Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Dinner at Kaleel

I had a dinner together with my friend, Saha. The time was four days ago. The place was Kaleel. Celebrating 5 days of freedom (from all kind of problems)

" Bagi teh tarik satu..."

" Wokey. Deyy...bila mau balek kampungg ?? "

" Minggu depan kot..." I'm not feeling very well that day, so I just gave a short and simple answer.

" Minggu depann?? minggu blakangg?? " He replied with such a funny and confused voice.

" Minggu blakang pun takpa la macha..." I answered in hesitance...really don't have any mood to talk.

" Minggu depann balek kalu...minggu blakangg adaa datangg?? "

Sigh.....

Saha, who seated quietly from the beginning, broke his silence eventually.

" Bagi beta air limau nipis sepinggan, nasi ayam segelas "

With a quick twist of hand, he started writing down the order, while I can't no longer refrain myself from laughing.

After a while, he stopped and began to wonder to himself. He looked upon us and whispered...with his usually confused face.

" Dey...ini macam ada tara kena laa..."

" Gapo yang tok sei lagi nih? kawe lapo doh ni...cepak gi wuat ordarr tuhh..." Saha with his usual funny-yet-serious tone.

He left...but still scratching his head. He is a confused man who is confusing other people. But he will fast adopted to the Malay language in months to come.

These have brought the memories of Fahmi, who happened to stop by here last two months.

" Mamak...kasi teh O ais satu..kurang maniss..gula lebih"

Macha man looked a bit puzzled...before replying to us.

" Kurang maniss..gula lebey...ini macam, mana ble bikin kalu..."

" Ho ho..takble ke? takpa la...kasi teh O ais biasa je. Lagi satu...nasi ayam ada? "

" Nasi ayam adaa...brapa mau macha? "

" Okey...ble jgk..tak banyak..bagi dua je...dua roti kosong, kuah campur. "

Macha : ..........

That was almost two months ago.

5 minutes had passed....and our order arrived finally, and were well-prepared too (not the other way round)

There we had our fabulous dinner...probably our last dinner together for years to come.

And that was before I've been struck with measles (a day later), which prohibits me from any outdoor activities...and prompted me to stick to bed for a lengthy five days.

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First appeared in my friendster blog May 6, 2007 (C)
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Saha was a good friend of mine somewhere between 2006 and 2007.

That was indeed our last dinner together. Due to some irreconcilable differences, we ceased to contact each other towards the end of the fasting month last year.

I did try to contact him afterwards (after several months), but to no avail.

Wherever he is now, I wish him luck for the future...

Update on 4/7/2008

The waiter who successfully confused himself and me with "minggu depan" and "minggu belakang" phrase went back to India last two days. Luckily I had the chance to bid him farewell, and he managed to brush up his Bahasa eventually. I wish him luck for the future also...