Saturday, October 28, 2006

The Long Forgotten Journey

Home town is a distant memory now that my parents are both in KL. It was like that since I "moved" out of Kota Bharu, Kelantan for studies in USM, Penang more than 10 years ago. Whenever it is time to go back for the semester break, I would somehow feel strange to leave the campus for I have somehow developed this indescribable attachment towards this beautiful small island. A place that I have spent most of my time growing up has become less familiar to me each time I went back, as if each layer of memories of the town has been peeled away, by the hands of time, little by little. Faces become strangers, places turn grey in the mind, names of streets become merely broken sentences that need to be completed. Nonetheless, there were selected memories where I could not seem to erase - the field where I had to run across to reach home everyday after school, the aromatic nasi dagang (rice) and ayam percik (chicken) that is uniquely Kelantan, the flood that hit our old wooden house each year in December (where the whole town folks came out to celebrate and play), the beaches, the nearby waterfalls, my beloved old school, and surprisingly, so much more...now they have decided to gradually flood my mind again. I can't wait to go back home, to where I was brought up, to a place where most outsiders would ask me the strangest question, "Can you buy pork in Kelantan market?" Kelantan remains a mystery to many.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...