Not giving up on the human kind

Here I go again, doing what even the strong won't do, when I am not strong.

When will I stop attempting the impossible, when will I stop following my 'just try' instinct and stop right there before I start to 'kesian' people who themselves did wrong to themselves.

I can't do this. (for now?)

I did not judge.  I did not judge my friend or the son.  I just took it upon myself to help.

There he was, living so badly. Even Shu-shu our cat has it better then him.  And he is a human.  A young man. Living a hopeless life, so hopeless that the only way he knows is to extort his mother, yelling, threatening and scaring her for money, and this poor nice lady, just hangs on, not knowing what to do or how to escape this life with her son.  Worse, she too was losing hope.

Then this writer wannabe comes into the picture with the best of intentions, thinking she saw a speck of  hope in this human being that maybe, maybe, he could change if given a chance, an intervention so that  he is able to unearth in his heart a believe in himself that he can change, since she believes he deserve a chance. So believe upon believe,  I employed him to paint our little flat in Shah Alam.

Two months went by.  He followed all my instructions. His mother was amazed. I was amazed at  myself.  I thought I was a whisperer for the mentally ill or something.  He actually worked. He actually painted the house and painted nicely.  All light grey and even. He even went to the mosque on Fridays.

I would drive him to the flat with his mum, give him all that he needed, food, water, chocolates,  Gardenia bread.  I bought all sorts of painting stuff, pretending I know the works when I actually know little.

So he stayed in the flat while he painted, which made me feel I have used my providence from Allah to put a roof over his head, since he sleeps outside in the porch at his house.  He is not allowed inside since he was destructive. He had smashed so many windows that all that is left are the wooden frames  and panel doors , but no glass.

So much for that, it all ended with a friend.

That day when he called me to say he had brought a friend to help.  A friend who knows how to paint. To teach him.  A clean friend. When I went to send him the daily wages, the friend looked normal.

The next day was his visit to the hospital, so it was his off day.

The next morning when I came to pick him up, he was as high as any addict could get, stoned to death, eyes barely open, gibbering nonsense and yelling at his mother.

He had only a door to paint.  The maroon colour door. All was done. He took longer than others but he still did a good job. The flat is all bright and cheery.

The friend was not a friend.

 The police came and took Bahrain to the mental hospital.

What does it take to change a person?  Is giving a chance ever enough?    Is it always better to look then walk away?  No one cares, and does that mean you should not too? Its hard this kindness act that we should strew our way.  I guess it takes much more. Doctors, police,  rooms with iron bars.  With attendants and guards in tow.

What was I thinking?

mama, haja, ecah, and mimi

The story of Rainbow the cat

Sad to inform you that Gio-gio went missing and until today is no where to be found.

It was nearing Aishah's wedding and we, especially me, had so much in our minds and so much more to do.  That night when I fell asleep on the sofa due to tiredness, I woke up at midnight and realized Gio-gio was not in the house or on the awnings.  I woke Ida up and went down to search for him.  That is when I noticed  that some foreigner neighbours are owls.  They are up and about at wee hours, by the pool, or coming in and out of their houses.  They saw Ida and I, in our sleep clothes searching for our cat, calling out softly, so that we do not wake people up," Gio-gio! Gio-gio! Come on boy".  Heart slowly breaking as it felt like another 'loss,' I braced myself for the worse, that he is already far away, alone, somewhere.

Until today, I miss my Gio-gio.  I cannot write more.....

Then Rainbow crossed our path.

It was raining in Bangi.  As I was driving home with Diana, we saw a cat in the middle of the road.  We were in a traffic jam, so the cars were back to back.  One lady came out of the car and pushed the cat to the side of the road.  We saw it going in circles, in pain and in anguish.  It was going back onto the road.  Then Diana shrieked, " Kak Noris, berenti, berenti!!! Kucing tu, kesian, berenti!!!"  I too intended to do something but was thinking what.  And reacting to Diana's shrieks, I pulled over and stopped the car. " Kak Noris, ambik kucing tu, ambik kucing tu", Diana went on, all worked up.  "Cepat, cepat, nanti kena langgar".  How much she cared but had no stomach to pick up the dirty, wet cat,  very thin and full of what looked like, what's the word, kurap  .  I threw a small towel on the cat, picked it up and put it in a box in the boot.  Boxes everywhere from Aishah's wedding. "Okay, okay, jom pergi vet",  said Diana, happy to see cat saved.

I thought I saw a vet once, in Kajang, so we turned and headed for Kajang.  Since we were going to Kajang, we thought of going to the KPJ Hospital to visit my grandnephew who was admitted, while looking out for the vet, which ever we find first. We followed the sign, no KPJ but saw Happy Paws Animal Clinic. Carried the box and went in and registered.  Told the vet our story as the assistant filled up the forms.
"Name of pet?"
 "Rainbow".(since found in the rain)
 "Wah! got name already ah?"
"Ya lah!" (I am a namer.  I name everything at a drop of a hat)
"Sorry to say, I have checked her lungs and they are not good. Rainbow has pneumonia. I don't know if she can make it. She is also very very under-nourished. Look how thin she is, just skin and bones."

