It’s so different now…

We see kids glued to their seats playing Play Station and we asked ourselves will they ever wonder how the buds turn into beautiful flowers and will they be able to name the flowers around them…

I recalled the times when I went back to my kampung Ipoh… Opah and me spent time pulling out those thorny weeds which grew along the drains of the backyard. Can’t believe it when both of us, and of course with Atuk around, we would be weeding with the hot sun over our heads. It was fun and of course sweaty + being sunburnt was the side effect of it… but then it was really memorable. Atuk would be harassing Opah for taking her own sweet time to finish up the chores and Opah in respond to that… would be mumbling words of ‘wisdom’ about what and how it should be…

Look at our neighbours now… or even our ownselves, do we get up at 6 am and do gardening. Jogging…? Do we wake our children up and shove them to the garden before the sun is up...? I guess everyone’s mindset is about “nah… it is Sunday, why not just get loose and sleep, pull the blanket, get dreamy… and dream on...? I recalled seeing my husband opening our sons’ bedroom at 6.30 am on one Sunday… but closed it back and I asked him…”why didn’t you wake up the boys for our morning walk at Titiwangsa?” and he replied… (as usual)… “biarlah… let them sleep lah as it’s Sunday and their rest day”. Urgghhh… there goes another Sunday without my boys….

Why nowadays parents aren’t like our parents last time? There were no Play Stations and of course they were no KFCs or burgers in the 60s (i.e. the time when I was born) and I remembered that my parents will wake up very early in the morning just to prepare nasi lemak and fry the ‘cucur udang’ for our picnic trips. The whole house will be smelling the gingerish aura of nasi lemak boiling from the stove and I can hear the’meletop2’ cucur udang in the wok. Yes, the cucur udang will actually burst out if too much water has been put in the batter. Don’t believe me? Well, try it out… and I will assure you…you will be looking out for a shield when you next time fry ‘cucur udang’…

In fact, the anxiety of yesterdays' picnics were more about being in the cold water of the streams, the waterfalls, the 'pelampung' floats from the car tyres.. etc. It is so unlike now where everything is being purchased, the nasi lemak, the hot tea, the fried mee and even the goreng pisang. Sigh... everything's fast and fiery. Where are the moments when we can see our mum frying the cucur udang, the fried chicken, or even making the sandwiches?.. sigh..