Stories from my Kitchen 3 - "Sedekad di bumi ini"

Bulan ini genap sedekad aku menetap di sini. Tahun ini juga genap dua abad bandar ini ditubuhkan. Pada mulanya aku hanya mengenali Kajang kerana kemasyhurannya sebagai pekan sate nombor satu di Malaysia. Ia juga pekan yang berhampiran dengan UKM, salah sebuah universiti awam yang unggul di Malaysia. Persekitarannya dikelilingi bukit-bukit sederhana besar di kawasan Hulu Langat yang menjadi kawasan tadahan hujan dan tasik-tasik takungan air di Semenyih. Lokasinya bersebelahan dengan Bandar Baru Bangi, sebuah kawasan elit dan bandar baru yang didiami ahli akademik, profesional dan usahawan Melayu baru. Anak-anak Melayu baru hasil didikan DEB seperti aku.

Bermula dengan hamparan estet-estet getah dan kelapa sawit, tuntutan pembangunan menggantikannya dengan deretan rumah-rumah pangsa dan teres. Bukit-bukit dipotong, hutan ditebang dan pokok-pokok hijau dilupuskan. Ramai pemilik tanah menjadi kaya raya dengan nikmat pembangunan ini dan lebih ramai lagi yang terpaksa membayar harga yang tinggi untuk mendapatkan satu lot tanah tapak rumah mereka.

Pada lewat 1990an tiba pula bandar pusat pentadbiran kerajaan di Putrajaya. Ramai kakitangan awam bekerja di sana. Lalu ada di antara mereka yang tinggal di bandar Kajang ini samada menyewa ataupun membeli kediaman dengan pinjaman kakitangan kerajaan. Bandar ini menjadi bertambah pesat membangun. Bangunan tinggi dan kondominium mewah tumbuh dicelah-celah lereng bukit yang diratakan. Kos hidup mula naik, harga rumah melambung dan lalu lintas juga menjadi sesak. Lalu pada tahun 2004 lebuhraya Sistem Lingkaran Kajang (SILK) mula dibuka untuk menyuraikan kesesakan di pusat bandar.

Pembangunan melangkah begitu cepat di bandar ini berbeza dengan perubahan di kampung. Dalam sedekad aku di sini wajah bandar ini berubah dengan mendadak sekali. Gedung-gedung besar tumbuh di sana-sini, ada yang subur maju dan ada juga yang akhirnya ditinggalkan kosong kerana lokasi yang kurang sesuai. Segala kemudahan awam terdapat di sini. Masjid, perpustakaan, taman permainan, pejabat-pejabat kerajaan dan pusat-pusat hiburan. Lebuhraya baru menghubungkannya dengan Putrajaya. Kini Putrajaya hanya 15 minit dari rumahku dan ia adalah destinasi utama kami bila saudara-mara dari kampung datang berkunjung.

Di Bandar Baru Bangi, sebuah bandar baru yang terletak di kawasan Kajang, bertumpu pusat-pusat latihan dan penyelidikan bagi bank dan agensi-agensi kerajaan. Kedudukannya di pinggir bandaraya Kuala Lumpur menjadikannya lokasi yang ideal untuk tujuan latihan dan kajian. Di sekitar kawasan ini juga terdapat pusat pengajian tinggi awam dan swasta. UPM, Uniten, UKM, Universiti Multimedia, Unitar, KLUIC, MFI, Limkokwing University dan Nottingham University (Kampus Malaysia) semuanya berada di kawasan berdekatan. Di kawasan ini mungkin terdapat tumpuan bijak pandai berpangkat PhD paling padat di Malaysia ini.

Perpindahanku ke sini pada pertengahan tahun 1997 adalah kerana mengikut lokasi baru syarikat tempatku berkhidmat. Pada awalnya aku menyewa rumah teres bersama dengan beberapa orang kawan seangkatan yang sama-sama belajar di universiti. Namun pada lewat 90an, seorang demi seorang dari kami melangkah meninggalkan zaman bujang dan memulakan hidup baru dengan pasangan masing-masing. Aku sendiri berbuat demikian pada awal tahun 1998 dan menyewa rumah sendiri. Namun aku masih berada di kawasan ini kerana ia berdekatan dengan pejabatku dan juga tempat kerja isteriku. Akhirnya, kami membuat keputusan untuk membeli rumah sendiri di kawasan ini.

