hani aziz: Silaturrahim...

Keeping in touch is not as easy as one imagines or thinks so. Sometimes, we always say - do keep in touch. Yet, that person leaves and only occasionally or when suddenly out of the blue, someone is thinking of you, does one really try to make the effort to keep in touch. Humans nowadays are too busy to catch up. Unless that person is really special, do we keep in touch as we want the person to be really part of our lives. Even families do not keep in touch. Neither do friends. But, that does not mean that we are out of their minds or thoughts. Its just that they just do not see the reason to keep in touch. Thus, we do keep in touch through meaningful forwards or quotes to remind the other person that we are keeping in touch. :-) This is the reality if we are far apart. How about if we are closer here?

We meet up occasionally for lunch or hi-tea or just do some activities together like visiting friends or shopping. Most times it is weddings, deaths, accidents, happy or sad events that causes us to gather. Thus, I told Noor that we should have a gathering and some makan-makan for his siblings here so that at least we do meet up and keep track of his nephews and nieces. Meraikan bulan Syaaban dan menyambut bulan Ramadhan. So, yesterday was a cooking session for me. We had invited Suri and family ( 8 of them including 4 children and her parents in law) and Mohamad (5 of them including 3 children). His niece in Jitra could not make it as she was in Tanjong Karang. She asked Noor to postpone it to Sunday as she would be back. I was sorry but I would be working on that day. :-) He had invited his 4 staff and some friends. I thought he had invited this 17 people which made 20 including the three of us (Akmal was home for his semester break). That night another six turned up. One friend became two and he called up somebody else...Thus I had 26 guests!

Alhamdulillah for Akmal. I started the day with my marketing for wet ingredients with Noor and Akmal as they had to carry the bags. After breakfast which we bought at the market, I started to prepare and cleaned up my ingredients. My menu was nasi tomato with chicken kurma (as there would be children), the sambal udang, beef black pepper and acar timun+nenas. I also decided to prepare the mee kari nyonya but substituting the mee with spaghetti with sambal kerang. Well, I managed to get half the menu prepared. Everything was ready for cooking. After a meal of curry mee, Akmal and I took a break and rested. We continued at about 5pm and set the table and house. As we cooked and did our chores, I had the radio on to Lite fm. We sang familiar songs together, laughed over the songs, and Akmal did a lot of food testing. :-D We decided buffet style and not "berhidang" since they were coming at staggart hours. By 8:00pm, everything was ready and we waited for the guests.

The guests came and ate all the food! Even the last strand of the spaghetti, the last drop of the kuah and the last bit of rice!!!!! It was just nice. Everybody tried the rice and the mee curry. Its the first time I tried basmathi rice. I still thought it was slightly hard and not enough water. I did not get the hang of cooking it yet. Akmal said it was perfect.Hmmm.... loyalty I suppose. :-) A friend of Noor's whom I was not familiar with suggested I opened a stall and sold the mee curry. I just laughed at his suggestion. At least they enjoyed the food. Noor's sister in law commented that without having this kind of gathering, we would have not made the effort to meet up even though we lived not very far from each other. Each of us were busy and just said hai...and bye... :-{ Even his sister from Kangar commented that although she came to Alor Setar frequently to get her supplies or for some errands, usually she hardly had time to stop by. When Noor's friends and staff had left, they stayed on and we caught up with each other until almost midnight. Having cups of hot earl grey tea ( hmmm...heaven after depriving myself for almost 3 months without sugar :-D) or for the others hot Tenom coffee courtesy of Akmal from Sabah with grapes, bahulu and biscuits while the kids had ice-cream and chocolates. Somehow, they always felt relaxed and made themselves comfortable here. Thus, they usually took their own sweet time to leave.

I was glad to organise this gathering although I knew that I would be so tired the next day. I did not expect any thanks or appreciation. At least I had done something to forge his family's relationship. Azizi, Suri's husband, suggested another gathering next week before the start of Ramadhan courtesy of my cooking!!! I just laughed at him and said that everybody would be rushing for the solat terawih. Maybe one day during Ramadhan, we would host the berbuka puasa as my tradition. Just so to maintain and preserve the ukhuwah and silaturrahim. Alhamdulillah atas segala kekuatan dan kesabaran. Alhamdulillah kerana adanya Akmal membuatkan persediaan ini begitu menyenangkan dan menggembirakan. Alhamdulillah kerana mencukupkan dan memberkati rezeki kami malam ini. Alhamdulillah kerana mengizinkan kami menjalinkan ukhuwah dan silaturrahim antara kami.