19 March 2012

Three (not Tea) for Two




We were in the middle of our maghrib prayers when a few gentle knocks were heard at our front door. Whoever was there probably realised that it was not quite the right time to be persistent.




It took quite a while before I was downstairs to switch on the light outside and to open the main door. Instinctively I knew that the visitor would not be standing there. Indeed, no one was within sight. But something was on the floor









Three medium size water melons were staring me in the face.



I understood what this was meant to be. In the past I had had durian, fish, rambutan and so on – an offering, my humble gift . Unwritten was the message, “Thank you Pakcik and Makcik.”



Three water melons just for the two of us!



__________________________




A few minutes later an sms message arrived, “ Pakcik, I left 3 melons outside your door, Mustapha.”




The boy’s father grows water melons. The likes of that family may not necessarily be people of means, but they do not forget easily what good you do for them.

That is what we can never buy from the market

Thank you, Mustapha, was my reply.








Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan










39 comments:

Ismail aka Pak Mail said...

Salam Pakcik,

Tiga biji buah semangka tidak bernilai berbanding pengorbanan dan didikan persekolahan yang Pakcik berikan kepada mereka yang memerlukan.
Jasa Pakcik memang amat bermakna bagi mereka.

kaykuala said...

Dear Pak Cik,
Water-melons a thirst quencher. To my buddy from Kelantan(and even Trengganu too,I think) that is timun or 'timun china' to be exact. Is it true?

For the seeds you sowed the rezeki came back from many directions. You are both blessed, Mak Cik and Pak Cik!

Hank

Anak Timur Laut said...

He must have selected the picks of the day, from what he grows with his tears and blood under the hot sun, just to his gratitude.

And that we can never buy in the market.

ninotaziz said...

After many years, I am finally learning the meaning of 'priceless' gifts, selfless acts, actions that speak louder than words.

Buah tembikai di luar pintu
Dari tangan turun ke hati
Pakcik pandai menabur ilmu
Jadi ingatan, sekalung budi

Al-Manar said...

PakMail,

Tak usahlah pandang kepada sumbangan yang sebenarnya tidaklah sebegitu hebat. Tetapi bayangkan besarnya nilai kepada mereka yang amat memerlukan. Ini lah yang patut menjadi dorongan kepada kita untuk mengalirkan setitik peluh untuk mereka.

syarud said...

Pakcik,

you are truly bless...

Al-Manar said...

Hank,

Indeed, we only know it as timun China over here. It is a wonder how that name came about. Did puteri Hang Li Pu ever bring this fruit over here from China?

It is a nice thought, Hank. Really it is not a big deal to us, but it is to them.

Al-Manar said...

ATL,

Your late dad ( Al Fatihah for him)must have tasted a lot of such goodness during his time, his life. Now it is your turn to carry the baton.

Al-Manar said...

Ninot,

Buah tembikai isinya merah
Kulitnya keras isinya berair
Kalau dah lama hidup mewah
Tibalah masa peluh mengalir

You are teasing and forcing me to be what I cannot be. Full stop.

Al-Manar said...

Syarud,

I am glad to see you. One of these days I will descend on you!

aliya said...

Assalamualaikum Pakcik Hassan,
Watermelons? How sweet :)
This is one thing I miss about teaching rural kids; the gifts from the heart.
I used to get free durians during the fruit season when I taught at a primary school in Batu Kurau.

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Dear Pakcik,
Buah tembikai di luar pagar,
Ambil pisau tolong belahkan;
Saya kucing baru belajar,
Kalau salah tolong rotankan.....

Ouch !

Hmm....jus tembikai in hot summer days....lovely.... fruit salad of watermelon with a bit of mint is also refreshing.

Wan Sharif said...

