My Unsung Hero

So, who's your idol and hero? Woot? Dr.Mahathir? Najib Rosmah ? Puhhleassseee.You must be kidding me! Go and find yourself a noble one :p

Mine is  non other than my beloved dad a.k.a Abah. Why? He was the reason I'm here today. He was the reason I could read books at 4 years old and memorize Yassin at the age of 9. He was the reason I grew up as a beautiful woman (hahahahahhaa. perasan!). He provided good food, the best of education, clothes, life lesson and almost everything I own in my life today.

Writing about Abah brings back fond memories of his famous "Buku Perkataan". Abah is a no-nonsense man. He's very stern, especially when it comes to religion and education matters. I remember how my sibblings and I used to have that "buku perkataan" and started reading tafsir Al-Quran when we were small. In case you are wondering what is "buku perkataan", it is a small notebook (which most of the times used to be the buku 555. Still wondering? Ala...buku kecik yang orang tulis hutang tu. hahahhahahah) that we use to jot down at least 3 new English words that we encounter from our daily readings, be it newspaper or storybooks. It's like our own dictionary, but a pocket size one. Reason being : Easy to carry around. But us being young and dangerous, we took it wrongly and did it for the sake of Abah, rather than doing it for our own good.

There were times when Abah saw us played or watched TV too much and did a spot check on us (especially during school holidays). "Show me your buku perkataan!" or "Tell me what are the 6 rukun Iman?". Memang kantoi la kan! You know the punishment......I better not mention here. Kadang-kadang abah will just tell us in advance before leaving to work that he wants to check our buku perkataan. That whole day, we were busy with the real dictionary, choosing new words to put in our own buku perkataan. When abah got home, we would be proudly showing him our updated "buku perkataan".But the moment of truth was when he randomly picked words from our books and asked us the meanings. Dushhhh....Kantoi lagi!!!!!

But if it wasn't for abah, we would have never improved our english. I regret cheating him and myself the whole times when all abah wanted was 5 sincere and intelligent children. Sorry Abah!!! But my sister and I have redeemed ourselves and alhamdulillah, we made him proud on our graduation day. I can still remember how happy he was when his 2 daughters graduated on the same day because he willingly took us all to the photo studio for a family portrait.(since Abah doesn't like being photographed). I remember walking down the stage with my scroll in hand and waving at abah and mak (it was really magical how I could spot them in a hall flooded with thousands of people). They waved back at me proudly (as though they were telling people, "yes, that's my daughter!!") with tears in their eyes. (I SWEAR I saw it!).

Abah and I....we are not close. Not at all. He doesn't say "I love you" (dia rasa tak macho kot.hehehhehe). In fact, he has never said it to me, but his actions says it all. I know my sibblings and I mean the world to him because he sacrifices everything he has in the world for us! Strangely, I'm closer to my dad now than ever before. I go to him for advice on life, marriage, career, parenting and almost everything even I'm 31 now. To Abah, I'll always be his little girl that needs guidance.

To Abah, though I have never said it, I appreciate every little things that you have done for me. Thank you for raising me up with love. You are my mentor, my idol, my inspiration and my unsung hero! I love you from the bottom of my heart!