Kitab Atok: tuturan alambina

"Mari kita tengok siapa yang kenaaaaa....."

Perang 3 ketumbukan di Kkalae Pasea (Pengkalan Pasir) telah pun bermula secara resminya semalam. Dan seperti lumrahnya di negara tercinta, perang seumpama ini dipenuhi dengan segala macam janji dan umpan.

Maka telah pun berjanji satu pihak, bahawasanya sebuah universiti akan dibangunkan di bumi Kilat-kilatan jika rakyat jelata memilih komander mereka; satu keputusan yang dipersetujui setelah dibawa bersidang di kerusi empuk di bilik berhawa dingin.

Jadinya, fahamlah kita: -

1. Perlu atau tidaknya dibangunkan sebuah universiti itu bukanlah bergantung kepada faktor social ekonomi serta keperluan sesuatu masyarakat untuk dididik dan menimba ilmu, tapi kepada siapa mereka sujud dan meng-ghurka-kan diri.

2. Keputusan mencorakkkan pendidikan masyarakat itu terletak bukanlah ditangan ilmuan dan cerdik pandai negara, tapi pada kumpulan menyelok saku rakyat yang bergelak ketawa di meja bulat mengsohori kejayaan rompakan masing-masing.

Minggu lalu, seorang negarawan yang kini menjadi 'anak terbuang meja bulat' telah memomokkan cara para perompak negara bertitah menjawab soalan. Disambut dengan gelak ketawa hadirin di dewan, beliau melakarkan betapa kurang intelek dan dangkalnya ahli meja bulat tanahair.... jauh dibelakang taraf pemikiran hadirin yang terdiri dari pelajar sebuah universiti terkemuka di dunia.

Beberapa bulan yang lalu, telah berlangsung satu sessi pertemuan pelajar dengan seorang Menteri di Jabatan PM di Dewan Msia London. Seorang rakan arkitek telah mengutarakan pertanyaan tentang kesepian industri pembinaan di tanahair. Rakan menambah soalan lagi, apakah strategi pentadbir untuk menyokong para graduan (seperti beliau) yang ingin pulang menyumbangkan tenaga di tanah tercinta jika tiada banyak peluang yang boleh diteroka. Kata Menteri, pentadbiran semasa tidak meletakkan agenda pembinaan di tingkat yang tinggi kerana ianya sudah banyak dilakukan oleh maharaja yang lalu. Tambah rakan lagi, para graduan seperti beliau telah bertungkus lumus di persada pengajian menara gading selama 8 tahun untuk menjadi arkitek berdaftar, tetapi nampaknya tidak berupaya menyumbang kepakaran kerana kekurangan agenda pembinaan di pihak pentadbir. Maka, tambah rakan lagi... jika demikian, lagi eloklah beliau buka restoren untuk menampung hidup; dan disambut dengan tepukan dan gelakkan hadirin di dewan. Jawab Datok menteri, 'mungkin itu yang harus awak lakukan'.

15 tahun dahulu, para petani di bumi Kilat-kilatan bangun di subuh hari dan mendapati subsidi baja mereka telah ghaib bersama bulan yang diangkat mereka semalamnya. Satu keputusan di meja bulat yang bukan berdasarkan keperluan masyarakat, tapi kepada keperluan mereka yang bersidang yang telah kehilangan daerah rompakan.

Beberapa ketika dahulu, Enche Value telah bertitah kepada para marhainnya bahawa jika beliau sekali lagi diletakkan ke meja bulat, maka akan dibinanya akan sebuah jambatan yang indah. Setelah terlaksana impian beliau maka dikerahkan ghurkanya untuk segerakan binaan. Namun setelah gagal mencari sungai untuk direntas, dibinanya akan sebuah jambatan baru yang kukuh lagi perkasa melintasi landasan keretapi untuk ke sebuah kuil ibadat.

Mungkin marhain di Slow Machang juga boleh membuat permintaan yang sama, dan kemudiannya menukar nama kampung halaman kepada Fast Machang, ataupun Deghah Machae.

Hai ubat, hai ubat
Mari beli ubat
Kalau lah terlambat
Tak dapat....

posted by Atok @ 10:06:00 am (0) comments

It's coming

The much awaited blockbuster 'Memoirs of a Geisha' is finally coming out soon next month.



Though I've not read the novel of the same title by Arthur Golden, which sold millions worldwide, I have however read its rebuttal novel 'Geisha of Gion' by the famous geisha Mineko Iwasaki who decided to break the tradition of the culture, i.e. by telling the world about geisha's secretly guarded world.