I teared some reading the post..
nice to note the lively exchange of pantun and happy to note that the cat has been consistent in creating pantun ;)..
Well, you might not believe me.. that your pantun is good.. at least to me.. it cut very deep.. Yes..I has been hidup mewah comparatively.. and now should be the time for my keringat to mengalir..
Hopefully I can live to a ripe old age like my late father (-+95 yo)..
Will, insyaAllah go back to Gganu when I pay off my (blundering?) investment.. a promise made to my family after the blunder.. unless it turn out not to be a blunder ;).
Niat dan azam sudah ada .. tanggungjawab belum selesai..
Ya Allah berilah saya kesempatan untuk saya mengalirkan keringat saya ini dalam mencari redha MU.. amin..

Al-Manar said...

Aliya,

You would not have enjoyed the durians had you not shown to be a teacher who cared. Take a drive to Batu Kurau during a durian season, meet your old pupils and you would have a surprise waiting. If it was then your pre-tudong days the surprise today would be both ways.

Al-Manar said...

C-f-S,

Kalau kucing yang silap
Bukan rotan ubatnya
Kalau tiada buloh kasap
Senapang patah gantinya

Ha,ha ..

Al-Manar said...

Ayah Wang,

I am glad the message is clear. None of us has never enjoyed joy in life. For that, and in return, we try to give something to the needy. Insya Allah your investment will not be for nothing, Ayah Wang. Segala-galanya ada hikmat.

asamkeping said...

Orang berbudi kita berbahasa,
Orang memberi kita merasa.

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Ini pantun untuk Ayoh Wang:

Bang! Bang! Bunyi senapang
Anak itik mati ditembak
Kalau dah berjaya pelaburan(g)
Jangan lupa belanja anak-beranak

Another one for Pakcik:

Di waktu maghrib bermain loceng
Marah Pak Imam disuruh mandi
Sampai hati nak tembak kucing
Kan kami kekasih Nabi?

purrrr....meow!

ninotaziz said...

I love this exchange of pantun. Two from you Pakcik!

Ayoh Wang, you are right. Dalam maksud pantun Pakcik.

You should try it too.

ninotaziz said...

Bravo, Cats!

Wan Sharif said...

Hu la la...
Thank you for your doa Abang Hassan. I believed I got nicely cornered by you, CfS and Ninot.. What can I do but obliged .. Here is my attempt to applaud your fine effort and the beautiful exchanges of the dying art;-

Jangan ditebang pohon seraya
Tempat bermain unggas serangga
Hinggap berteduh helang dan enggang
Izin Allah pelaburanku berjaya
Dijemput semua sahabat blogger
Bertamu kenduri kesyukuran Ayoh Wang

Hopefully it suffice..
it is rather green though..
ha ha ;)

Al-Manar said...

Asamkeping,

Cantiknya:
"Orang berbudi kita berbahasa,
Orang memberi kita merasa."

Saya tak pandai tekniknya tetapi sedap dengar susunan:
O .... be ...... ki ....be..
O .... me ...... ki ....me ..

Agaknya kalau ambil ijazah jurusan sastera/bahasa tentu semua ini meesti dikaji.

Al-Manar said...

C-f-S,

Saya 'surrender' dah. Shoot me or whatever. I have to seek the great Ayah Wang to come to rescue.

Al-Manar said...

Ninot,

One gets flashed of brilliance at times ( munkin lepas keropok lekor ). Ayah Wang will come out in defence of tuan rumah - or madam in distress if need be.

Al-Manar said...

Ayah Wang,

Three cheers! I know what you can do, man. Even invitation cards have been dished out. Let us pray and hope that the venture is successful.

Thank you Ayah Wang on behalf of every one.

Wan Sharif said...

Abang Hassan,
Thank you again for your kind doa and your confidence..
I think we should be thankful that this blog is the place the two young ladies want to use to revive the dying art of pantun..
I cannot say on their behalf whether it is acceptable for the host to "surrender".
Honestly, from what I have read so far, your pantuns and your poems were just great!, to me at least. Maybe it might be a little taxing to the uninitiated like the two of us to make it a normal habit :), but I find it refreshing to reads the pantuns exchange.. maybe we will cherish it later. Non?!

