Saturday, November 25, 2006

Rambling About Rain

It has been raining in Kuala Lumpur lately especially in the evening. I don’t know about others, but me, I love it when it rains because it’s cooling. I can enjoy my lunch at the Zenith without breaking a single sweat – but not when you have a good sambal belacan to go with. I don’t have to loosen up my tie during Friday prayer but in turn it makes me half asleep listening to the khutbah and I can always open up my green & white umbrella I got from EconSave for use. Apart from that, rain has always drifts away my mind into beautiful lines of songs like those in Sudirman’s, B.J Thomas’ Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head and Crying In The Rain by Whitesnake, just to name a few. But, the irony is, at the same time I would also associate myself with flood back in my mind. Not like those flash floods in Kuala Lumpur that would halt traffics and drown cars and cats and give good reasons for the husbands to be late home but the kind of flood that I found it so pleasing and interesting when I was a child.

Towards the end of the year, people in the East Coast of the peninsular would anticipate the monsoon season to come. Nothing new; even when my late great grand father was a child he had heard great stories about the annual flood from his forefathers. They were all well-prepared long before the first drop of rain comes. I was even puzzled to see boats were made stand-by at the houses in the lowland area of Peringat when I was a kid for our area we did not need until such preparation. We might see big waters like an ocean spreading throughout the village but I had never heard doing much harm except for a few goats got stuck – hell of a concern by the owners. You’d love to see those chickens with wet feathers huddle together warming up their bodies, making the kind of pleasant shivering tweet-tweet noise; nothing close as you see those skimpily-clad “chickens” in Chow Kit flock together hunting for preys, betcha. And those ducks; swimming and diving, wagging their tails besieged with their quacks as if it was a wet T-Shirt competition in a party to them.

It had been 3 days non-stop heavy rain. We couldn’t go anywhere especially when water level was on the rise. I heard folks telling water start to cross the main road. All I know I was slouching on the mat looking up at the spiders spinning their webs. I used to boast to my kids seeing it before my eyes about spiders unlike them just get to know it through the Discovery Channel. And the water dropped from the leak in the roof. We had no ceiling, just roof and water just came straight down. Sometimes I had fun looking up waiting for the water to drop on my face, at times, hard hit straight in the eyes. We had the metal container to hold the water, wait for it to chirk with waters splattered all over before I’d empty it. It made nice “ting-tong” sound when it’s empty.

Granny just had my favourite ubi kayu with grated-young-coconut ready, together with fried salted ikan gelama, very timely for my hungry stomach. We had other choices like ubi keling, ubi itik and ubi badak (what sorta animals are they?) as well but on the menu today was happened to be ubi kayu. Loved it. I could not resist the steamy ubi kayu straight from the pot. Quickly I put into my mouth because it was too hot on my fingers. Just when I thought it was alright, with some slurping sound, start chewing it, but then hot ubi kayu stucked on the ceiling of my mouth that would rather automatically pushed my chin up, looking at the roof – begging for help from the spiders.

Back then I did not understand why the youngsters were so eager to wait for the rain to stop and go play with the water until I was big enough to understand the thrill of peek-a-boo of ladies’ legs in their attempts not to wet their sarung when they are at the flood shoreline. I heard there were always love in the air due to this fiesta. The only thing I knew, I had a whale of time seeing many people out to play with water but nothing more entertaining than playing paper boats with Arif and Fadhil.

I was not done with my ubi kayu just yet. The cold weather induces your bladder to pee more frequently than you ever wanted. My old folks said I was mischievous but I said I was adventurous. My idea of adventurous was while enjoying my ubikayu, I had my kain sarung covered that made me look like doing nothing but inside there, I pee through the gap between the planks in the floor of the house.

It was nice to hear the sound when it hits the water especially when the water level was just a few inches below.

23 comments:

Kak Teh said...

london has that kind of weather now that goes with ubi kayu and grated young coconut. its raining cats and dogs!

UglyButAdorable said...

sedapnyer...ubi kayu and grated coconuts...

the rain it kl..dun think it's a good sign to the weather..it sud at the east coast by now..i wonder what will earth brings out...scary..just to think of it.

whoaa..bro..whitesnake?? lama tak dgr tuu..

Lollies said...

even hot country I am living in now is going through rainy season. funnily i am not ready with a brolly. its raining around the world

Anonymous said...

wow ubi kayu + grated coconut + sugar/salt @ sambal tumis @ crushed gula melaka.. man.. u making me long for my grandma's...

Idham said...

:) nostalgia....!

idham

Anonymous said...

Hi GAB,

I love the rain when I'm in the safe comfort of my home and quickly I would whip up a book to read in bed.

I love the rain when I'm on the 40th floor of my office, the view is both magnificent and melancholic too, like the sky is weeping for her loved one.

Gosh! I love the rain to have that delectatble steamed ubi kayu with grated coconut served. Yes, please. Nice entry.

