Teringat puasa zaman kecik kecik dulu...

I dont know why but this past few days my mind keep on drifting back to my puasa experience when I was in primary school, basically abt 10-11 years old.
My puasa experience takde la anything special..but it gives me a warm feeling when I remembered about berbuka puasa with my whole family. Those were the good ol times...

It has been like 3 years (since we moved to Riyadh)) that I didnt have a family gathering with all my siblings. There are only 4 of us. My 2 elder brothers and my younger sister. Now that my mom dah takde, the chance of having that luxury seemed out of grasp... It doesnt help too that my eldest bro is residing in Dubai. My 2nd bro is residing in Brunei and my sis is in Kelantan. I dont know when we can ever berbuka puasa bersama sama or beraya bersama sama on the first day of Aidil fitri, sigh...Perhaps one day, insyallah!

Anyway, back to my memories of berpuasa di zaman kanak kanak,I cant help but to notice how different Ramadan was for me then, compared to what my kids are experiencing at present.

If Im not mistaken I started fasting only when I was like 10 years old!*malu* My kids started fasting full day at 6 years old! At 5 years old, they started to fast half day. I didnt even push them to fast, but they themselves were eager to do it.

Well, during the 1970s, keprihatinan on islamic teaching and values were quite lacking esp in Penang. Kat sekolah pun, kalau tak puasa, selamba je pegi beli makanan kat kantin. Given that I was in an all girls school lagi la tak rasa segan coz no boys! Masa baru start puasa full day, I made frequent visit to bilik air, bila masuk bilik air tu, kumur kumur "tertelan" air. Keluar bilik air, segar je muka!:-)

Berbuka puasa time was off course the best part...my mom will always cook special dishes during ramadan. Dulu kan takde pun bazar ramadan...so kuih muih are all home made. Best thing is buat satu jenis kuih je, then hantar kat jiran jiran sekampung. Dapat balik abt 3-4 jenis kuih! Wonderful huh! 10-15mins before azan, makanan semua dah terhidang kat meja. We will tune the radio to radio Pulau Pinang and will wait not so patiently for the quran reading to end...By then, my brothers will start filling up their plate...while my mom still akan sibuk kat dapur..(we were indeed a spoilt bunch!) Bunyi azan je from the masjid near our house first thing is to gulp down the drinks! I normally minum air sampai kenyang!

As a kid, to me Hari raya was the main agenda therefore Ramadan is like a transition for hari raya. Lepas buka puasa...time orang pegi solat terawih, me and my friends will start main bunga api and mercun kat kampung, bukan nya nak join pegi terawih. Pemikiran dulu dulu, solat terawih hanya untuk orang tua...(teruknya la!) I still remember pernah mercun roket we all terbang and masuk dlm kain pelikat pakcik yg tengah berjalan nak pegi masjid! We all semua berlari lintang pukang nak sembunyi! he.. he...

I also remember, usually after 1-2 week of puasa, my mom will bring my sis and I to campbell street penang to shop for baju raya and kasut raya. Baju tidur pun kena baju tidur raya. Stoking pun stoking raya! Tho our shoopping never consists of expensive materials, mostly from bazars je, me and my sis were would be beaming coz we got all new things! Dah penat shopping, we will berbuka puasa at our fav restaurant-Hameediyah. Tak pernah kat tempat lain! Mamak kedai tu pun dah kenal our family and will serve us the 'usual' yummy nasi kandar dishes. Nikmatnya tak terhingga!

Reflecting my childhood Ramadan days, it is such a different experience for my children now. Haekal, my youngest son who is 6, has started fasting and actually knows the benefits of ramadan and its meaning. My two elder kids, nadia (12) and syafiq(10) not only fast but are also reciting the quran during ramadan(of course kena paksa la by me!) Solat terawih comes naturally during ramadan. On days we dont have terawih berjemaah, they will do it on their own. Alhamdulilah seemed like for them, Ramadan is more meriah than Eid. Perhaps it is also becoz we are in saudi arabia now and they follow more of the saudi ways in celebrating ramadan and eid.

Alhamdulilah over the years Ramadan has became more significant to me. I have to admit the 3 Ramadans we spend in Saudi arabia were the most fulfilling and meaningful ones...Im glad my kids had the experience to fast in saudi...walaupun kemeriahan bazar ramadan and moreh after terawih are greatly missed but I feel they experienced Ramadan at its best here.

One thing for sure , my kids are so much better than me on fasting and observing ramadan. Alhamdulilah!