Anonymous said...

Pak Cik, I have not heard about Mustapha. Is he one your ex Al-Manar students? Perhaps he is. Where does his father grow the water melons? My mother will love to know about this. She is a water melon lover!


AZMIERA
miss you and makcik!

Al-Manar said...

AyahWang,

It is my pleasure to see light-hearted interactions going on here. I do hope more will join in from time to time. I will no doubt continue to express my thoughts and my perceptions over what goes on in my little world of Almanar.

If pantuns and poems are ways to express our life philosophy let it be so.

Al-Manar said...

Azmiera,

New faces have begun to surface at Almanar, and soon, when you drop by, you will find strangers around here.

ninotaziz said...

I am happy to see active 'menjual membeli pantun' here at Al-Manar. Perhaps one day it will be an active requirement in our education system.

Well done Ayoh Wang! Pantun 6 kerat, no less!

With lovely reference to nature macam pantun dulu dulu. Thank you Pakcik for allowing us this space.

i amsterdam said...

I truly enjoy reading the comments and pantun :D

Awang Goneng said...

Abang Ngah: You do draw the crowd - cats, poets, investors and grateful children with timung china. Reading the comments is as good as reading your blog.

When I went to Kampung Raja to visit my grandad all those years ago when ferries roamed the rivers and tigers the jungle, he (grandpaw) would make his pre-lunch orders. Go to the pohong ttèrè (that's what they call jambu golok in Besut) and pluck the shoots. Go to the kitchen and ask them to cut the timung china. You know of course that the pucuk tèrrè (guava shoots) was to accompany the budu, but I don't think many people nowadays know that the timung china (watermelon) was eaten with rice in Trengganu in them wild days. Perhaps the three timungs arrived on your doorstep just as you were scooping out the steaming rice? So timely. That was better than durian runtuh - until we get the real durian runtuh when Pak Wan Sharif belanja us all.

Awang Goneng said...

Sorry, a mistake: in my rush I wrote this, "pucuk tèrrè (guava shoots)". It's actually the shoots of the cashew tree. Jambu Golok. Is that Golok the place in what is now Southern Thailand, or is that the heavy cleaver?

Al-Manar said...

Ninot,

If memory has not failed me you were the one who started this pantun business here. So the blame falls squarely on you.

But I enjoy it. So keep going on one condition that you make a poet out of that entrepreneur from Pulau Duyong. You said he had done pantun 6 kerat. Make him double it to a dozen kerat!

Al-Manar said...

i amsterdam,

I am truly pleased that you enjoy whatever little fun created by our bollogger friends. How about a few 'ranhgkai pantun' from Holland? I notice your Ilham doing it, in English though. Let it be real Dutch to us. We will have Ninot to do the translation. She has done a few for me, sadly turning out better than my original ones.

Al-Manar said...

i amsterdam,

I am truly pleased that you enjoy whatever little fun created by our bollogger friends. How about a few 'ranhgkai pantun' from Holland? I notice your Ilham doing it, in English though. Let it be real Dutch to us. We will have Ninot to do the translation. She has done a few for me, sadly turning out better than my original ones.

Al-Manar said...

Awang Goneng,

Thank you, Mi. You have triggered something that Abang Ngah will likely respond in a separate posting.

Temuk said...

Salam bahagia
You don't give just 2 melons for 2 people. That's not the way our people "berbudi". Be sure to "hulur" more than what is 'just enough' for the receiver. 2 melons for 2 people would be just be enough. 3 melons would be better.

Tingginya budi si pemberi yang sedemikian pekertinya!

Al-Manar said...

Temuk,

I must have made a lot of blunder in life trying to 'berbudi' without asdhering to the principle of 'giving more than one each'! Next time I take three friends out for tea I will have six cups for the three.

What I have written here does exhibit the latent quality of generosity among the simple kampong folks. We tend to ignore that because of 'class' difference and our perception that generosity moves downwards.