...from generation to generation

1.
Some instances - looks, habits, way we do stuffs, even fate perhaps - that we have been living with, are perhaps being "inherited" from our father and grandfathers...and maybe being passed on to our next generation. Maybe we have not realized it or maybe we'd realized it a bit too late...

One instance that I can claim being inherited from my Abah is - I end to doze in front the TV set if I am tired regardless how bad I need to view that particular program! :o) The funny thing about it is this - I used to laugh at Abah (and so did my kid bro & sis) when he dozed off....now I have that same habit and my kids laughed at me (including my little wifey too!)...heck I can even comprehend what they talked and laughed about even though I was half asleep (I think!).


2.
My parents are teachers, Abah teaches at some sekolah menengahs and Mak at sekolah rendah kebangsaans....of course they have retired for about a decade or so. That is perhaps another instance - teaching & disciplining students/ kids - which I somehow inherited from both of them. Boy oh boy were they strict when it comes to education - especially Mak. Abah is a bit on the relaxed side but from time to time he'd do a "full inspection" and the outcome would be almost the same like what Mak would prescript - if we do not complete or do well our study/ homework, of course. That's what I am doing to my kids now.

Some of my lecturers back in my studying days told me I can be a good educator, the way I present and explain stuff and how I performed in certain education-related subjects or courses....but my parents were against all of their kids to become teachers like them....ahaha!!

3.
I can still recall in my much much much younger years - before primary school - my parents used to bring me for a walk on the stretch of dirt road of our kampung and show me birds nests, make "baling-baling" using mangosteen leaves, make "rocket" using "lalang" leaves....and with the help of my Pak Uda (almarhum Tn Hj Abd. Rahman Harun), I'd also be "shooting" birds with his nicely crafted slingshot or bamboo machine-gun. There are photos of my dear cousins who pushed me in my stroller (with proper cap and shoes) on that same stretch of kampung road.

I guess I inherited that instance too....I spent hours on weekends walking, talking with my twins and Aliya when they were younger...not at their present age, I'll find ways to be their "friends" and do stuff together with them, with my little wifey too.
...oh yes, it's not going to be long before they'd want to do more stuuf with their friends than their parents - like we all used to when we reached certain age, of course - but before that happens, we'd grab all opportunity to do whatever we can with all of them, together.

...and I realized that was also what my parents did...the last opportunity was perhaps when we all did our hajj - the whole family, with money saved on monthly basis and all, before any of us got married. Couple of years before that they went to perform hajj with almarhumah Mak Tua - my Mak's mother, my grandmother of course.

They were happy to be able to perform hajj with their parents and next with their kids - that already fulfilled their ultimate ambition, as far as I know.

Alhamdulillah, they have reached their targeted ultimate ambition....and it doesn't involve anybody else but only the closest of the family members.

Now it's my turn to set my targets as far as the family is concerned.


4.
Those are just some examples. There are many more details and what we may categorized as not-so-worth-to-mentioned stuff in daily life that we may have inherited from our fore-fathers...and as we grew up and become more stronger than them, more educated than them, we'd be more occupied to the stuff that means so much to our future.
Then we have our kids..and truly enough everybody would want to give the best the can for their kids....in doing so, we tend to be occupied with whatever items that we mark as important and spend time on those items....
Before long, we are already wearing the title of a grandfather/grandmother....so, how have we spent our times? Have we spent enough and do enough for our loved ones? In the first place, do we really ask ourselves that question when we reached that age anyway?

5.
Maybe I am digressing....but to be frank, here I am, waiting for my Abah in the observation ward for the memory lost issue he's facing and it has struck me right in between the eyes - we'll only have one chance to take care of our kids, our father & mother....the time could not be reversed nor repeated.
I just told myself again, last night - no matter what is the number of RM I have in my banks, or how many gold bars I have in the vaults of those banks....it cannot be priced as precious as the time and that one chance to take care of the family.

6.
May Allah bless my family members, those older than me, those younger than me, those whom I have had the opportunity to spend my life with and those younger ones in the future when probably I would not be around anymore to kiss and hug....but for my future generations, please know this - I'd probably still be alive in all of you, as like all your forefathers did in me....and so would you, in your future generations....insyaAllah.