THEY WILL ASK thee as to what they should spend on others. Say: "Whatever of your wealth you spend shall [first] be for your parents, and for the near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer; and whatever good you do, verily, God has full knowledge thereof." - Al-Baqarah (2:215)
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Sunday 5 October 2008

Raya over - get back to work!

Hi folks! I hope everybody had a wonderful time with their family for Raya. It has been quite a busy Raya for me – busy cooking!

The day before Raya I was busy cooking the rendangs – both chicken and beef. My mother was told to stay out of the kitchen to avoid the temptation of helping out. We told her to take a complete rest if she wanted to go for sembahyang Raya the next day. It has been quite a few years since she went to the Masjid due to her knee problem, and so this year, after the knee operation, she was really determined to go.

Anyway, while I do know the ingredients needed for the rendangs; the amount for each ingredient I simply hentam lah. Can’t really say “secukup rasa” either since I could not “rasa”. Then later at night, I was in the kitchen again, cooking the kuah lodeh.

On Hari Raya itself, although I didn’t have to cook for lunch, it’s back to the kitchen for dinner. I was spared for breakfast on the 2nd day of Raya as my brother-in-law went to buy roti canai for the whole gang but I had to cook for lunch. For someone who’s so used to cooking for 2 people, it’s quite a task suddenly having to cook for over 20 people in the house. Sedap tak sedap belakang kira – janji semua dapat makan!

By dinner time, the house was quiet. My siblings had either headed back to their homes or off to their in-law’s.

So I decided to start off my puasa enam on the 3rd day of Raya - which means over the weekend I didn’t go beraya anywhere.

My raya visits to my clients’ homes will have to wait until I finish my puasa enam; and if things go as planned, on Thursday, I will really, really RAYA!! 4 of my clients have already invited me to come over to their house… Mrs K, Shila, Sha and Lin.

Sha is one of the less problematic clients and so it has been quite some time since I last got in touch with her. But I do make sure I send raya greetings to all my clients – either by sending them raya cards or text messages. I wasn’t really sure if Sha was using the same number, so when she replied my message and invited me to come over to her house anytime during the raya month, at least I know she’s still using the same number.

As for Lin, I tried to call her before Raya to find out how she was doing (the last I met her was when I visited her at the hospital) but my calls simply couldn’t get through. So I decided to send her a Raya card instead. I finally got a text message from her on Raya itself, using a new number. Apparently she lost her phone when she was warded at the hospital earlier.

Other than the above, I also got Raya wishes from Jah, Asiah, Hana and Maria – all in the form of SMS. They couldn’t be sending me Raya cards as they don’t have my home address – we Buddies are not supposed to disclose to our clients where we stay, remember?

Hana called me on 2nd Raya when I was busy cooking for lunch. She actually got involved in an accident on the way back from work before Raya and ended up with a broken arm. She asked me if she could claim from Socso. I just told her to get in touch with her employer first.

Today I received a text message from Maria. She started taking HIV medication after Raya last year, so this year is the first time she had to miss her puasa. As such she needed to consult someone on the amount of fidyah that needs to be paid. Her question was not only on how many cupak for each day, but also on how to convert that into kilo. Maria said she didn’t want to ask her Ustaz direct as the Ustaz may ask her why she could not fast. Well yes, she could tell the Ustaz she was asking on behalf of a friend or family member who was too weak to fast; but Maria is not good at all at lying, not even white lies.

For someone who’s not so well versed with cupak and gantang either, I had to resort to the internet to convert that into kilo. Nasib baik ada internet

Ahh… what a week… I wonder how I am going to get back into “work” mode for tomorrow…

10 comments:

Daphne Ling said...

Hi Kak Pi,

Cupak and gantang? Wow...That seems like a lifetime ago...Like during the times of the Four great Sultans of Malacca...

That was perhaps the last time I heard those words...

Anyway, glad you had a good raya! How was the rendang, anyway? ;) Cukup rasa ke?

Pi Bani said...

Daph:
The last you heard of cupak and gantang was like during the times of the Sultans of Malacca? Waaa... you were around then?? ;)

Yep, had a good raya with all my siblings home on the first day of Raya. But very letih la got to cook a lot! And oh, the rendang tasted A-OK. Very very cukup rasa.

p/s
Haven't been able to access daphneling.com since yesterday. Had problems accessing pistwist.com too (yep, I have one too) so I've temporarily switched mine back to the blogspot address until the problem is solved.

Kama At-Tarawis said...

hehehe Pi, I pun nak tergelak bila baca yr cupak and gantang...makes me feel a thousand years old!

Pi Bani said...

Kak Puteri:
Tu lah pasal... I could answer off hand when Maria asked me berapa cupak beras kena bayar for each day dia tinggal puasa. But when she asked me to convert that to kilo so that it'd be easier for her to buy beras, I was like... alamak... how la??

Terpaksalah search on the internet!

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

kak PI!

my opah had to enquire exactly the same question on the cupak to kilo. i asked around to no avail. so now nak tanya akak...secupak berape kilo ya? hehe...

am still in raya mood. got tons open houses to attend. may ave to be selective on this. i wish i had gone to TDM's do last sunday. partially for the duit raya, but mainly to meet the him and TSH ofcos...hehehe...

Pi Bani said...

Kerp:
4 cupak = 1 gantang = 2.8 kilo. So each cupak is 0.7 kilo. Kalau tinggal 30 hari that's 21 kilo of beras.

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

eh alamak, but that day ustaz tu kira tak sampai 20kilo la...boleh ke?

Pak Zawi said...

PI,
I am old enough to have used the cupak when it was still in vogue. Still remember the people from the department of weight and measures coming to oue village to certify the true volume of the cupak and putting their stamp of approval at the bottom of the cupak.
Selamat Hari Raya Puasa Enam to you tomorrow.

Pi Bani said...

Kerp:
Tu I tak tau la. Yang I tau I check kat http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantang and it says 1 gantang (4 cupak) is equivalent to 2.8 kilo.

Pi Bani said...

Pak Zawi:
I memang tak reti bab-bab cupak ni. In fact sometimes my relatives mintak tolong I kirakan faraid for their tanah and what nots and the measurements are in roads and poles and I memang tak boleh nak bayangkan 1 road besar mana 1 pole besar mana... :)

Anyway, esok raya, ye ye!!