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.
Silently thinking, “Oh you smartie pants you!”
Summer refuses to linger. Very quickly 24°C weather has turned the page and me ducklings… instead of splashing at the Pokrovsky pond, will have to make do splashing in the bath tub these last couple days or so. It stayed 11°C for a few good morning hours yesterday as Autumn rain has fallen. And I? I stayed indoors minding my wordpress and mending my Spring chook.
This other mother of mine had once asked me to come home to her when her son lost his way home to me. And this other mother of mine looked me in the teary eyes at half past three in the morning and wished me luck as she knew all I need now is just that. Luck. She knows what I am out of.
Questa è Enida 