Selepas sekian lama dengan syarikat lamaku akhirnya aku meninggalkan pejabatku di Bangi untuk berhijrah ke syarikat baru. Namun tempat tinggalku tetap di Kajang kerana aku telah memiliki rumah sendiri di sini. Isteriku juga bekerja di bandar ini. Anak-anakku dilahirkan di sini dan bersekolah berdekatan dengan kawasan perumahan kami.

Memang aku akui keseronokan tinggal di kampung tidak diperolehi di sini. Di kampung tiada pagar dan tembok konkrit memisahkan kita. Di sana jiran adalah saudara mara. Di sini kita tidak mahu diganggu ataupun mengganggu. Aku dengan urusanku dan kau dengan masalah kau. Sekali-sekala kita bertanya khabar, itupun hanya sekadar di pintu pagar. Bukan hanya tembok batu yang memisahkan kita, tapi mungkin juga jiran kita berlainan bangsa, agama dan adat resam dengan kita. Walau apapun kita tidak akan mendapat segala-galanya. Kita hanya mampu membuat pilihan selepas menghitung segala kebaikan dan sanggup menerima sedikit kekurangan.

Aku masih ingat arwah ibu-bapaku juga merantau untuk mencari sesuap nasi. Di mana ada pokok getah untuk ditoreh di situ mereka berhijrah untuk membesarkan anak-anak. Namun kedua-duanya pulang ke kampung asal mereka sebelum menghembuskan nafas terakhir. Sekali-sekala aku akan pulang ke kampung untuk menjenguk sanak-saudara. Bila tiba hari mulia Insya-Allah jika ada peluang aku akan cuba bersama mereka. Namun ibu-bapaku sudah tiada. Kunjunganku ke kampung kini tidak istimewa seperti semasa mereka masih ada. Selepas sedekad, tempat yang dulunya asing kini sudah menjadi taman mainan anak-anakku. Di Kajang ini juga tempatku mencari rezeki dan membesarkan mereka. Aku sedar bahawa aku telah bertapak kukuh di sini. Di sini aku mula berhijrah dan di sini aku ditakdirkan menetap. Mungkin di sini aku akan bersara dan menghabiskan hari tua. Suatu masa nanti mungkin di sini juga hidupku akan menemui noktahnya.


Kajang
22 Julai 2007.

Stories from my Kitchen - 2 - "From Departure Hall to Labour Room"

I was deep in my dreams when I got a call from my wife Friday morning at 6 o’clock. She told me she was having labour pain. I didn’t know what to do. It would have been simple if I was lying next to her, but I was in a hotel some 1000 km away. Panic rushed through my head. What would I do? My scheduled flight home was 6 o’clock in the evening and all MAS flights were fully booked. I already told myself to be with my wife to receive the baby because this was going to be our last child. I felt that having four young mouths to feed was enough. I am grateful to be blessed with beautiful and healthy children and having four of them is a good point to call it a day.

I jumped out of the bed, turned my laptop on and got connected to the Internet. At RM26 per hour, the hotel Internet charge was a rip-off but it was not a time to think about money. I needed to be home for the baby. I typed AirAsia.com to book a ticket to KLIA because my original MAS ticket would be too late for me to see my wife deliver the baby. The Internet site did not respond. Maybe the server was down I thought. The address could not be wrong. It’d been etched on my memory. It’s written big and clear on the Airbus fuselage. I couldn’t get it wrong. I tried to call the hotline number but the response was confusing. May be I was so confused by then that I could not even understand a simple instruction. I called my wife again at about 7 o’clock and told her to ask my younger brother to take her to the hospital. I was still hoping that her pain would just go away and that the baby would not come out so soon. After all, she had false alarms a few times before and the due date was still 2 weeks away.

