|
Welcome to
tunku.org, home of Malay Royals on the Web!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TUNKU
FARID!
Though we are late
by a few days with this, it is nevertheless conveyed with much love from
all of us in the family!! At 70, we have to agree that you still don't
look your age. Our doa goes to you everyday for the best of health and
blessed days ahead. WE LOVE YOU ABAH!
And this from the
birthday boy himself...
A Birthday ! It’s that one day in a year when we are reminded or be reminded
of our age ! On the eve of my 70th birthday this time around, I received
surprised good wishes from Mona - all the way from Oklahoma ! Later Julie
Sudiro and her son Irmanto Soliano also called and invited our family
for dinner at the Holiday Villa Subang Jaya. Early today, surprised ones
from Faidz Darus and Omar Hussein, and followed by Kathelene and Kok Chee,
who came over yesterday to give me a present, Sabri, Yat, Syaz, Ajil and
Zali Nichols. Another surprised call came from Adam - Donna and Philip's
two year old son and of course from Donna’s too. John, Farah and Aisya
too sent sms all the way from their Wisconsin Cabin where they were spending
their weekend. Later calls came from Zali Nichol, Hirwan and Neal and
surprised ones from Aiki and Hibiki and Yasmin too. Although Tunku Besar
is away in Hong Kong, he assigned someone to wish me on his behalf . Of
course earlier good wishes had happened at Wam’s daughter’s wedding and
these were from my sisters, Along, Mas and Sha and Azam too. All these
good wishes really made the day for this old man ! To top them all of
course, Ainul’s was the first ! She never forgets people’s birthdays.
That’s my wife !
When I was younger and working then with a housing development company
which had since turned public, I used to admire the vitality and alertness
of one of my fellow directors, a man of fifty six years old who hailed
from Kuala Lipis, but who passed away a few years ago, and wondered then
if I would be just as vibrant as he was when I reached that age. Almost
everyone who met him praised his youngish looks and some even asked him
how he managed to keep himself that way. He modestly replied, " I stay
away from harboring any worry about life. After all, there is always tomorrow.
Allah has created the day and the night to work and rest. I have two wives
besides, and they cause me no worry either. They both exist in their own
worlds, whilst I am there just a bystander to help ease their burdens
occasionally ! " That in total, I thought then was indeed a very sound
philosophy for good existence. I do not mean having two wives though.
In another instance, there was this senior government officer of fifty
two , who I came to know when I was in the Bank of Nova Scotia. He was
then the Director of Loans for small and medium sized contracts for Bumiputras.
We became very close friends by virtue of our mutual interest to assist
these contractors to obtain loans from the Bank, which loans were fully
secured through MARA’s guarantees. Both Ainul and I used to admire his
youngish countenance and as expected we wanted to know his secret recipe,
to which he said almost the same thing as the friend I mentioned above.
Since meeting these two friends then, I emulated their life philosophy.
Now that I am seventy, I cannot claim that I have the youthful looks of
the fifty-year olds but at least I cannot complain that I feel old. There
is no denying that I have slowed down quite a bit in many things. When
playing squash for instance, although I can retain my stamina quite easily
for an hour plus fast game, I find that I am delayed at reaching and executing
certain shots, whilst my citing of the ball at times failed me. Squash
is still my favorite past time and playing with Tunku Besar Mukhriz, my
cousin since sixteen years past, is institutionalized by now ! Our understanding
of each other’s game and moods are ingrained between us, and not being
able to play it due to some unforeseen circumstances or reasons only cause
more longings for the game after such due absence of it. As far as the
two of us are concerned, there is nothing like squash, although on the
sides we both thoroughly enjoy watching those grand slams tennis, whilst
Tunku Besar also enjoys watching those great soccer matches of the world.
Thus the moods and the fitness of our squash encounters of the day are
quite often greatly affected by our late night watching of these two games.
