Friday, May 31, 2013

My Father

My Father grew up in many places as my Grandfather was a policeman back then. He never spent his childhood staying in one permanent place.

My Father's family ended up spending their remaining lives in Ipoh, as it was the last place my Grandfather was being stationed to. Embah seems happy to be spending his retirement days in this classic town, though he was originally from Johor. He's a true Johorean, he is - even when his tongue somewhat prefers the Perakian slang. I have, never in my whole life met any of my Johorean relatives. But wait. This post is about Father.

Some of my Father's siblings live in Selangor, one lives in Kedah but mostly are residing in Ipoh. One of my uncles, called Wak Lan lives in Shah Alam. Section 25, to be exact. Rest assured, the post is still about my Father. Moving on - my family on the other hand, lives in Puncak Alam, which takes about 45 minutes to reach Section 25, Shah Alam.

My Father, is never the kind of person who gets attached to things. He is not attached to Ipoh - which explains why he until now doesn't prefer to balik kampung. He is not attached to Puncak Alam either as he always talks about his plan to retire in Kuching (which is my mom's current hometown, but we'll get to that part in another post). He is not at all attached to his siblings. Particularly the one who lives in seksyen 25. Thus, we only get to hear news from our Section 25 Uncle through Facebook. We seldom see each other. The most frequent will be only once a year.

Which is a shocker when we found out that he's getting married (re-married to be more precise) soon enough. This weekend, we'll be attending his engagement ceremony.

My Father, is a loving man. A devoted husband. A dedicated father. But never a close brother, or the most contributing son. My Father, who lives in the same state as his Big Brother never really bothers to call or to visit Wak Lan of Section 25. My Father, who walks on the same land as his parents only give my Embahs a call when my Mother reminds him to. My Mother, on contrary is everyone's favourite loving woman. She has families across the sea but they are, ironically, the closer ones to us. This post is still about my Father.

My Father, has every traits I admire. Except for the fact that he seems okay to be living solely with us, without really engaging with his siblings. He's okay with it.

But, how could he? I mean I could never imagine how my days would be without a having a single thought about my sisters. They are literally the second best thing about me, coming after my parents themselves. They are the persons I know best, I am the person they know best, we know each other like we know the back of our hands.

The thoughts of not contacting Aini, not having ideas on what Jijah is up to are unimaginable. Even if I am to be an adult, having another life destined for me, I know I would never let myself not keeping up with my sisters. Blood is thicker than anything in this world. But then again, when it comes to being attached, blood is not necessarily the most important factor. The only person my Father is very attached to is my mom.

My Father once said he sees mom in every each of us. Which, thank God, according to my theory, is the reason why he is very attached to us too.

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