Dulu Dan Sekarang

Salam buat semua,

Petang tadi semasa duduk menonton TV dengan keadaan hujan renyai dan cuaca mendung, saya tiba-tiba teringat zaman ketika kecil-kecil dulu.
Rasanya sesiapa yang dilahirkan dalam tahun 60-an dan 70-an adalah mereka yang paling bertuah kerana dapat menikmati kehidupan yang boleh kita katakan sebagai the "best of both worlds."
Mesti yang kat luar sana nak tahu kenapa,kan? Macam ni, zaman kami dulu,balik aja sekolah, makan kejap, lepas tu terus pergi mengaji Quran. Habis mengaji dalam pukul 3ptg macam tu, kami semua dah free. tak ada tuition, tak ada kelas tarian ke, kelas muzik ka. Free sampai kemalam.
Jadi, masa free ni, kita orang sangat kreatif.
1) Kat belakang rumah ada sungai kecik, tak berapa dalam sangat. Saya,pompuan sorang ja, bersama kawan-kawan yang semuanya lelaki, pergi ke sungai tu,kami buat belat (bahasa utara iaitu menambak kedua-dua belah laluan air, kemudian mencedok air dari dalam tempat yang dibelat itu, dan buang airnya. )Apabila air kering, ada banyak ikan didalam sana untuk kami menangkapnya. 


2) Kalau dah habis-habis boring pun, kami main guli. Saya salah seorang yang terer main guli. Sampaikan tok marah, dia kata hang ni nak jadi jantan ka pompuan. Mengaji Quran pun tak senang, ingat nak cari pot kat mana.Habis saja mengaji, kain sarong hilang ganti dengan seluar pendek.


3) Lagi satu, main "cak plong" saya tak tahu tempat lain panggil apa mainan ni. Pakai buluh dipotong lebih kurang 12". Lepas tu ada pulak hulunya. Didalam buluh tadi kami masukkan buah cenderai. Ketuk biar masuk kedalam buluh kecil tadi lepas tu tembak pakai hulu tadi. Ooh sakit yang amat kalau kena. Tapi thrillnya main tu, sampai tak kisah kalau sakit.


4) Ada satu lagi mainan, iaitu rounders. Lebih kurang macam main cricket atau baseball. Zaman tu nak beli proper punya peralatan,susah. Jadi kami curi aja kayu kat rumah sapa2 dan buat macam kayu pemukul. Bola yang kami pakai tu bola getah, beli kat kedai apek. Boleh tahan jugak jauhnya dari rumah. tapi sebab semangat nak main, ada saja orang yang volunteer pergi beli. 


Ada macam-macam lagi mainan yang kita orang buat. Sebab tu budak zaman dulu kalau setakat jatuh basikal ka, kena sengat tebuan ka dah jadi macam rutin.
Yang paling penting, kat mana pun kami main, tak ada siapa kisah sebab zaman dulu tak ada perogol berkeliaran macam sekarang. Tak ada pembunuh yang membunuh anak-anak yang tengah bermain. 


Bila malam, saya kadang-kadang kerumah jiran merangkap kawan sepermainan untuk membuat kerja sekolah. Saya jalan dalam gelap sorang-sorang. Takut tu memang ada, tapi bukan takut orang buat apa-apa tapi takut hantu. Time tu tak ada lampu letrik lagi, jadi pakai pelita. Duduk sama-sama buat kerja sekolah. 


Bila masuk remaja, dalam tahun 80-an, gila muzik pulak. Time tu zaman Search, Awie, Madonna dan Whitney Houston. Mainan game seperti video game, arcade game dan nintendo games. Duduk mengadap berjam-jam jugak lamanya.
Konsert pun dah banyak. Zaman pun ikut berubah.

Jadi, pada pandangan saya, kita sebagai ibu-bapa, janganlah terlalu menekankan seratus peratus pelajaran akedemik sahaja kerana anak-anak ini perlukan kehidupan kanak-kanak yang normal seperti yang termaktub didalam sejarah kemanusiaan. Biarlah anak-anak membesar dengan mempunyai kenangan indah sewaktu kecil dan pada masa yang sama berjaya dalam kehidupan seharian mereka. Kita dulu juga melalui fasa hidup yang sama dan kita juga dapat menjadi manusia yang berjaya dihari ini.
Jadi kenapa tidak anak-anak kita mendapat peluang seperti yang pernah kita lalui dulu.

Sekian. Wassalam.
24th.June '12
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MY CHILDHOOD YEARS

Hello all,

It was cloudy and drizzling and I was watching some hopeless what's-the-name-of-this-garbage movie just now when suddenly my mind was driven back to the old days.
I was thinking, whomever were born in the sixties or the seventies had the best what life had to offer as we can categorized those years as having the best of both worlds.

I am sure people out there wanted to know why, right? Those days, after school usually about 1 o'clock we'll reach home. Hit the shower and had a quick lunch. Then left for Quran reading. After this, we are totally free. No tuition, no dancing class or music class. Free until the next day.
So, during these time, we became creative.

Here, let me list some of the things that made our lives wonderful.
1) Behind grandma's house, there was a narrow stream. Not too deep.Along with my all male buddies, we jump into the stream, block both sides of water ways with mud and then started to scoop the water out using pails until the little pool dried up. Inside there, a lot of fish were swimming that made us scream with delight. That is the whole point. Get some fish, bring it home and I saved myself from grandma's nagging.

2) Sometimes, when really there's nothing to do, we usually end up playing marbles. I was good at it. Grandma used to be mad at me saying "what are you? A boy or a girl? I couldn't care less. Life is good. We usually can't wait for the Quran reading session to end, busy thinking where can we find a place to play.

3) This is one game I liked the most. We called it Cak Plong. Grandpa knew how to make this. We had to have a bamboo. Cut it about 12". Then we had to find a little round fruits, I don't know the word in English.
Push the little round fruit inside the bamboo and shoot your enemy with it. Ouch..it hurts like hell. I mean really hurt but it was the best game of all.

4) There's another game. We called it rounders. Similar to cricket or baseball. Back then, it's hard to find a proper equipment for any game. What we did was, we cycled around and stole a solid wood from someone's house. For the ball, there's always a volunteer who'd cycle to an old Chinese guy's  shop and bought us a rubber ball. Mission accomplished. What a great day!

There were many more games that we played back then. That is why, children those days were a lot tougher than now. Fell down from a tree or stung by a hornet is something of a routine for us.

Most important thing is, wherever we played, nobody bothers, not even Grandma, because back then there were no rapists roaming looking for their preys nor was there any killers killing playing children.

I sometimes walked to my neighbour's cum playmate's house to do homework. I would walk in the dark as there was no electricity yet back then. I wasn't afraid of serial killer or things like that but rather of ghosts. As if I had seen it before!

Then I became a teenager in the eighties. I was crazy both with local music and international music. There were Awie, Search, Madonna and my idol Whitney Houston.
There were arcade games, video games, nintendo games and what have you. Wasting hours playing these games.
Concerts were in abundance. We forgot the days when playing hide and seek was the IN thing.
Those days passed. We flow with the future. Future leads us to modernization. And here we are today.

What I can say and from my point of view, as parents, give the children some space. Do not push them too hard for an excellent result academically. Let them have a normal childhood like we did " as stated in the history of humanity." Let them grow up with that wonderful memories of childhood tucked deep inside them.

Rose 24th.June '12