Makcik Runner said...

hehe..chek mmg suke lagu2 rock from the 80's era. bring back old memories. yehaa!

Dr Nazatul Shiha said...

why la mr. gab, all your entries so far bring me to the memory lane.. talk about flood & school. My school was known as SAS = Sultanah Asma School = Sekolah Angkat Skirt hehe.. simply becoz we had to angkat our skirt (as the name implies) during ayaq bah during the rainy season :)

INDERA KENCANA said...

A managing director listens to Whitesnake..?? I can't believe it...

Anonymous said...

`Pandai sungguh' GAB ni bercerita kisah2 lama..:)

Anonymous said...

hi tn. gab..rindu betul...best cerita tn. gab ni. teringat masa kecil dulu...

~ GAB ~ said...

KAK TEH --> Thought the temperature was very low now, it snows instead over in London?

UBA --> Yeah... those days when I was young... Whitesnake was one of 'em

LOLLIES --> Thank for dropping by LOLLIES. Bet you're having good life over in Dubai.

ANON --> Good huh? Nothing like it as compared to the grandma's

IDHAM --> Aactually I was inspired by your entry about flood in Jeddah the other day. Boh dih?

RUBY AHMAD --> Yeap, love it when it rains. Wonder the ones enjoying the rainy season supposed to be above the rests at 40th floor or what? May be the sign of 73rd tribe is here? hehe Love your mind-boggling (mind you not mind-blogging) entry about the 73rd tribe.

KC --> Anything from the pasts we tend to cherish it just like what's now our kids would cherish it later in 20 yrs to come.

SHIHA --> It's just so happened that we shared certain memories that other do have it as well. Nice huh? Sekolah Angkat Kain? heheh That's hilarious.

INDERA KENCANA --> Firstly, the nick is so catchy to me.

You'd better believe it IK. I grew up with Black Sabbath, DP, Judas Priests and what not. I used to hunt around for concerts those days start from New Haven Connecticut, NY City down to New Orleans, from east in Charleston, SC until Oklahoma City. I was young and crazy back then. What's nostalgic to me happened to be a bit nuisance to my ears now. Nahh... I was just a rebellious boy. Some slow numbers are still very pleasing though.

KOPI O --> Old things get more valuable as the age catching up on us Sir. heh

ANON2 --> You must be ZAT..Learn it from the opening sentence... Long time no see. How's life?

BTB --> I don't know that you are belonged to that part of the planet too. heh, they have good and cheap sofa set from Thailand. Care try out?

pB said...

Baru balik dari KB...
talk uje pun deknung.
panah cheng cheng.
Sini , kl jah uje bagai tak ingat.

Umoh tok tepi sungai klate. Kalu boh, air takat dada....

lamo tok make ubi keling rebuh,ubi badok tok brapo suko, sebab dio b'lendir

pB said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
m i n e r a l . . . said...

teringat waktu sek rendah. main sampan kat longkang besar (KL mana ada sungai) siap race tu hehheh.

dlt said...

me too suka main boh masa kecik2 dulu. my uncle used to have perahu simpan kat rumah untuk guna masa boh. kitorang tumpang sekaki ler. air naik jer, balik pasir puteh main boh. syok wei..... ubi kayu nga ubi keling memang best masa hujan. anak2 lo ni agaknya dah tak leh merasa main boh.

mommy@lif said...

hihi baca entry gab nih teringat zaman kanak²..pantang ujan, sure nak main ujan.. lumba selipar jepun sapa paling cepat sampai ..

btw i hope u dont mind me linking you from my blog..

Kunci said...

rain i love'em too. especially malam.. jgn petir sudah la, tak bole bukak tivi

rad said...

I've to make a confession - that thing you did in the second last para - heheheh...I was young then!! And we used to have this one piece of plank that can be taken out to let go of the dust when we swept the floor..

Anonymous said...

ubi kayu n grated young cocunut..that is heaven...

Anonymous said...

Gab, being physically on 40th floor does not make one a cut above the rest..ha ha ha.

But belief and sincerity and humility (traits I personally have to work very hard at), even if one were to be in a dungeon, insy will, I'd reckon.

Thanks for your kind words.

~ GAB ~ said...

TUN --> OK la tu, tapi TUN kena rasa sekali banjir kat East Coast. Best TUN

DLT --> Yeah, good memory!

MOMMY @LIF --> Please do, tag me. I'll be honoured.

KUNCI --> Same here.

SIMAH --> As simple as that and yet it's good, what more when eating 'em with the family.

RUBY AHMAD --> You got a point there...

Anonymous said...

Though I came from the probably most flood prone state in Malaysia, I have no idea how it feels like to have the floor of my house, just above the water level.

But I could still see and hear a lot of what you wrote there here in " this part of the planet ".

He he and besides,

Mok ambo pong duk berghoyak sokmo.

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