygutted and goonyjuted all at once! It was then that I thought of making a lawak Geography to her, “Sebenornye aku kat Chaah je.”
“Chaah? Kat mana tu?”
Suddenly we got disconnected!
Oopsie daisy! Never mind.
Questa è Enida 
enida
teringat my students’ response masa i tanya, malam tadi tengok euro cup tak? (yela konon berbual benda yg budak suka)tengokkkkk…ok team mana yang awak sokong?Brazil!!!!!!!!! *masa ni cikgunyer tak tau sapa nak hempok, budaknyer ker or cikgu geography nyer* 🙂
Alah…Moscow tu sebelah rumah kak melah, tepi rumah no 5, persiaran 1…depan dia ada mini market, belakang ada tesco dah you!
Sad but then I pity her…
Se’sangat, Nina! Sedih sangat mengenangkan. Kalau tak pernah dengor Mirrabooka ke, Meekatharra ke, Cirebon ke, Long Pasia ke, Nako Nambua ke… faham lah tu sebab bukan bandaraya ibu negara. In fact, kalau tak tau Chaah kat mana pun kira ada laa lagi Kemaafan Dendam Yang Terindah dia kay.
But Moscow is the capital city of the largest country in the world!
Masa kecik-kecik tak pernah main “Nama, Negeri” gamaknya ini orang.
Once, many many years ago, I was sitting with a programmer and explaining to her this website news categorisation which I grouped by continent and further narrowed down by countries. After the long explanation, the programmer asked me: “Kak, macam mana akak tau negara2 ni semua?”. I answered: “Err… geography?”. “Ooooo….”.
Babe,
Mesti masa subject Geography kat sekolah dulu this programmer buat ‘program lain’ or ‘program sendiri’ kat bawah meja kan? I remember we started with matapelajaran Kajian Tempatan masa darjah 3, learning all about different places in Malaysia – including ladang nenas in Pekan Nanas (Johor), perlombongan timah di Kamunting (Perak) and the term Periuk Nasi Malaysia (Kedah).
And later we went on learning about Penanaman Padi di Thailand, Yang Tze Kiang di China, Perikanan di Newfoundland, Penternakan di Nova Scotia, Perindustrian di Jerman, Penternakan Biri-Biri di Australia, Penanaman Tebu di Filipina, Pembuatan Jut di Bangladesh. Aiiihhh! I will end up writing the whole Geography textbook kat sini kang!
Entahkan programmer tu sibuk baca Gila-Gila or Usop Sontorian, or maybe majalan Roda or Mangga if not URTV in his desk tak? Well, even if he did… dah jadi programmer pun tak ada perasaan curious nak tau about the world gamaknya. Tak terfikir nak Google it all. Sayangnya lah!
hehehehhe. Proudly I would say I am from Chaah(Johor). 🙂
I am very happy to know that you know the place (hopefully it is the one I am referring to), because most of my friends and colleagues would go like “where is it on earth?”
Meena,
Oh I know Chaah (Johor) very well and love its small-town life. And I like how multi-ethnic Chaah is. I have a few Chindian friends from there, not to mention a few Chi-lay (Chinese-Malay) and Malindian (Malay-Indian) good friends. Pagoh is another of my favorite little towns.
Say hi to your family in Chaah for me, will ya? Hugs! 🙂