After failing with the website and the confusing hotline, I already gave up hope of getting home on time. From across the South China Sea, there is no other mode of transport to get home except by air. I was away on a project for a sister company, a subsidiary of an oil and gas giant. I had planned to be home for 2 weeks starting today so that I could be with my wife in the labour room. Although the due date was the end of the month, experience from the past three children told me that our baby would arrive early this time. Two weeks was enough windows for the arrival of the baby I thought. Now that my wife was already in labour pain, the only thing on my mind was to get home immediately.

There was one option. I could just go to the airport and try to get an earlier flight. I might just be lucky to get one from somebody who cancels their flight at the last minute. After breakfast I called the AirAsia number again. I was told that there was a flight to KLIA at 10.05 am, and that I needed to check in by 9.15 am at the latest. The other flight to KL was at 7.00 pm in the evening. That would be too long for me to wait. The clock was showing 8.40 am and I only had 35 minutes to check out from the hotel, take a cab to the airport, buy a ticket and check in for the flight. I prayed to Allah to help me beat the odds. I’ve not heard of anybody who does all this in 35 minutes. Whatever the odds I felt I should pursue this to the last possible option.

I quickly grabbed my stuff and dumped it into my travel bag. There was no time to fold things and put them nicely as I would normally do. I went straight to the hotel lobby, checked out and called a cab. There was already a taxi waiting and I needed to get to the airport by 9.15 am. I kept watching the car clock while the driver was telling me stories about his daily routine. Honestly, I was not paying attention to what he was saying. I pretended I was interested in his story by saying yes when I thought he expected me to agree with him. My only focus was to get through the gate by 9.15 am as I knew AirAsia was very strict with check-in time. I was refused entry once early this year and I had to buy a new ticket for the next flight even though I felt I was there on time.

I reached the airport at 9.10 am and rushed through to AirAsia ticket counter to ask for the 10.05 am flight. The man at the counter pulled out his walkie talkie and spoke to somebody to get confirmation whether they could still allow another passenger to buy a ticket and board the plane. I held up my breath as I listened to the confirmation from the voice coming through the device. I was given all clear. My worst fear was over. I would be flying home on the morning flight. Although AirAsia was well known as a low fare airliner, at that last moment, I was not hoping to get a RM9.99 ticket anymore. The fare was actually about the same as MAS flight and no in-flight meals were served. It was fine for me. I was not really hungry anyway.

Again I rushed to the check-in counter and saw there were still several passengers checking in. My spirits were up again. I was going to be allowed to fly. I went through the Immigration counter to get my Immigration chit stamped. Barely five minutes in the departure hall, we were called to board the Airbus bound for KL.

They say AirAsia is well known for delays. But my flight was right on time. The flight over the South China Sea took about 2 hours and 15 minutes and around 12.30 pm we touched down at LCCT. I usually have a slight fear of flying but this time I was so focused on the baby that I forgot everything else. I was prepared for any eventuality. Most likely I thought I would not be able to receive the baby in the labour room. In the past, it never took my wife more than 4 hours and she had been having the pain since 4 o’clock in the morning. It had been more than 6 hours. I did not know whether my wife could wait any longer.

Upon reaching LCCT, I told the cab driver to take me straight to maternity ward at Kajang Hospital. It was Friday prayer time and the road was packed. I think it took about an hour to get from the airport to the labour room. When I reached the hospital my wife was already lying in pain in the labour room. The nurses said that she had asked them to delay the birth because she wanted to wait for me. I was asked to wait outside the ward and they would call me when the baby was about to come out. It is not a normal practice in government hospitals to allow husbands to be in the labour room during delivery but I think they made an exception for me. My wife is a nurse at the hospital and among those in the labour room were her own colleagues . I was asked whether I would be fine seeing a lot of blood. After getting my assurances they agreed to allow me to be beside my wife during the delivery. My prayer was answered. At exactly 2.26 pm a baby boy was born weighing 2.8 kg. My life is now complete. I have 2 pairs of children – 2 sons and 2 daughters. I could not ask for anything better from God.

