Memories From Past Ramadhan: 1424H PART II
Ehemm… kembali bersiaran dengan sambungan kisah MEMORIES OF PAST RAMADHAN: 1424H…
So, Al kisah, the flight touched down in Delhi and we were ushered like a herd of sheep round and round the Delhi Airport. First impression of Delhi International Airport: AIRPORT SUBANG in the 1980’s..EARLY 80’s that is… AIYOOO… CLASSIC U OLS! So.. me and the Last Row gals stayed close to each other, we did not know where we were going to be taken.. All that we knew was that we were hoping that we would be placed somewhere, together with the cabin crew…ye la, kalau nak pi SHOPPING kan senang!! But, it was fated that we somehow broke off… I went on this bus, and they went on the other, and we were hoping that somehow we are going to be placed (the whole flight lah) at the same hotel.. Well.. NOT!
Ni 2 of the 3 gals that i made friends on that trip back to KL, this was taken few months later in London whilst I was doing this make up workshop at Charles Fox.. apa nama diorang? oops.. *Haveslaku tak hengat nama orang, tapi sorang tu Dentist dan sorang lagi Pharmacist... kalau u ols terserempak dgn pis ni, pls get in touch yer...hehehe Miss u guys.. erm..balik Raya tak????
The bus that took me looked like one of those busses that you would see in a Tamil movie, and this bus I was on HAD BARS on the windows.. like a jail! GAWD! And imagine, we were all squeezing with our hand luggage’s and like fighting for seats, which, If one could imagine, a two seater seat became a three seater seat! Oh my… It was about 4a.m local time that we were brought to the Hotel. I cant remember the name of the hotel, but it was really like the relics of a 1980’s hotel set for a motion picture. It also reminded me of the images of this one particular hotel in Baghdad where international press stayed in during the recent Iraq War… SCARY!
I also made friends with this Aunty, she asked me to call her Aunty Rose, she’s been living in the UK for the past 10 years and working as a nurse. ( I actually started talking to her while waiting to board the flight earlier on) We ended up in the same hotel. The thing was, there was NO MAS representative available to inform us of anything ( And I was traveling WITHOUT ANY CHANGE OF CLOTHES!) aiyoo… RIMAS U OLS! So, me and aunty Rose stayed in rooms nest to each other. We were hungry… and being me, I wanted to continue fasting the next day, so we ol pun decide turun kat Coffee House hotel tu..which ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE A 70’s Hindi Film Set! AIYOOO !!!
ROSZA
Bukan Mama Rosza ye! Well, when we got down to the Coffee House, there was nothing left actually, and they were setting up for breakfast. We had to use sign language just to ask simple questions like ‘IS THE FOOD SERVED HERE HALAL?’ ?sebab ade BACON tau dalam MENU dier…isks… ‘WE WANT TO HAVE OUR MEAL NOW! WE WANT TO FAST TOMORROW…’ ‘ DO U KNOW WHAT RAMADHAN IS?’ aiyoh…it WAS really HARD to communicate! Anyway… one helpful hotel staff came into the scene and he spoke English..THANK GOD! So we told him that we want to grab a bite for SAHUR…Oh yeah..looking for a Muslim staff was also very hard..anyway, he knew about Ramadhan and then asked us if we wanted to have ROSZA… We die die thot it was a type of FOOD…LOL!! Ye lah..communication breakdown kan?.. and suddenly I remembered seing the word ROSZA on a Ramadhan Pamphlet in Edinburgh earlier, the pamphlet given out at Halal Butchers from an Indian Moslem Community Mosque which had the word ROSZA on it.. next to the word SUBH… So, I came to understand that it was SAHUR. Well, we had a full continental breakfast and I had HOT MILK to finish up my Sahur. At that time, all I could ever think of is my family in KL, and HOW SOON ARE WE GOING TO BOARD THE PLANE enroute to KUL. SEDEH uols…huhuhuhu (DQ jap)I was also feeling not well at that point. Some more, I was depressed because I was separated from my friends…huhuhuh DEPRESSED… well, went back up to my room, and slept it off…
My mobile rang a few hours later…It ws my mom. I briefly told her what was happening, and I was really feeling low and down. The sun had already shined at that time. Ehem.. did I tell you about the bed at the hotel? And the bathroom? Aiyoooo…..