We both take consolation for our bad plays as a result of these late nights,
but that is just an excuse anyway ! During the recent twenty over days
of absence from the game when we went cruising, I felt elated that I could
beat my sparring partner at an hour and a half game. My stamina was not
questionable as would be expected with such a long absence. I can only
equate this to the stamina that I must have built up or retained as a
result of my non-failing daily Qi Gong on board the ship.
Only recently through the advice of our very close family friend ophthalmologist
Dr. Choong Soong Soong who has set up a very high-tech eye clinic at the
Mega Mall, I upgraded my eye lenses just as Ainul for the very first time
was convinced to have permanent multifocal spectacles too. Of course these
new spectacles are not there to assist me in squash because I never wear
them any way, but they are a boost to improve my readings of those very
small letters in some books, magazines and occasionally newspapers too.
As for Ainul, until today after almost two months acquisition of her new
"toy" she still cannot accept the fact that she has to wear glasses and
hence she shuns using them to get use to them. She complains of not being
able to walk properly or even see things properly, despite several visits
for adjustments to the optical shops that made our spectacles. I kept
telling her, I experienced the same thing when I first wore my spectacles
following the prescription by my very close ophthalmologist Dr. Then Suke
Min who had since migrated to Australia but of late I was told has moved
to Singapore. Like everything else it takes some effort to move away from
one’s comfort zone, and having to wear spectacles is no different here.
Quite lately however, I do experience dislocation or lost of directions
whilst driving, but this has nothing to do with losing my way completely.
It is just that I am now like the computer which executes only the latest
command, whilst the previous ones upon recalls only. This as it always
happens whilst driving to a destination with Ainul by my side, she only
needs to mention another place besides the original one that we intended
for, and almost instantly my mind switches to the new one, and I am headed
for that instead ! This can be very alarming and disconcertings at times.
Thus these days, when we set on our drive somewhere, the conversation
must never mention any other destination besides the original one but
instead she has to constantly remind me lest I wander around somewhere
else! I hope I will not lose track of the road next !
I still enjoy singing for it brings joy and relaxation to me. Often times
Ainul asks me to stop taking part in the Club’s annual karaoke competition.
After all, she says , I have won it several times already and may be people
are tired of my presence there. Maybe she is right, for at one time in
2004 at it’s first heat , I was disqualified by a few seconds delay in
presenting myself at its contest. It is one incidence which I cannot forget.
We had just then returned from Alor Star to attend and visit a sick relative
and I continuously phoned the Club’s convener of my intention to be there
and continued to send relay messages to her that I was on my way to the
Club. Five minutes from reaching the club I told her to inform the MC
to allow me slight delay just in case. I was number ten on the roll with
another nine on the line. A switch over to the last would be of help in
this case but to my shocked surprise, the moment I entered the contest
room, I was told that I had been disqualified ! The delay was just less
than a minute!
I got the message here. They just would not want me to contest and this
was the best excuse they could find to eliminate me. Of course when I
discussed the incidence with my very close friend Rahim Ismail, the ex-President
of the Club, he advised me to write a written protest immediately and
demand to be included for the Wild Card entry’s contest which would take
place the following week day. Another surprise came my way. I was not
even considered for that contest! Letters after letters followed between
me and the Club’s Kararoke committee but they remained adamant in maintaining
their decision.
Ainul was of course all furious and so was Rahim. Ainul told me not to
ever again take part in the contest. Of course I agreed at first. After
a year of cooling off period, I decided to enter again and won it I did
this time. This was the year when Farah came home for a two year stay
with her family. I was determined not ever to quit these competitions.
My reasons for doing so are firstly, why should I give way to these people
(by this time around, the previous committee members had lost the Club’s
AGM nominations) and secondly, I must try to represent the Club at it’s
Annual Inter- Clubs Competition, to which I had been able to represent
past years. Thus my decision was made. I won the Club’s championship as
well as the Inter club's too and with the team that we had then, we took
back the Inter club's trophy from The Royal Selangor Club. Just for the
record, I won all again last year, making it a record for any Club to
have won twice consecutively. At the recent Club’s Karaoke heat I made
it for the solo final as well as for the duet too. I am hoping to do just
as well again, Insyaallah.