The vet started calculating the charges for Rainbow's treatment.  It came up to RM500.00.  To pay half first.  I looked at Diana, Diana looked at me.  She did not have her bag with her.

Seeing me emptying my purse, the assistant said, " both of you are kind women". I pointed to Diana and said," she!" And Diana pointed to me and said "she!"

We went home, Diana thinking of Rainbow and me, thinking of RM500.00.

One week passed, no call from the Happy Paws vet.  Maybe Rainbow was really in a bad shape and did not make it.

The eighth day, a call came in.  "Hello, this is the vet. You can come and collect Rainbow.  She is well now, she survived."

It is always good news to hear when someone or something has made it. Got through. Survived.  From sickness, from tests, from hardship, from anything.  And my favourite name and its namesake,  has made it.

So I went with Mimi to collect Rainbow. Not only she was clean and kurapless, she was fatter, and looked like any normal healthy cat. She was a pretty cat, powdery beige in colour. She eats alot, it seems.  I paid the remaining bills and made a difficult decision to not bring her home.  I am still missing my Gio-gio.  I am not ready to take in another cat.  So we went to the Bangi market and left Rainbow there to continue her remaining 8 lives.

Married

Assalamualaikum!

I have been away for quite a while.  That's how long it takes for me to fit in my  new role as mother-in-law and planning a wedding.  Yup, I am now a mother-in-law.  And my daughter Picipu, is married.

It is a new phase, where you have a new person in your family.  With Gio-gio being the only male in the house all these while, we now have a real guy, a tall one.

We had been 4 peas in a pod for a long time, something like Mama Pea and 3 little peas, fighting the adversaries , and beating the odds, using all the tricks that I had under my green hat .  Now one pea has springed out and  is on her own way.  My magic hat would no longer be necessary for it too has warned out from the wears and tears.

All that is needed now are my prayers. Which I would do,  forever and ever.

surviving the test of time

Time and time again, life would test us as we sail it. Small wind, strong wind,  tornado or Tsunami.  If you are lucky, just bumpy soft waves giving you a nudge.

Not many would be able to survive the test that comes to rip everything apart.  Except for the strongest root, standing steadfast, holding on to it's dear life, never letting go.  

In the end, we would know who deserves the best of us.

Back to little business

For 2 weekends we did not sell at the flea market.  I missed it so.  I did not realize that I like doing business.  Selling Hajar's cookies.  I don't know if I would enjoy or not selling other stuff.  Hmmm.....

So last Tuesday, there I was, queuing up to get a table.  Went out early in the morning, earlier than usual, thinking I was early.  When I got there the queue was half the length of the normal full length.  All were sitting cross-legged, legs stretched out or lying down, and some, actually sleeping. I hear they come to register for a table as early as 5.30am. Wow.

I was prepared with a novel. 'Cinta didalam gelas' by Andrea Hirata.  So I joined the rest and sat down on the floor and started reading.  Unfortunately, books do makes me smile or laugh openly.  I can mask the tears, but cannot smother the smiles or laughs so for the 3 hours of queue I hope I did not come across as the loony or weird cookie seller, smiling and giggling to herself.  3 hours is a long time to control my response to the book (lama tuuu) and Andrea Hirata without fail would make me go that way, moving my emotions.  His books are sooooooo good. By the way, the young man infront of me, drums on the railings and sing.  But he does it rather well.

So this weekend, back to our little business.  Wish us luck.  We are adding a new product. Biskut Suji.  So now there are 4 big glass jars of cookies sold per piece.  Choc Chip, Choc Chip Raisins, Shortbread and Biskut Suji, InsyaAllah.

Hihi.

Cat people

The other day I bought a tent for the cats.  It is in a shape of a castle.  Really cute. Will show picture.  I thought that could be a kennel for them since Gio-gio as usual, pissing everywhere.  Maybe they should be confined at the balcony, and retire into the 'castle' and not come into the house.  Alas, no go. They prefer to be in the house, where they can scratch the furnitures, sleep on the dining table and curl up on the comforters.  They don't want no castle.  First it became the place where we put the litter boxes, their toilet and eventually, we packed it up.  Not working.

When Dr Ja came to the house, she commented when she saw the castle, "Aunty dapat banyak pahala buat baik kat kucing".

Actually there are people who are much kinder to cats than I am.  For example Picipu's lecturer. They have many cats, 9 or more, each taken cared of with much love and  individual attention.  Picipu told me that one of the cats love to sleep on the laptop that the lecturer decided to buy another laptop so that she does not have to disturb the cat. She is willing to spend that much for the love of her cat.  If you ask me, whether I would do the same with  Shu-shu, Gio-gio and Tutty, I would say, "are you nuts?".  Put in her place, I would just remoooooovvvvve the cat to one side, use the laptop. If she sleeps on it again, I would do the same thing. Just remoooooovvvvve the cat.

Adi told me that  once, while she was doing her work at this mall in JB, there was this shop owner whom, every evening, would cook rice and fish.  So Adi went and ask him if that was his dinner.  He said no,  it is for cats. (he, mind you) It seems on the way back to his home, he passes this place where there are alot of cats, but no food.   He took pity on them and would cook before he leaves the work place to feed them everyday.  Everyday.

This guy, is going to heaven.