moments to remember

Last Friday the school sports day was over and done. How glad and thankful was I with the proceeding. Glad because my responsibility as the sports secretary was considered over for this year; since annual sports day ranks highest among all the priorities; thankful because everything went as planned albeit a slight delay at the beginning. after weeks of planning and preparing stuffs and everything, it was the moment that many had waited for.

It was a sunny morning, and it was the first time the sports day was held at the school field after years of having it at the TLDM stadium. The atmosphere was carnival-like: the tents for the respective sports houses decorated with banners and flags, buntings pitched around the 400metre track, flags of various colours representing the 4 sports houses put up along the 100metre track line, canteen operators selling food and drink by the field to make sure the students would not go hungry and thirsty. 

By 1145, the prize-giving ceremony was over, and straight away I and a handful of students started to clear up everything. I didn’t want to wait till the afternoon or worse still, the following Monday to do all the clearing. Thank God, an hour later, everything was done. Phew, a sigh of relief, I tell ya..

The next day, after buying the necessary at the pekan batu 10 pasar pagi, headed to Jawang Kuala Kangsar to menebas the long grass and wild plants. Was there till 3pm and on the way home, stopped at my tilapia cages at Mandah; to catch up on things and to chill for a while. I even managed to go for a dip in the river. It was deep and cold and so refreshing. Except for the swift current, it was an ideal place to be. The tranquility of being on the rumah sangkar: alone, listening to chirp of birds, swish of water, watching tilapia fish in abundance performing the tawaf; was enough to erase the weariness of the sports day pressure and the early morning strenuous menebas session activity.

At six it was time to head home. By maghrib was already home with my missus and the little ones performing the solah together. Thought of retiring early but saw movie after movie before dozing off at half past one. Watching movie is also considered one of the ways for me to chill out. 
: )

And the next day, Sunday, I considered that I would just stay home and take things easy, maybe reading a novel and dozing off to recover from the previous two days exhaustion. But abil called, saying he wanted the mp3, so I left for his hostel at ten forty am, and right after that went to kebun sg tiram. Thought of going there just for a lil’ while, lighting up the debris of dried leaves and grass. But in doing so, the unexpected happened. The strong gust of wind made the fire grew bigger and it went out of control. I was in a state of panic. What should I do? What could I do? The fire was spreading real fast, and was reaching the border of neighbouring kebuns, going at two opposite directions. I just couldn’t think properly then, and I ran helter skelter here and there trying to fend off the fire, to extinguish the fire, using palm oil tree branches. The heat was unbearable, the smoke was choking me, but I had to soldier on, if not for the neighbouring kebuns, at least for the sake of trying. It crossed my mind then that I might die either from the pungent smoke, the burning heat from the fire, or simply from tiredness. Then I remembered that I had a well, dug up six feet into the ground. But I had no container. Ahh.. I ran to my neighbor kebun looking for anything that I could use to fill water. Luckily I saw one. In my rush to get things done, I stepped on thorns. I even stepped into fire. the pain was excruciating but I ignored it because of the immense fear in my heart. The smoke got into my system: I couldn’t breathe and my eyes hurt. my eyes were watery, even my nostrils too. At one stage I was so exhausted that I simply stopped and sat down, breathing heavily. “just let it be, coz whatever will be, will be”, I told myself. But I couldn’t simply give up. I had a responsibility, especially since it was my fault in the first place. There was a moment when I went to get the water from the well I stumbled inside. Luckily the water wasn’t deep but the bottom was so muddy that it hindered me from getting out quickly. 

                After what seemed like ages, thank God, the fire was under control.. All in all I took two hours to overcome the frightening moment. Then only I realized how thirsty I was. Though the fire was contained, I stayed back till almost five pm putting out the remaining just to make sure the fire won’t be spreading again. The only problem was the peat fire wouldn’t stop. I told myself that I would come back the next morning to check out everything. And that night it rained. Relief is actually an understatement, but for now I’ll go along with that, just to show how I felt then. This incident was one of the unforgettable moments in my life, if I may confess.

Looking back, God heard my cries, my pleading, and extended His helps in extraordinary ways that I can’t impart at this moment. Mere words are not enough to convey the idea. hopefully the ending below sums up everything.