WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING

When you come to think of it, it's amazing how some things happen as by coincidence.. in the past, coincidences are taken as signs and is later used for supersticious beliefs.

For example, an 'engaged' girl is preparing to cook in the kitchen and she lost grip on her lesung as she's transfering the grinded garlic to the pan and the lesung fell and broke. After a while, her fiancee who she's having some trivial problems with decides to call the wedding off, so she gave up on love and ends up as an old spinster. The neighbours starts to talk and they would tell their young daughters to be careful when cooking cause they belief that whoever breaks the lesung will also loose their jodoh.. then this supersticious beliefs are passed down by mouth from generation to generation and people like me would hear things like "jangan nyanyi dalam dapur, nanti dapat suami tua", "jangan pindah tempat bila tengah makan nanti kena kahwin banyak kali",and "jangan berehat depan pintu, nanti jadi anak dara tua" and many many more...

In truth, there are reasons why people make these superstitions up and to some it is quite obvious why..
For example, there's a superstition about whyhouses in south east asian countries are built on stilts. The most obvious answer lies in practicality- to prevent flooding of houses when rivers overflow or tides rise higher than normal. Last summer, I came across another possible reason while in Muzium Negara in Malaysia. According to a special exhibit there about ghosts, another reason traditional houses in the Malay-Indonesian region were built on stilts lay in superstition, which is to keep the house above the ground where the 'hantu tanah' reside. The exhibit claims there is anthropological evidence to support this theory but doesn't go into further detail. But I'm sure the flooding was a much more powerful incentive to raise the house above stilts :)

emmm.. I've lost track of why I'm talking about superstitions.. Actually I was going to talk about how it was a coincidence that sometimes the music on the radio reflects exactly how you are feeling [I really got drifted from the main point there, if I was writing an essay for my BI SPM exam or something, I'm sure I'll get an automatic F for talking about something that's out of the topic..heheh...]

Anyway, yesterday I was chatting with my friend who's in Japan right now, and we were exchanging audio files cause I was gonna create some CD's and he gave me this song (below) and it just reminded me of the time when I was begging my dad to let me go to boarding school far away up north in Beseri and he didn't want to let me go cause he thinks that the family should stick together no matter what..[This is exactly the same reason why I didn't stay back one year to complete my 0-level at 16years old in West Leeds High School, and went back to Malaysia just to find out that I have to drop down a year to take the PMR with my sister, which made everyone think that I was born in January(which I am) and my sister was born in December(which she's not) [cause we're not exactly identical twins], and end up completing high school at 18 instead :(, when my friends back in England have just completed A-level. ]

Anyway, it was almost 1 Syawal over half a decade ago and we were all in the car on our way back to Mersing. My brother was teasing me about how I should just forget about going to boarding school, dad was still toying with the thought of letting me go and persuading me to stay while my mother was sitting there in guilt at the thought of being the one who encouraged me to fill out an application form to go to MRSM just to test my luck. When we arrived at Mersing, everyone (who cared) were politely making conversation with me and asked me what I'm going to do now that the PMR results are out. I told them that I'm going to Beseri right in front of dad.. everyone complemented the school for it's good reputation academically and religious activities. Dad would listen and smile uncomfortably, not revealing that he is against the idea of me going there. We found out later that my one of my cousin's daughter (who is the same age as me) is also going to MRSM, and her dad was telling my dad how good this is..

Days later on our way back from a wedding, once again in the car, my dad asked me again. At this point I was already tired of listening to the 'rejection speech' that comes after I'd ask him if I could go previously. My brother was getting ready to laugh at me again, smirking his why-do-you-bother smile. I didn't bother to answer, surprisingly he just said "Kalau camtuh lepas nih, abah nak habiskan duit abah kat anak abah yang mana?" which is really a family joke cause when I was little my brother used be to jealous of me for getting expensive birthday presents (cause my birthday is at the end of the month when our parents just got paid from work) and my other siblings' birthday is in the middle of the month.. all of a sudden [just like in movies], this song came up and my dad dedicated it to me..


'Wild World' by Cat Stevens


Now that I've lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it's breakin' my heart you're leavin'
Baby, I'm grievin'
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl

You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breakin' my heart in two
Because I never wanna see you a sad girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl

Baby, I love you
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl


I promised my self that I'd work really hard at whatever I do, two years later I was choosen as the best student while my dad was invited as the "Tokoh Kehormat" at our graduation ceremony.

Now my parents are trying to persuade my youngest sister to go to boarding school too.. Ironically, [though she is somewhat of a whiz kid] she wants to stay at home.