Apart from the occasional cough and cold and the annoying joints pains
at my knees as a result of past operations on them, I cannot complain
that my health and fitness are questionable. I feel happy that all my
children and their spouses and children are healthy and doing well in
their respective fields of responsibilities. Farah and John are back in
Chicago, with their Aisya growing up well. Farahat and Mazuin have been
kept busy with their assignments both at home and overseas. Their two
kids Maisarah and Muhammad are presently in a private school and doing
well. Farazil and Yasmin seem very happily placed in Kota Kinabalu, with
Farazil actively involved in horse riding and polo and white river rafting,
whilst Yasmin gets herself busy and occupied making home made bread which
she sells to her apartment neighbors. Both Aiki and Hibiki are happily
settled in their respective schools. As for Izzat, he has decided to resign
from Pempena and concentrate on building up his own business in Eco-tourism
with the help and encouragement of their Royal Highnesses the Yang Dipertuan
Besar and Tuanku Ampuan Negeri Sembilan.Both Ainul and I of course feel
concerned about this new venture of Izzat but then we realized, maybe
this is best for his adventurous spirit. He has had a good ground work
experience in tourism and outdoors activities and public relations. This
could be a good break for him. Aida should be kept busy indeed looking
after the kids in the expected regular absence of Izzat from now on. The
good thing is, both Omar and Emir are doing well in their respective schools.
On our extended families, the Nichols are doing very well with the kids,
Faiq, Zharif and Azrhy fully settled down in their respective schools
and their activities. Both the couple Zali and Dr. Aini as well as the
kids are regular scuba divers, which diving activities bring them to far
away islands and places of famous scuba diving areas. On the opposite
end, Fairuz and Ranthy are doing just as well too although these days
Fairuz spends most of his time at his newly established office in Singapore
- thus leaving Ranthy to manage their kids in the country. It is for this
very reason too that Ranthy has stopped work at the Hotel Meridien, to
devote full time on Marsya, Afi and Audi. Over in Kota Kinabalu, both
Michael Loh and Angela seem settled down but still no child yet. Shahril
and Fenti seem fairly busy in their own ways with their three kids just
as Terence and wife are occupied with their two kids, leaving Rodzan and
Nani fully busy with their respective activities and their three kids
too.
I have every reason to thank Allah for all the goodness and blessings
that He has bestowed upon me and my family all these past years of my
life. The joys and sorrows that I went through were all parts and parcels
of His test for my faith in Him and I only hope that I had lived up to
His expectations ! If at all there is a bonus to my life these past years,
I have devoted a lot more time now to performing my religious obligations
to Allah and trying to understand and comprehend His expectations of us
on this earth and the hereafter. I would like to confine my observations
herein strictly for my immediate family circles and set aside politics
alone. Life as it is and has been for me a blessing indeed. Health wise
I am glad that Ainul’s kidney problems are stable and that we are both
enjoying life as well as we should. In our quest for adventure and site
seeing, we have been to a lot of countries and covered at least three
continents. However, to me, the best holidays of my life are on cruise
ships. There is nothing like cruising as proven again during our recent
one, which I will elaborate in my forthcoming weeks.
Thus all told, I feel very happy indeed to be part and parcel of all
members of our families. I cannot of course overlook the success of the
others in the family circles who are too many to be mentioned here, but
suffice it to say that there had not been any traumatic happenings to
all and sundry. Allah had been most kind to all of us. With that final
note, how do I really feel being seventy ? It is no different as when
you are twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty. It is what you make of
life that counts. Life is always beautiful ! I really look forward to
the next chapter of my life - the next decade !
Tunku Farid
|
Webmaster