Chapter 2 – Beautiful home with that legendary bright orange concrete stairs
I don’t think many of my cousins or even aunties and uncles remember the address and phone no of our home which had been dismantled 14 years ago. But me…. I do!
It was 5319-H Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 15150, Kota Bharu, Kelantan and the phone no was… from 5 digits 09-25548 change to 6 digits 09-785548. At the time that I write this entry, I have no reference to anything at all…… but just the sharp memory of mine granted by Allah swt towards this place which my childhood life evolved around it.
Having the address for a house is essential, but my home was more likely to be known with it’s description for the location. It was the first house on the right fronting a road which run along CEB pylon (CEB…..that was TNB…. donkey years ago) in Kampung Lundang with bright orange concrete entrance staircase. Usually, people don’t miss it even for their first time.
My home… was only a humble major-on-stilt, ‘tindih kasih’ mode wooden house painted in pale green color with shingle roofing, but by comparison with it’s flock, I would say my home was the most beautiful home around. Our immediate neighbors would be 2 rows of rented 1 bedroom ‘link-houses’ with detached water-closets on the right (I remember, my mami once ran into one of it when she tried to learn to ride motorbike…that scared her like anything!) and on the left was a single storey on-ground brick house resided by an Arab-Chinese family. (well, this house was rather ‘multi-national’… apparently according to my mami it was previously owned by a Japanese-Malay family… not bad, huh!)
Mok cik Dah whom lived at the behind right corner which then shifted for about 300m parallel away south has quite big houses, but my home can beat her houses anytime. The Tok Bomoh’s house… God! don’t even mention. It was a scary house. My cousins and I used to utilize the house compound for a short path to Mok’s sister’s (Chik-Allahyarhamah) house. Every time we wanted to cross the house compound… we would start with………. Bismillahirrahmanirahim… at the gate……… and RUUUUUNNNNNNN as fast as lightning! While running, we recited out loud… ALHAMDULLILAH HI RABBIL ALAMIN……………….. and finished the whole Mother of Surrah by the time we crossed it. He he…. It gave us the courage we need.
Across the road in-front of my home was another single storey on-ground part brick and part wooden house. It was a nice house, but not a match to compare. Hello! It was a house erected by an ADUN before, of course it’s nice. The house even had a game room full of toys for the grandsons – Azu-Allahyarham, Cici and Jaja.
I would say, the closest rival was Mok cik Nab’s house. As far as I can remember, she wiped the balcony balusters everyday…. its EVERY.. day, ok. That takes a lot of effort and passion in cleaning and for that I salute her, further more… she is such a kind-hearted woman. But still, my beautiful home beats hers by….., I guess…. 2 %. It’s because Mok has better taste than hers in decorating!
Mok loves beautiful things. Plants with flowers delight her very much! We had cannas to fence our front right boundary, ‘bunga cina’ tree which bloomed almost through out the year, seasonal shrubs like ‘bunga tahi ayam’, ‘balung ayam’ and balsams. Big purple bougainvillea sometimes crawled right up to the roof and gave Busu a hard time chopping it down. Mok loves them all…. but, her pride would be all the potted plants stacked on tiers at both right and left corners of the home. They complemented well with the bright orange stairs of which it was a place for all of us to hang out in late afternoons. We love the stairs so much… Kakak and I in our teen age used to sit there just to observe the goers passing our home and looked out for cute-good-looking boys. There was a guy living next to Tok Bomoh’s house… that I no longer recall his name…. ya.. we always tried stalking him from our stairs. But hey, of course we did it intelligently and pride-fully.
So convenient that stairs was, sometimes guesses who came to our home just wanted to ‘lepak’ right there even with our utmost pleasure welcoming them for seats in the living room. ‘Nescafe’ or tea with delicacies then would be served at the ‘bendul’.
The stairs was also where Mok would stand eyeing and waiting for Kakak going to sundry shop located by the main road at nights with lights on, if she…. at a very rare occasion desperately needed to go. She’s afraid of darkness.
My beautiful home with that legendary bright orange concrete entrance staircase… how I much miss it!
