Friday, January 30, 2009

Bloody, me.

Your blood, is where your heart is. Biologically, its where the oxygen is being supplied. On the other hand, your blood is you. One way or the other, helps to make yourself. Only difference is that, you'd dwell on your blood, or just let the blood flow in you while you explore other factors.

What I'm trying to say is that, it's either we take pride of our traits (like "Hak Keistimewaan/Ketuanan Bumiputra" or the "Aryans") or you would just leave it as that.

Family. Deprived from sleep, my adik just had to drag me out of bed while my pillows were lavishing me with their comfort. Relatives visit. "Baby datang, kak". Ah, Baby. A reason to wake up I suppose.

Baby, has always been the witty tiny niece of mine. Cakap macam tak ingat dunia. Almost 4, you can even ask her to "Shuffle" (in her own definitions) because apparently her uncles (my cousins) were her teacher. So yes, she was shuffling in the hallway.

But that's not the point. Point is, this little girl goes to playschool and learns Chinese. From what I heard from my Aunt, whenever she sees a sight of Chinese people, she would repeat the same Chinese phrases. Er, I would try to type the phrase out, tapi takut salah eja. And apparently, Baby's repetition of Chinese phrases kononnya, she wanted to show off to them that she too, is apart of them. She can speak their language. No barriers in between lah kiranya.

And that's when I heard, "Wafa, ada boyfriend. Nama dia Daniel". Now, why would a girl aged almost 4 have a boyfriend? Haha, I suppose normal lah tu. Teasing and such. Then I thought to myself, "I've always liked the name Daniel. Sounds like a nice boy."

That's when it occurred to me, and I had to ask: "B, Daniel Melayu ke Chinese?". "Chinese..(and continuing blabbering)". And then she senyum sipu-sipu malu. In between, her uncle (my cousin) added something about a boy named "Nicholas".

The second was that, her uncle was wearing a tee with chinese words on it. And she said,

"Uncle Su pakai baju Cina!"
"Baby boleh baca ke apa dia tulis?"
"Boleh, 'Good morning, teacher' (in mandarin)".

The fact is, she can't even read. Suka hati dia je.

What caught me is that, at 4, she can differentiate between a Malay and a Chinese as well as mixing her Malay, English and Chinese words in a sentence. But these differences do not set her apart. The differences however, would only make her want to be apart, to understand, to adapt - like how she tried to show off that she can speak Mandarin (although only a few phrases).

Entah lah, maybe I'm just making a big fuss over this. But it somehow went through me, that Baby is growing up as a Malaysian, not a "pure" Malay. Can't exactly take pride on our blood for we too, are a mixture of a gazillion other breeds. Like that cat/dog of yours. Just that we are generalized into a larger category: Melayu, Cina, India atau Lain-lain.

Even my kawan calls her boyfriend "Sayang" or "Yang", although it is not her primary language. Awesomeness.

Maybe, it should just have been Malaysian instead. A mixture of hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, platlets and many other components - that is what is in our blood.

11 comments:

pinknerd said...

kita pun suka orang yang nama daniel! in fact i pernah cakap kat jack dulu (like two years ago) kan bagus kalau nama dia daniel?

hahahahahaha.

and i would send my kids to mandarin school, no doubt bout that. your niece is lucky.

Anonymous said...

Firstly, it is always a pleasure after my Saturday market rounds and hearty breakfast to read a dose of Jane's Saturday special..

Blood: I hope that the packet of blood I donated the other day is flowing is some non-Indians body at the moment. If he/she's a Malaysian, all the better.

Baby: I pray the Aryans and the mullahs don't get to her. It is unfortunate Jane that at one point, some form of indoctrination comes and pollute our minds. Or do we accept it because we feel the need to belong to some class of persons. I don't know..

I sure didn't learn to call myself Abang from watching some Bollywood movies or Hollywood flick.. Then again, not everyone is going to be happy with the choice I've made.. SIGH!!

Che

Nadrah Mustafa said...

Pink, haha. And how odd when Ben comes along. LOL, star-crossed doh!

Che, why lah disable comment at your blog? Rinduu Che! And thanks, apparently memang every Saturday kan? Haha.

You know, I hope that she will be consistent as what she believes now.
Your choice, there's always a way. InsyaAllah.

Anonymous said...

Sis,

Mana ada disable?

Just click the number at the end of the dateline; next to the speech bubble.. Template bodoh sikit...

AND Is that you?!

Che

Nadrah Mustafa said...

Oh okay, saya try comment later.
Apparently it is me. Haha. ;)

N said...

that. is. cool.

Anonymous said...

Nah, not the platelets, hemoglobin or oxyhemoglobin that makes us look the way we are. You should say DNA or the human genome at least.

And anyway, oxyhemoglobin is just hemoglobin that has oxygen. It doesn't particularly seperate us as a race.

Race is malaysia is not the same as race in places like america. It's not just the stuff in the blood, but I suspect you were trying to say that in this post. Haha.

Nadrah Mustafa said...

Er, actually kan, I wanted to say that all of us have the same blood. Well the components in the blood at least.

All of us have the basics, and I know that Oxyhemoglobin and Hemoglobin are the same.

But you know, what I'm trying to say is that, all of us have the same insides in us, minus the traits and DNAs. But we have the basic Ribosomes that produce all the DNA traits and such.

Maybe I just misled you. Hmmm.

Anonymous said...

Why did that last sentence in the second last paragraph even started with a but?

Ah, nevermind.

You are sort of confusing. Don't take it personally, okay.

Nadrah Mustafa said...

Heh no worries Anon, don't take it personally either.

All is well kan? :)

Selamat malam.

Ayyman Rahim said...

Amboi budak umur 4 tahun ada bf? Woot woot, maju ya budak zaman sekarang. Eceh, macam I tak, muahhaa.