Over Dinner Plates.

After a few nights stay, I ran out of ideas of where to bring my parents for dinner. True, I spent two and a half years in Penang. But we don't eat out often. We students save money. For fuuuuture. :)


Salam.


So it's the...fifth night stay, and it's only tonight, that we ate some place else. It has always been by the seaside and a few other restaurants we frequent when my parents came by to see how I was doing once in a while-but you know, two weeks stay doesn't take that as a deal. Apparently, pals;

we were just going to have our dinner in any restaurants down in Queensbay when Ayah saw a place just nearby. So tonight we had our dinner in an Indian restaurant (it's Penang, best known for Indian restaurants, nasi kandar, pasemboq, Chinese delicacies, and...don't let me go on!) where we got each of ourselves served with briyani.

Oh, I forgot, it was raining. So there were too few people around. In fact there were us three, only.

I hold on to this one formulae on my first visits to restaurants. Walk in the ones with lots of people, it might be  well known for good service and good meals, and avoid ones that are hardly occupied. But it doesn't always work. Like tonight. That's the threehundredandfourteenth time that I got to prove the formulae wrong. It's running obsolete, I know. Don't use that. The one we had our dinner in this evening was splendid. And I'm not saying this halfhearted. I should say that the dishes were great, if not excellent.

The owner and his fellow workers were wonderfull too. The background was a harmonious fusion of classic contemporary Indian music and colourfull ceiling ornaments, service's good, they even sat across our table for a chat.In short, it was a fine dine-out. But I won't be writing if it was only that.


While the restaurant owner greets Ayah, I was putting my senses to work. A simple "Bang," ("Hey there,") distracted my monologue. The owner curved out a McDonald's smile to us. When I say McDonald's, I mean an effortless smile, right from the heart. It was later that he drew the chair out to sit down and have a little chat.

"If this sincerely isn't for business purposes," I said to myself, "this is good enough."

I mean, national unity is beautiful. Come to think of it, our Malaysia is one out of too few the number of countries in which different races call themselves 'at home'. All under one roof. You see, in many countries not everyone enjoy the same blessings of safety and prosperity in equality. Too many, to tell; suffer from civil wars, conflicts and disputes to no end. Our beloved birth land too, once shared a heart-tearing memory of  state of urgency, some time ago in 1969. 13th May. I hate to remember how KL, Penang, and some other big cities looked like in archive photos during the period. It was awful, we were separated, when it is not a lie that we used to walk hand-in-hand before it all happened. Blood coloured the roads crimson, tranquil villages were shaken with the fact that guerrillas could be hiding anywhere in nearby forests, carrying guns of fatality.


The fact is disturbing. Just imagine, how could you afford to live in such horror? I can't even imagine how our ancestors did. If it's nowadays, do you think you can leave your mp3, your laptop, your PSP, your room, your school, college, your house, and biggest of all, your FAMILY? C'mon, I can only stand a week without my cellphone. Now close your eyes and picture how our lives would be like, should a misfortune befall us. We can't even bear a day without technology, now, can you imagine leaving all your loved ones behind, and you won't even have the time to let the thought about not having tech gadgets around cross your mind? All we would have the time for is to think about how to survive. And whether your loved ones are safe. Can you imagine seeking refuge somewhere alien with enough food for only half a day, fasting for the other half and wearing the same shirt for weeks, not certain if tomorrow you'd still be breathing?


I can't afford to lose what we have right now. It's not about how long I can live without my cellphone, my mp3, my laptop or anything else. I love this gift of God. If it's not us, no one else would protect our land from destruction. And we can't be our cancer. We can't afford to live with false hope that we're not dying, when somewhere inside us we're actually bleeding. Our nation must live, and we must keep our faith alive until the end of time. Among ourselves, let it be only trust, love, and not betrayal. We have been living good all the while, and I want to hold on believing that we will stay so, for the rest of the our days' life.


Now smile a bit, I don't want to hurt you with my words. I just want you to get it straight from the bottom of my heart. I mean every single word I say. It's my fear that I wish to share with you, and along with it, is my hope.


I'm a fan of many dishes of non-Malay origin. I'm sure that you too, in many ways, are attached to some other race's culture. We speak Manglish, a unique composition of Malay's "lah..", Indians "uh?", and Chinese's "ma!" in one accent. We all eat Mi Mamak and crave for more, sip teh tarik with its bubbles popping on our lips, enjoy crunching on fried chicken dumplings over evening meetings with friends and head out for Nasi Lemak on Sunday mornings.



When there's already too much that we share, will we stay on opposing sides for silly reasons or be by each other's side when hard time knocks on the door? If storm comes, will we be safe together, or will we be looking around for a lost friend?


I don't want to think of reasons why we should fight. I want to think of reasons why we should stay together. Because national unity, is too precious to lose. And I can't live without it. Even if I do, I know I should live better with it. It's our pulse, it's mine too. We should live better as long as we keep ourselves on the path.


Thank You, Allah, for giving me this opportunity to live in Malaysia.


Love you, always. :)