She did it simply to counter what she regarded as inaccurate and defamatory piece by Arthur in his novel, which was indeed based on Mineko's experience. On top of that, she was actually furious when Arthur put her name in his book when in her understanding, she agreed to be interviewed by him as long as everything is anonymous.... and indeed sued the writer and his publisher. The case was settled out of court.

Anyway, the movie trailer is > here

posted by Atok @ 12:07:00 am (0) comments

Karat

begitulah apa yg dah jadi dengan blog ini. raya dah kira-kira 3 minggu...tapi masih belum berpeluang nak update this space. walaupun local raya gathering dah lama berlalu tapi weekend raya open house masih berlangsung di sana sini. hal-hal kerja masih sibuk seperti sediakala. cuaca semakin sejuk dan dikatakan tahun ini bakal melihat musim sejuk tersejuk. perjalanan lebih 30 batu di pagi dan lewat hari ke tempat kerja dan pulang ke rumah (melalui jalan kampung) terpaksa merempuh kabus tebal yang memendekkan penglihatan ke hanya beberapa meter sahaja.

petang semalam, selepas kira-kira 10 batu meninggalkan kota ini, tiba-tiba ada panggilan dari seorang rakan:

'kau gi tak pak sheikh's talk malam ni? jom la'
'talk... aku tak tahu pun. kul berapa? talk on what?'
'aku pun baru tahu ni, f called aku tadi, pukul 8:00 at balliol, something pasal asian economy.... jom la'
'mmm.... nanti aku fikir...'

i pulled over into a layby... called home. should i proceed or turn back....
there was no answer; they must be out i thot. after various tries... i took an executive decision and turned back towards the city of dreaming spires....

and it was a dream indeed, as pak sheikh completely transgressed from the topic and talked his usual words (of which most of us heard many times before) of reform, corruption, freedom, etc etc including his sufferings. in other words... it was a political talk, nothing more nothing less. and his answers to most questions were pretty vague...

all in all... to me, it was a disappointing one. anyway, next stop for pak sheikh will be to my tanah tumpah darah this weekend for the by-election.

posted by Atok @ 8:56:00 am (0) comments

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI

Kepada semua umat Islam di mana sahaja berada.
Maaf Zahir Batin.

Semoga kita semua aman sejahtera.

--------------------------

Hari ni pepagi dah hujan, tak de la selebat semalam. Alhamdulillah, the traffic was good and I arrived at the office just at the right time. Planning to serang a friend's place at lunchtime for raya lantak

posted by Atok @ 8:52:00 am (0) comments

The day before

In the Land of Lightning, the day before Raya is known as 'aghi wak ttupak' (hari membuat ketupat), and the commonly known rectangular ketupat nasi is something of an alien item to us; it's 'orang luar's ketupat'. Though nowadays, with globalisation, this ketupat has made its present, albeit very isolated and minor, in the state. Our ketupat is indeed the other type, the triangular with pulut and it comes in two versions, manis and tawar. The tawar is normally taken with nnisae (gula melaka). And because ketupat is nicest when eaten fresh and it doesn't actually last long, unless re-steamed, the making of it has to be reserved to the very last minute, on the eve of raya.

Another thing we normally did on raya eve is to pay our zakat fitrah at our local mosque. However, what we normally do is, Papa would pay for half of the total family member to the authourised amil at the mosque, and for the other half... we drove to Masjid Besar (the State Mosque: Masjid Muhammadi) for a more exciting adventure.

On every Ramadhan, especially towards the end, one would find a lot (maybe in hundreds) of tok pakae (fakir miskin) around the mosque and its adjacent Padae Beng (Padang Bank or Padang Merdeka). Apart from their 'colourful' appearance and nature, they had something in common. All of them had a small sack of beras (in cupak) , normally in those brown paper bags. And it was for this:

Papa: 'Caghi hok buto'... he would asked us to. So we did, in the dim street lights... around the oblong Padae Beng.

And when we found one, Papa would sit in front of him and...

Papa: 'Assalamualaikum. Beghapo sechupok beghah ni?', he asked.
Tok pakae: 'Waalaikum Salae', and told us the price of his sack of rice.
Papa: 'Ambo beli deh', and handed him the money.
Tok pakae: 'Ambo jua', he replied and pushed forward the sack.

Papa then gave back the rice to the Tok Pakae as his zakat fitrah with its required aqad.

A very unique ritual I don't think practised in other states.


SELAMAT HARI RAYA. MAAF ZAHIR BATIN

posted by Atok @ 11:50:00 pm (0) comments