LIFE

We were the first to move in to Taman Samudera Timur (the other Taman Samudera is near Batu caves). That too after fighting over a room and often lost, in my mother's house in Bukit Kuang, whenever the nine of us came home during festivities.

Then, he followed suite and bought the house right in front of our house. Did not really know why he (with all his money and assets) took so long a time to buy one such house.

Just a few months after that, his sister, coming all the way from KL and much to the puzzle of her husband, bought the house to the right of ours.

By a twist of fate, unknown to us first, our next door neighbour was also a relative. His wife, a Filipina convert, was extra sweet to us. Sadly she passed away not very long after we got to know her, due to biliary carcinoma.

She kept her sickness a top secret. She only told her children just a few weeks before she passed away.

It was her extraordinary love of animals that attracted me to her. She told me that once she met a cat just after it was runned down by a car. She took the cat in her hands and begged for passersby to help her bring it to the nearest vet. But nobody gave her a hand. She was pissed off by the lack of consideration and passion towards animals shown by most Malaysians.

I told her that it would take another fifty years or may be more, for the Malaysians in general to have the love for animals as many Westerners do.

Coming back to my original aim of scribbling this note. My two cousins, they are brother and sister. Strangely, for reasons known only to them, they have not been talking to each other for quite sometimes now.

One is super rich with lots of money in the bank and assets such as hundreds of acres of land, a dozen or more deep-sea fishing boats, iron ore mine, a newly completed swiftlet house, a house that he rents out in Mekah, etc. But he lacks formal education.

Having said that, he surprised everybody by being a shrewd businessman in spite of having just a standard four primary school level of education. He is also blessed with many children - he opined that he wanted to increase the Prophet Muhammad's ummah. To me, quantity yes, but what about quality?

The other one is not that bad either. But why they have to sever the kinship bond?

There is no excuse or reason strong enough or justifiable to cause the severing of family ties. Ramadhan was the best month to reconcile, forgive and forget, but Ramadhan has passed...There are many more Ramadhans coming, that only if we were blessed with a longer time to live in this world...

To everybody reading this entry, please know that it has never been my intention to backbite or say bad about my neighbours. It is just for us all to ponder, think, ruminate or call whatever it is to learn the reality of life.

Leaving all that, I drove up to KT at exactly 5.15 this morning and as usual stopped at Masjid Rantau abang for subuh prayers. I arrived at UNISZA City Campus at slightly over 7.15 am and had all the parking spaces to choose and all the time to relax before going over my lectures.