Like Father, Like Son

Sanak saudara

These are my nephews, shot during Hari Raya, a couple of years ago.

Bon Voyage sis!

She’s my younger sister.

We used to watch our favorite cartoons and sitcom together when were kids. We had fun until all of us wer sent to boarding schools.

We used to have cats named Oren and Sarsi - because of the color of their fur. She even named ne of our cats "Krinton". Non of us (not even her) knows what it means and why.....

Life changed after that, and growing up took a shift - as life progressed as we all have to grow up some day.

We (all in the family) only met during school holidays, during breaks from boarding schools.

By then we have our own set of friends. When we got home for school holidays, we all missed our mates in school and couldn’t wait to go back to the hostels with friends who grew up in one campus for at least 5 years.

We became close again when we all graduated and have decent jobs. The glue between us of course our mom who always, without failed, cooked us nasi lemak the first day of term break at home.

She, unfortunately didn’t really have a good marriage that ended up in a divorce. It was not a bad divorce and she got the custody to “keep” my lovely niece.

About a week ago my sister left for the States to further her study.

We all went to the airport to wave her good bye.

I couldn’t hold my tears when I watched her walking hand in hand with her daughter approaching the immigration counter.

Then I realized how strong and determined my younger sister is.

In her young age (relatively) almost single handedly brings up a child with out a husband at the same time juggling her carrier and still determined to get her dream PhD.

I have always been protective over her.

After saying good bye to her, I realized how I admire and care about her.

Admire her determination.

Care about her and my niece.

For the past few days I have been getting a series of sms from her. Just as I thought, she is coping very well. Within a week she’s found a decent house (with automatic gate, she stressed) and already bought a car.

I know in 4 years time she’s going to come back with a scroll of her dreams and my niece Alyssa would experience 4 years of foreign education which no doubt will be a major part of her growing up years.

I pray for their wellbeing in a land far far away from home.

I am quite sure they will both be okay, InsyaAllah.

Family Weekend

The older I get, the more I feel the attachment to my family.

When we were growing up, we were not that close to each other because of the age different - generation gaps, perhaps - and because most of us (actually all of us) went to boarding school throughout our formation years.



This weekend one of my brothers and his family are in town. We went out for dinners and breakfast and spent hours talking and talking, and it was great. As we get older, the generation gap become smaller and we can relate to each other when we talk about politics or other things...




Being the youngest boy in the family, they always think I am still a little brother. Now things are different. They listen to my views and a great deal of times I managed to convince them my stands on certain issues, politics included.




Even more fun to pick on my nieces and nephews...