Dia Sahaja Yang Kekal - 2

Hawa was the name she wanted to be called some fifty years ago, and Hawa has been the name I have known her ever since. Say the name and her face comes to my mind. And to her I was just AK and makcik was Kak Salmah. Today, I grieve inwardly because early this morning a short sms told me that my Hawa passed away last night.

Salams AK & Kak Salmah,

Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers. Insyaallah, I hope I can manage to undergo the tough period and recover soon.

Have just sent my pet scan results to my doctor here and am still waiting for his call.

Will let you know as soon as I start my chemo.

Hawa. ( 7/12/09)

That was Hawa’s last e-mail to Pakcik just one month ago and I replied soon after with all our prayers. A brave lady she had been over the long period of her illness, with chemo after chemo, knowing it too well that, after series of such treatment and still bravely awaiting more, her chances were becoming slim.

Hawa was my secretary then, a very dedicated one. She was handling some sensitive issues but I had no compunction to have confided in her. She was absolutely trustworthy. Perhaps she was ‘berkhidmat kerana Allah’ not just for me and the salary she earned; and perhaps she knew that I went out of expected line of duty for Him.

This is Pakcik’s fourth entry on this sad subject. I feel the need to record the demise of people the memories of whom touch me deeply. It is not of general interest, I realise fully. But a person like my Hawa meant a lot to me somehow. I simply have to have it recorded for my personal reference in future.

I will continue to say my prayers for her and those who mattered to me in their lives and who served ‘kerana Allah’. Al-Fathihah.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Going Stealing No More !

Hurray, the line is back! There is no longer any need to go snooping outside computer shops STEALING people's signal - feeling as guilty as the copper cable thieves not feeling guilty.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Great copper cable thieves!

No, it is not of the same scale as the famed great train robbery of England in the fifties. Desperate to make a living (or to purchase drugs?) in this bustling new city, some choose to wonder in the dark cutting about 100 meters of telephone cable each time for copper to sell.

In the New Sunday Times of 17^th Jan there was a short news of similar happening in Maran where two syndicates had been smashed. But Maran is not a city like where Almanar is. The stealing around me has been a nightly affair, each time Telekom Malaysia losing about 100 meters of cable. The thieves are having heyday. The person in charge of the local substation informed me that, having lost so much recently, they had run out of cable to replace the stolen. So, without a telephone line, there is no modem, hence no streamyx. And I cannot afford the sophisticated hand-phone! Poor me have to have patience ( patience being part of iman).



But Pakcik am not without resources. I go to an unaffected computer shop and share its streamyx signal. In fact after Almanar class this morning I drove to one, stopped by the road-side beside it and read my inbox mails. Now I am drafting this entry offline and will get it posted before the shop closes! Isn’t that clever?

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

Now I wonder.

- I wonder when I shall have my line, my streamyx.

- I wonder whether anyone or anybody (like the police, Telecom headquarters, ADUN or MP of my constituency) is doing anything about this.

- I wonder how the affected schools handle their high tech teaching equipment and how the pupils, many provided with an e-book each, do their homework.

- I wonder whether Telekom Malaysia cannot justify setting up its own cable manufacturing factory here.

With a lot of time on hand I can afford to sit back and wonder ----

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Will this be a better year?

Late last night Pakcik received a short New Year message from an ex-Almanar girl doing pharmacy in Bandong. She expected to read my New Year resolution. No, last night, I had no wish to write one. So Pakcik happily turned in soon after watching on TV the arrival of New Year celebration.

Then early this morning, another New Year message came through from a dear English friend of my yester-years, Ian Sanderson, now happily settled in the States with children and grandchildren.

“Hassan,

Happy new year to you & your family.
A few recent pictures for you.

All the best,
Ian”

HMS Endeavour

One of the six pictures is a sketch he made of HMS Endeavour, the ship used by the great English explorer, Captain James Cook in the 18th century. My friend must be reflecting of his life, his migration across the Atlantic. Indeed, I have had a kind of migration, too, from a busy life on the West Coast to the East, across the great Banjaran Titiwangsa! So, hurriedly I went in search of one of my old diaries. And I found one.

As usual, the first entry of that diary carried a ‘doa’ - in Arabic. Translated, here is a part of what I wrote 55 years ago:

“ ------------ Engkau telah mencipta diriku. Jadilah aku salah seorang daripada mereka yang berimam dengan hati mereka, bukan dibibir; membuat kebaikkan dan berjaya. Kiranya Engkau mengambil aku kembali biarlah selepas aku membuat kebajikkan ------------”

At the end of the diary was a list of 41 classmates and their addresses. Of that number, 16 persons, including two ladies, are no longer around. I say Al-Fathihah for these friends, people who coloured my life.

As always, the present and the past pupils of Almanar, I urge you to make your wishes and write them down. Years down the road you will be able to reflect whether in your fancy free days you made wishes that you are not ashamed of today. Have you got it all right or all wrong?

I have ceased to keep diaries but Pakcik still have unwritten wishes. I am not happy with Almanar classes in 2009 because an unusually large number dropped out during the course of the year. It is my wish that I will find a way in 2010 to keep as many pupils tuned and determined to improve themselves in life.

In the old diary mentioned above, Pakcik concluded with two lines in English,

“A year of success. May it be followed by similar years.”

Today, the first day of 2010 I ask myself, “Will this be a better year?”

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

P.S.
Incidentally, I immediately asked Ian Sanderson why he did the sketches and here is his reply (not quite the reason I surmised above):

Hassan,
I did the ship pictures - some done on old marine charts -something different that might appeal.
I started with the Cutty Sark [a famous tea clipper ship that is at Greenwich, London]- I had made a model some time ago, same with America'- In 1880 it sailed across the Atlantic & beat 13 UK sailboats. Queen Vitoria asked 'who came second' -answer- 'there is no second'!

Cutty Sark

America

Free Spirit

Free Spirit 2

Great Harry 2