Garam Gula Duka Bahagia

(Garam Gula Duka Bahagia adalah tajuk novel tulisan Johnny Ong dan diterjemahkan oleh Adibah Amin. Published by Pesaka Press, 1980. )


Beberapa hari lepas, Yamtuan tanya, 'you are always so busy at work and coming home late. Are we still number two in your life or have we slid down further?' Big ouch, wound kasi rub baikkk punya dengan salty salt.
Garam.

Rakan sekerja bergurau dengan saya hari tu. Dia kata saya tak layak untuk diraikan pada Hari Ibu sebab saya hanya ibu part-time. Bergurau. Tapi makan dalam. Low-blow, mannnn..
Garam.

Suatu hari baik bulan baik, Dot kata amma dia ni laaaagi cantik dari Barbie Doll. Bayangkan lah tu, bukan Barbie Doll tu dah perfect beauty ke? Malahan lagi cantik dari Siti Noniza (her pelat way of saying Datin K's name). Perhhh....rasa macam The Bomb!
Gula.

Sewaktu sedang menunggu LRT, ada seorang budak datang pada saya. Dia tanya jika nama saya ialah 'Beautiful, because you are." Hehe.. what a lame-lame pick-up line. Tak original langsung! Saya ketawa seburuk-buruk ketawa sampai keluar air mata. Bila saya beritahu dia, nama saya ialah 'Ibu-Beranak-Dua-Yang-Berusia-37 tahun,' dia cepat-cepat mintak maaf. Dia baru 4th year student di UIA. Masa dia lahir dulu, saya boleh tukar lampin dia. Hehehe.. Rasa muda, beb.
Gula.

Sejak sebulan lepas, semua kami risau sebab doktor di hospital Kluang dah keluarkan surat untuk Mak bawak ke hospital Terendak. Surat tu kata, Mak perlu di pasang 'tapak' sebab Mak dah perlu mula dialisis. Bulan 8 janjitemunya.
Duka.

Mulai hari ni sehinggalah Ahad nanti, saya akan terkurung di dalam workshop di Seremban. Habis lah rugi weekend dan 'family day' yang hanya ada 2 hari dalam seminggu. Minggu depan pula saya akan outstation ke Sarawak dan lepas tu, Sabah. Yamtuan disapproves dan saya tak salahkan dia. Sigh. Nampaknya, dah tiba masa untuk letak surat resignation. Dah tiba peringkat kena buat pilihan rasanya ni. Pagi ni buat surat, petang nanti saya letaklah dalam tray boss. Sigh.
Duka.

Dalam pada banyak ambik garam dan gula, dalam pada kehadiran duka yang sekali sekala, masih ada banyak sebab untuk bersyukur.
Bahagia.


Orang Sibuk Asia,
Oodie Doll

And the award goes to...!

Kim Soon Ae aka Mariam Johari hails from Kota Tinggi. The mother-daughter-woman in me bleeds everytime I read her story. The biscuit-promise part, the longing-for-a-hug part. Oh-my! Can someone please tell Erma-Ummi to do a movie on Tok Mariam instead of on the famous meat-cutter-bomoh? The bomoh is from where again? Perak? Not Kota Tinggi, you mean?

The foetus whose mother stole the sultan’s jackfruit for, was supposedly found nibbling on the fruit when her mother’s womb was cut open. And its father must kill the sultan while the sultan was carried in his full royal splendour on the pedestal, no less. And the sultan’s curse must continue on for generations after generations. This must happen in Kota Tinggi.

My grand-grandmother was married at least 7 times. One of her husbands was a royal from Sumatera. One an Arab royal. True she was from Bunut Susu of Kelantan. But since after her first marriage, she moved to Kota Tinggi and that was where she lived till the day she died.

Her arab daughter aka my grandmother, lost her husband to a ‘perempuan-kabaret’, no less. Couldn’t the other woman just be someone who worked as tukang jahit in town, or maybe just guru kelas dewasa? No. She had to be from the cabaret. The smallest of waist, the highest the pointiest of corset and she was supposedly the best dancer in the whole town and beyond too, but of course (the movie Red Kebaya reminded me of her, hehehe). And in wanting to stop the fightings, my mother – who was little then, had to smash a glass and took the trouble to collect all the pieces, put them in a glass, pour water in it and what else, gulped it down. Infront of her parents, what else. It worked. The fights did stop but it ended after he left the house. For good. Kota Tinggi. Must you wonder?

Who can blame them? My grandmother was the bangsawan star in her time. Enough said.

(Disclaimer – no offense Tok Nah & Tok Cik, I absolutely love both grandmothers. One adamantly refused to teach me zapin and the other said I don’t need acting lessons from her since I am already so gifted, hehehe..)

My grandfather was a writer. And we all know how writers exaggerate! 'Beautiful eyes' not enough, only a non-writer would put it that way - plain equals to boring. A writer would say something about the saucer-sized eyes, with the black the blackest of black, and with such depth enough to drown 10 people in at one go, plus they got sparkle sparkle some more, and lashes so long so curled they look like the cow’s eyes!

Bloggers are worse, I know! What I need is just one grain of salt and I can create oceans from it. Like right now. Not that we write lies. No, I NEVER told a lie in all the 27 years that I have roamed the earth. NEVER.

We seem to have such penchant for drama. Like Italians and their famous operas, we seem to thrive on tragedies and heartaches. Let me not start on the dramas of my cousins, aunties, uncles etc. Ok, maybe associating all the dramas with Kota Tinggi isn’t fair, but there’s drama in that claim too, kan?

My point is this: Dot IS dramatic all the time - always playing victim and emotional blackmails. But it’s not MY fault. It’s the Kota Tinggi bangsawan writer in her.