I left my hometown Johor Bahru (JB) when I first started going to Tunku Kurshiah College (Kolej Tunku Kurshiah). It was and is a secondary school but why it was known as College, beats me. So when my friends asked me where I was from, answering that you are from JB, they gasped 'oh orang bandar'. Me and four other friends were dubbed sombong because we were from 'bandar'. That didn't include those from Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya eh?
The fact is I came from a small village in almost the middle of Johor Bahru. The village was and is called Kampong Kubur, for obvious reasons opposite my front yard was the mausoleum/graveyard.
That place was close to The Sultanah Aminah Hospital, walking distance to the Sultan Abu Bakar Masjid, the Johor Bahru zoo, the Lido beach (where Danga Bay is now), the Religious school Bukit Zahrah, the English College, the Sultan Ibrahim Girls School both primary and secondary on the inner opposite side. Every place was close to home as we walked almost everywhere. Except we had to take the bus to go to the town centre to the post office, the library, the market, the bus station, the Rex Cinema, my favourite shop the 'Everstrong', my Mak's favourite shop Ban Thye in Jalan Trus.
So Johor Bahru wasn't so big really. My world then was bordered around these landmarks but my actual community or the community I grew up in was bordered by Jalan Mariamah, Lorong 3, Lorong 4, Lorong 5, Jalan Yahya Awal and Jalan Inche Besar Zubaidah, that's it. The last picture shows these locations.
All of my relatives are in that very kampung/neighbourhood, both my maternal and paternal families.
In my previous posting I mentioned my maternal side. The families of the late Salmah, Salleh and Safiah Jais lived in one big house where my eldest uncle puts his mother ( my Grandma , Jumirah Abdul Rahman). Thanks to him we had a roof over our heads. I literally grew up with minimum 10 other cousins and my own siblings. By the time I was born half of my siblings has left that big house anyway.
On my paternal side the story is quite different. My father came to Malaysia from Kebumin, Java with his aunt, whom he referred to as Mak and whom we, siblings called Tok Itam. My siblings were the first generation of descendants born in Malaysia on my paternal side. I grew up knowing my father's cousins, children of Tok Itam ( her name was Zamaliah). They were Pak Aziz, Mak Marfuah, Mak Yah, Mak Nab, Pak Sidek, Pak Majid, Cik Ning and Cik Kin. My youngest sister and I would always follow my parents to their houses. Tok Itam was living at Lorong 3, Mak Yah and Mak Nab were at Lorong 5. My family was at Jalan Mariamah. There were also Tok Tas (sister of Tok Itam), Tok Nasir (Tok Itam's first husband), Tok Hashim (Tok Itam's second husband), Abang Hassan son of not sure who...,who was married to his neighbour Chik. All these names are so familiar to me. My father's cousin's children, we're 2nd cousins are Noi Zainal, Titty Zainal, Huda Zainal, Haflah Sidek and many others of whom I have lost track.
My family moved away from Kg. Kubor when I was 11 years old and after I went to TKC and then further my studies overseas I totally lost track of them. When I came back upon graduation, got married, had children and faced with my own problems, I literally closed my world to many including relatives on my father's side. My utmost apologies. Now I have no reason not to find them and with Allah's grace Dr Rafiah Abdul Rahman was my link to Haflah Sidek, we are second cousins and in sha Allah we will be reunited at my brother's daughter's wedding soon. Sure am looking forward to that. I hope my father will be happy that we looked for his family again. In sha Allah the future generation will find their way. They might be working side by side and yet do not know one another. My son lives in the same neighbourhood as my cousin Haflah but I did not know.
Why do you think I bother writing all this, it's les I forget. It is for me and for me to share with my big family both on my mother's and father's side. Alhamdulillah there will be closure to my guilt after all these years. Alhamdulillah.
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