When I look back at the whole episode, I remember it again. As my bag slid into the X-ray machine and I went under the metal detector gate at the airport, I was overcome with emotions. I was so thankful to AirAsia for carrying me home. The face of its founder Anthony Fernandes, better known as Tony Fernandes came to my mind. Had it not been for his visions, many people would not be able to fly today. If there were no AirAsia alternative flights, I would not be flying home on time to be with my wife when the baby arrived. Thank you very much Tony! If you had a muslim name I would have named my baby after you. The closest muslim name to yours that I can think of is Ahmad Firdaus. It’s Arabic for “Heaven”, a name that has very good meaning indeed. It rhymes well with Anthony Fernandes too! I have come across many Firdauses in my life, and as far as I can remember, they are all generous and well mannered people. Maybe it was just a coincidence. A week earlier I was sailing to an offshore oil platform on a superfast crew boat named “Firdaus II”. I am not superstitious and I don’t believe in any signs. But I think it’s a nice name and I will not run the risk of not having enough spaces when I fill up the forms at the National Registration Department.

Not many stories these days end with a happy ending. I am glad mine did. Alhamdulillah, it all went well and God safely took me home from a departure hall some 1000 km away to the labour room at Kajang Hospital to welcome my baby. Welcome to the world my son. Welcome to the world Ahmad Firdaus!


At home in Kajang,
Currently on paternity leaves.
17-7-2007

07.07.07

They say this date comes only once in a century. But actually all dates only happen once. Every moment that has passed will never come back. That is why every second of the day is special. So what is your memory on this special date? Well, mine is quite exciting to me because at 7.07 am that day I was traveling on a super fast crew boat to an offshore platform off the coast of Sabah. I was on a day visit to the platform to do a review on some offshore pipelines – those big cylindrical pieces of metal that carry so much of oil and gas from beneath the surface of the Earth through the bottom of the sea down to an oil/gas terminal on the mainland. We don’t see them that much because they are usually either lying deep in the ocean or buried a few feet beneath our feet. They are mostly invisible but are indeed lifelines for the oil and gas industry. I’d say they are everything that a politician is not - silent, low profile, unglamorous but yet do their job in the most efficient way.

Many people grabbed the opportunity to hold important events on this date. Couples tie the knots. Expecting mothers pray for their babies to come out. Punters queuing up for hours to buy the number only to be told that somebody else already bought it. It’s funny why some people are so obsessed with numbers. I remember almost 19 years ago when it seemed like half of the world’s Chinese got married on 8.8.88. Supermarkets held super sales with items selling from as high as RM8888.88 to as low as RM8.88. I was still a student then. Didn’t really have money to go on shopping spree.

On a different note, people in the UK were remembering their 7/7 bombing in London 2 years ago. Security was tightened, as there were fears of another attack on the second anniversary of the deadly underground terrorist attack. Again, it’s funny why they think the terrorist would choose to attack again on the same date, when any thinking man would figure out that their potential victims would be most alert! If the terrorists were somehow connected to al-Qaeda, why would they choose a date of attack that coincides with an anniversary according to the Christian calendar, something, which I assume, is the last thing for them to follow. If they do celebrate anniversaries and somehow plan to attack again on the same date, I would assume they would use the lunar calendar instead. The terrorists might be using weapons made by the West, or technologies developed by the Infidels, but most probably they don’t give a damn about the Western anniversaries or calendar system.

I think it’s just us being human. We like parties and celebration. And this seventh day of the seventh month in the seventh year of the millennium is another excuse for us to celebrate. Punters loved it because they felt lucky that day. Capitalists embraced it for the profits and terrorists chose the date for reasons known only to them. The rest of us liked it simply because it was easy to remember. I wonder what reasons we can come up with to welcome 08.08.08 next year. Till then, keep celebrating!

Miri
12-07-07