In a blink....

Time really flies. The week seemed to have gone pass with only a blink of an eye. Sunday to another Sunday to another Sunday here we are almost 70% of the year gone. Wonder how much we have achieved the targets we set at the beginning of the year. 70%? 50%? 30%? Or worse 0%? Are going to quantify it in terms of numbers? Or we do it qualitatively?

Soon, in less than a month will be Ramadhan. The month of ibadat. Month to get in touch with our inner self. Month to do good things good deeds. Well aren´t we suppose to be like that 247 365? (366 in a leap year ....)

Bulan puasa is also famous for being the month of food. All sorts will turn up everywhere. All kind of offers to tempt us. Not just for sungkai and sahur. Catalogues, lists, forms for kek raya flying here and there. All sorts of cakes, kek rolls, biscuits some with strange names like kek lapis Siti Nurhaliza and Dato K as if Siti Nurhaliza can make kek lapis.

As soon as puasa starts, preparation for hari raya will start. Offices having meetings to discuss hari raya celebrations. Shops offering hard to believe sales playing raya songs from day 1 of puasa. Opening hours extended. Midnight crazy sales offered. Shoes walking away. Shirts and pants apart from the size S ones gone. Tailors on 24 hours shift. Sets and sets of new sofas on the road. Crates and crates of soft drinks fronting entrances to shops. Hampers taller than most people who got them walking about. Flowers blooming albeit plastic ones. TVs, large ones appearing in many living rooms. Rolls and rolls of cucul of all sorts of colours and blinks unfurled. Yards and metres of curtain hang. Buckets of paint splattered. New car registrations jumps up. Sounds of air bombs louder by the day. Pawn shops on overtime. Loan sharks having field day. Banks giving out loans in myriad of names but all the same it is still hutang. Credit cards well ironed and swiped with eventual thicker than usual statement waiting.

Off course the ladies started well well in advance. Some as soon as Syawal ends. Or else they will end up with baju raya from the past. That wouldn´t look good in the photo albums. Even more so now in the age of Facebook where old raya albums are uploaded. Guys can get away with it. Baju melayu is still baju melayu. Apart from the odd one or two people with baju melayu bekatok, all look the same. Even for those who favours the handkerchief hanging on the front style. Add to that saloons offering all sorts of treatment. Lose kilos before raya. I bet those kilos are the weight of the dollars we have to pay for it. All sorts of perms. Afro look used to be the hits in raya pasts. Rebonding. You name it. Whatever you want to do with your hair, they will do it. Even for guys. But if you want to do the kojak look, save your money. Don´t go to the saloon. Just go to the Indian barber. $4 and your hair will be gone in a blink! Massage and head slapping thrown in for free!

About the only thing that seems to be in decline is the attendance for terawih as Ramadhan passes by.....


P.S.
What am I doing talking about puasa and raya? First thing first, we are in Sya´aban. The month for Rasulullah. The month for puasa sunat even if it is only just a day. I won’t go into detail about it. I m no ustaz. Just another guy with "tuhur" level of knowledge in ugama matters. But let’s remind ourselves of Nisfu Sya´aban, the night of 15 Sya’aban. We are encouraged to do sembahyang sunat and recites Surah Yaasiin three times with doa in between. Doa for panjang umur, murah rezeki and ditetapkan iman. Amin ..... Insyallah this year Nisfu Sya’aban will be on the evening of Wednesday 5 August.