Apparently, my maternal grandfather was an excellent blend of Malay, Indian and Arab blood. So my siblings and I are practically the end results of a rojak mix of Malay, Indian, Arab and Jawa blood. (Now, I know why some people think I look Indian. *shrugs* For some apparent reason, people think I look like a Pakistani. Madness! I beg to differ. My eyes can almost pop out each time I try to search for that Pakistani resemblance on my face.) Nonetheless, I feel Melayu as ever. Anak Melayu watan.
At the moment, I feel proud to be a Melayu.
I have always heard of Melayus being described as being friendly, demure, soft-spoken, shy, thoughtful and all things good. Frankly, finding such a Melayu nowadays is like looking for a needle in haystack. They are extinct...or so I thought.
Mum decided we break fast outside again today. We arrived late at Simpang Bedok. We break fast by eating dates and drinking milk. Simpang Bedok was not as Mum had expected...it was packed!
Unconsciously, we stood behind a Malay family, whom at that moment, consisted of a nenek in a wheelchair and the helper. Much to our delight, nenek offered her small plate of goring pisang to us.
"Makanlah, goreng pisang ni dulu. Dah azan dah ni..."
Mum and I were just stunned. It took us a few seconds to politely decline her generous offer. If that was not beautiful enough, they offered me to share the seat with them, seeing that the table my parents found had only two vacancies.
At the end of the whole thing, I cannot help but salam them and wished them Eid Mubarak.
It was just a beautiful and memorable event. Seeing that generous, sincere gesture from a family I have never met (and probably will never meet again), made me more ashamed of myself. It's so depressing how selfish I can be. It is also quite embarrassing how most Melayus (me included) nowadays tend to be a tad bit too self-centred and very Westernised. There was a period of time when I was actually embarrassed to claim my Melayu-ness. How sad is that!
Masya ALLAH.
But now that I am older and have learnt what matters most in life (somehow), I am actually proud of my roots. Whatever it may be...
1 comment:
hidup bangsa melayu! *takkan melayu hilang di dunia* Chey..da mcm Hang Tuah lah pulak! ehehe..
lizzie!lama tak dgr khabar daripada hang. how have u been? amcm persiapan raya?
Anyway, Mar nk take the opportunity utk menyusun jari memohon maaf jika sepanjang kita berkenalan,berbual-bual, 'tag-mengetag'(hehe) terdapat sebarang silap kata hingga menyinggung perasaan. Bergembiralah di hari lebaran nanti. *smiles*
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