TILAM GETAH
Okay, Me being a Malaysian, ala2 dah terbiasa with COMFORT, Alhamdulillah for that. So far in my travels, tak pernah came across tempat tido yang SEDEH.. except for one time when I visited London in 99, where I stayed with my sis at this B&B kat Marble Arch, where the bed was…I mean..the room was ok..but tak sesuai dgn what we paid for. Ok back to this hotel in Delhi (outskirt, sebelah Airport je kaedahnye), After my mom called and feeling really homesick and sick…Well about the bed in this so-called 4 **** (star that is) hotel, the mattress was actually RUBBER MATTRESS… the ones that one would easily find in HOSTELS all over Malaysia…. Dari MRSM ke UiTM ok! *haveslakuuu. So imagine lah, the pillow also that HARD FOAM pillow..not the usual sort of mattress and pillow one would get in 4 **** (star that is) hotels anywhere else (Even in Sumatera, the hotels in small towns punya tilam very pleasant to sleep on) That added salt to the injury. At about noon (and still fasting) I went to take my bath, aiyoo..the bathroom like VERY 80’s, got Rust mark in the sink and bath tub some more…but, yang bestnye, ade GAYUNG!! Hehehe… After the shower, I went to get Aunty Rose next door and we went down to the lobby, where majority of the people hanging out there was from that fateful flight. And when we went down, THERE WAS STILL NO NEWS or UPDATES regarding our flight out of India.
Niat nak pi shopping tu ada, but, it turned out to be, we cant leave the hotel premises because we had no VISA to enter India… SEDEH! But I didn’t mind at all, as I was feeling really lethargic. So, sat at the lobby while chatting with other people from the flight. At the same time, I witnessed the preparation of a wedding taking place by the poolside. Well, tell you the truth..it was SO COLOURFUL! SO CITRAWARNA u ols!! LOL!! Ballons, lights, flowers, streamers… like what you would see in a Tamil movie..well..it’s all there! Hehehe.. and the best part… the Dais, WAS IN DARK PURPLE, BRIGHT RED, BRIGHT GREEN, YELLOW and BLUE…and there were bouquets and bouquets of BUNGA TAHI AYAM (Marigold) mixed with RED carnations …. MERIAH U OLS!!!
By 5 pm, there were still no news about our flight out, as I was leaving for my room to rest, suddenly the front desk called for us to gather at the Lobby. Giving us the news that the flight WAS SCHEDULED for 10 PM INDIA time for KUL. ALLAHUAKBAR!
So, went back to my room, siap-siap, mandi manda… and went down at about 6 pm (God knows what time it was because my mobile and my wrist watch was still set at UK time) main agak2 ajer… Anyways, besides feeling lethargic, the pang of hunger hit me hard… So, after getting my stuff together, went to get Aunty Rose, we left our rooms and went down for IFTAR. We and a few other Aunties (all mak cik-mak cik – I was the only orang muda u ols…) sat down and ordered food..we had CHICKEN BRIYANI and SALAD, and of course, HOT MILK for me… and some Indian sweets. How did we know the time of Iftar? Well, the front desk clerk was very helpful and asked some Moslem staff… And so, we broke our fast with Chicken Briyani (SUPERB one!) and the trimmings… Alhamdulillah.
Soon after that, we boarded the bus (this time was a nicer bus) to the airport, which turned out to be just 5 minutes from the hotel! (and from what my back row friends told me, it took them 30 minutes to get to their hotel-WHICH WAS RADDISSON or something…SEKALS DGN CABIN CREW! NANGIS! – well xde rezki I, and yes, THEY DID WENT SHOPPING!!) And, Alhamdulillah, sampai KL at about 5.50 am… tgh2 chew itu chewing gum….tetibe nampak AZAN SUBUH on TV!! LOL!! Kelam kabut I ngan the Back Row gals mencari tong sampah utk buang chewing gum itiew…
Alhamdulillah, dapatlah merasa how puasa dalam flight…Dari tanah Scotland ke tanah London, berhenti seketika di India dan akhirnya berbuka bersama keluarga tercinta di Seksyen 17 PJ. ALL IN 48 hours! hehehe
AND, DALAM PERJALAN BALIK DARI KL SENTRAL KE RUMAH FAMILY WE OLS, DLM TAXI TU ON RADIO BERKUMANDANG LAGU BALIK KAMPUNG BY ALLAHYARHAM SUDIR…SUBHANALLAH…NAK NAGIS TAU, SEBAB, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, THAT SONG REALLY MEANT SOMETHING TO ME. TRAFFIC TIME TU DAH LENGANG! ISKS…..
Ya ALLAH, sesungguhnya Engkaulah yang Maha Pemberi Rezki, Maha Penentu segala Ya ALLAH. hamba MU ini hanya mampu memohon tetapi tidak mengerti bagaimana mahu membalas segala pemberianMU Ya ALLAH. Ya ALLAH, thank
you for all the past tense memories.
posted by 5th_E Taib @ 10:08 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home