17 Syawal~

For many of us, the thing we love most about Hari Raya is of course,

the Duit Raya.

Known as tithe money, Duit Raya works the same way as our Chinese friends' Hong Bao. The only difference is that the giving of Hong Bao signifies the transmission of good wishes and good fortune.

But for us, giving Duit Raya is like Hari Raya perks.

Sometimes, I dont understand why people use money as a bait to lure people to come to their house and visit them. I'm sure many of my Malay friends have experience this ordeal when their relatives will say,

"Alfi! If you want your angpau come to aunty's house ahhhh...."

It always provoke me when my relative, especially my aunties, say those discomforting words to me. Cause now, I dieDIE need to come to her house to claim my prize.

Its threatening, its intimidating, I feel blackmailed.

So if you think that we Malays are so lucky to be given one whole month to celebrate Hari Raya and spend that time essentially to collect fast easy cold hard cash, think again. My friend, its si bei sian. (Oh wow! That rhymes)

Especially after you had toiled and struggled and endured standing long distances in the MRT just to stay ahead of this rat race,

and all you get is a 2 dollars chipped in one corner.

Is that decent? And people say Hari Raya "setahun hanya sekali". Kalau setahun sekali, sepatutnya kasi lebih-lebih kan? Heheh..

Well, I'm not trying to be a d%k but I realise one thing... I'm getting older.

And as I get older, chances of me getting duit raya will not go up, but instead, slides down. I remember when I was younger, I use to get close to $500. Now, its half of that!

Worse still, very soon it'll be my turn to give duit raya. Aduhhhh... How to face all my young cousins? Cause all my bigger cousins start giving duit raya when they're 20. So in 3 years time, my aunties will be expecting the same.

Now I feel the pinch whenever my dad give out so many duit raya to my cousins and friends.

How I wish we can follow the Chinese tradition. Until you get married, you're NOT ALLOWED to give hong bao. No wonder Singapore's population is at stake. Many Chinese girls rather be spinsters and collect hong bao every year. Hahaha..

But now that I'm still 17, all this responsibilities is off my upper hand. Cause now that I'm still 17, I'm still entitled to that license to get duit raya!!! :D:D

Which is why last Wednesday, my friends and I went out for jalan raya.

We went to Usheruff's, Siddiq's, Hanizah's, Zahidah's, Tirmizi's, Hidayat's, Daifi's, Rahman's and my house.

From all this jalan raya, again I realise one thing..

That as we grow older.. You're expected to have a big stomach, you must be able to eat a lot. And I do mean A LOT!

For the whole 9 houses that we went, we've been chomping food like its crazy. We had a light lunch in Usheruff's, heavier lunch in Siddiq's, dinner in Tirmizi's, dinner AGAIN in Hidayat's and supper in Rahman's.

We begin at Usheruff's where we had Mee Soto specially prepared by.. Usheruff's mom of course. Heh.

We then proceed to Siddiq's where we were serve with MORE FOOOOD~

There's satay..

Spaghettis..

And manyMany more.

Then at Tirmizi's and Hidayat's, we had mee goreng.

Probably by now y'all would have notice that something's amiss.

Nope, its not the fact that Usheruff had dutifully wolf down all the kuehs that had been served for all of us.

And its not because we had drawn out Radin eating a banana to substitute for his absence.

But what is that hairy gargantuan tailless orang utan doing in our homes when its neither Deeparaya nor even close to Deepavali yet?

Better still, who is that blardy 2 meter tall upsized charboiled whopper burger??

If you're thinking what I'm thinking, then you're probably right.

Cause he's there to help us finish up all that smorgasbord of food, and because he is big, and because he's a six-stomached cow, and because he can.

Teehee :) Selamat Hari Rayaaaaa~

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