Yang berkait & bertaut

Isnt it funny how a certain thought can sometimes trigger a chain of other thoughts that suddenly becomes an avalanche of information or ideas?

The barbed repartee between mak & AH at the breakfast table today suddenly reminded me of my long departed grandma. maktok hailed from the pearl of the orient and unlike mak & AH, my granny and i shared a good relationship. just as mak is living with me now, she too lived together with mak. she was in fact more of a mother to me than mak ever was.. she was my confidant, my mentor, my tempat mengadu. and i remember whenever i was sad or unhappy, she would entertain me with the most colourful recollections of her bangsawan days.. those times when she was with the troupe for the dances & plays, and the people that she had met.


Maktok Yah, 1975


Me flanked by my Maktok & Mak Ngah while Mak is on the other side, 1965

[is that how i got this love for dance & movement perhaps?]

Which then got me thinking about my paternal side and how abah's family is largely an unknown entity to me. he took off in his teens due to family differences and later, our nomadic life with the army only added to the rift. theres this huge void bcos i never had the opportunity to really get to know my N9 relatives. in fact there are uncles, aunties, cousins out there who i only know by sight but not by name or vice versa; not to mention the nieces & nephews that i hardly know. which is actually acutely embarasssing, not to mention depressing as well.

Bcos as they say blood is thicker than water and family is family. and as i get older i find myself thinking about it more and more.


My paternal grandfather Hj Hamid of Kuala Pilah, N9.. my youngest bro dug this up from the depths of his 'pandora box'.


The Kuala Pilah clan circa 1940's.. i am told we have minangkabau roots.

I remember vaguely a certain book that my Tok Hamid had written about our family lineage and also my late abah's pride in his father's painstaking effort in putting it together for the benefit of the younger generation. now if only i can recall the whereabouts of that copy. maybe i can look it up with my aunty.

I suddenly have this niggling desire to know more.