FRIDAYS ARE FOR REMEMBERING MY PARENTS

Every Friday is my off day. I normally spent the day in prayers and also remembering my emak and ayah.

Today is Friday. Its time for me and my wife Azizah to ziarah my Mak and Ayah's kubur at Bukit Kiara. Very centrally located as we are all in Klang Valley except for my younger sister Datin Latifah Hanum and my younger brother Kamarul Zaman. Latifah resides with her husband and family in Alor Setar while Kamarul Zaman is at Kampong Baru 'A', Hulu Bernam, Tanjong Malim near to our ancestral home. There are ten of us who are alive. Three girls and seven boys. If I include the still born and miscarriages there will be a total of 16 of us in the family.

This week I will be writing about my Ayah. My ayah Hj Muhammad Taib bin Haji Sidek was very proud man, principled and hardworking man. He was a product of Sultan Idris Training College(SITC). He was also a good organizer. I remember when he was the Head Master of the National Primary School at Parit Baru, Sabak Bernam in the early 60s he used to go to the then Selangor State Education Office at Jalan Swettenham(now renamed Jalan Dato Onn) to follow-up on certain administrative matters like teachers' salaries, budgetting, supplies of textbooks and etc. Sometimes the teachers at Parit Baru would get their salaries much earlier than the other schools in the district.

As transportation from Parit Baru to Kuala Lumpur was bad those days my father used to rent and ride pillion on the high powered Triumph motorbikes. Every now and then he would be going to KL to settle and solve the school's administrative or other matters that arises from time to time which affected his school.

I remembered on one occasion he brought us all to Ipoh. He had got the arrears of his allowances for teaching the Kelas Tambahan untuk Orang Tua(Extra Classes for the Adult). He brought us all to Ipoh during that year's Merdeka Celebrations. My father made reservation for two double rooms at a Chinaman Hotel in Ipoh. One for my parents and our three sisters. The other one for the seven boys. It was a very interesting experience for me especially as it was the first time that I ever stayed at a hotel.

There will a lot of stories that I would be sharing with you about my simple but ambitious and determined Ayah and Emak in the weeks to come.

Please recite Al Fatihah for their souls. Thank you.