“Memories Of Alexandria 2006-2010” was the theme of the pre-farewell night organized by the fourth year Medical Students of Alexandria – our ‘nieces’ and nephews’ that had been here in Alex since September 2006, a month earlier when we first landed our feet in Egypt. During that memorable pleasant evening, accept for the Juhayna fruit juices, pumpkin pie and water melon, they brought us all kinds of foods, cakes and other Malaysian delicacies. The main dishes were the Nasi Tomato and the scrumptious Nasi Ayam. They stayed on until almost 1 am in the morning, reminiscing all the memories that we had experienced and the family-hood we that we had built together since the past three and the half years. I remembered when the first time I met Din in front of our Apartment building’s entrance. He was about to ride his bicycle after came out from Cyber Café located at the ground floor of our building. “Assalammualaikum, Uncle!” he courteously greeted me. “Waalaikumsalam warahmatullah hi wabarakatuh?” I replied astonishingly. “How are you, Uncle?…..I am Din, study in Alex University..” he continued politely. “Uncle is staying here?” The conversation went on for about 5 minutes and it was really nice meeting him then, but I had to cut it short as I was tight up with many things then. Few days later, I met Zainal for the first time at the Mustapha Kamal Masjid, 200 meters from our apartment. He greeted and introduced himself to me. “Hah…Waalaikum salam” I replied surprisingly “I think I met your friend Din the other day, is he?…do you know him?” I asked him about Din. “Yes uncle, we stay at the same apartment not far from Uncle’s place.” He confirmed kindly. I then invited him to my house, introduced my family and we had very fruitful conversation over the hot spicy Laksa Sarawak prepared by Nana. A month later, we invited both of them and the rest of their apartment mates – Zul, Pai, Atef, Muaz for evening tea. Since then we built our networking and organized many events together - promoting teamwork and the importance of leadership skills.
They are really brilliant, decent and blessed kids – blessed by Allah swt with Pentium 8 CPU. Some of them are Hafiz – someone who recites the Holy Qur’an by heart and Din is one of them. Few of them (Atef, Pai, Fadhil, & Atun) planned to get marry this year. Pai proactively invited me to share my experience – my beautiful journey along the bumpy and winding highway that I went through since 1990. I started my story by sharing them the fundamental of marriage life from the Islamic perspective. Then I continued with my exquisite wonderful love story. When I reached the third chapter on ‘how did I propose to marry Nana the only one and only wife’, afraid of missing the episode, most of them fervently pulled their ears closer. I moved on: I’ve told them, marriage is about managing your tolerance, patient, and understanding with courage, determination and perseverance. It is about managing a company, and you are the CEO of that organization, who is responsible to achieve the real success with impressive performance in the Eyes of our Great Creator the Almighty Allah swt. To cut the long story shot - to them: Congratulation and I wish you all the best – may Allah swt bestow upon you all His Grace and Mercy.
To the rest – Nik Hilmi, Nik Hanif, Ch Hanif, Zul, Johanas, Abd Rahman, Intan, Bayni, Bayti,Ifa, Zana, Saadah, Aklina & Amirah - two years to go to realize your dream. But what is more important, achieve it for Allah swt and He will grant you His Baraqah and Rahmah. Thank you very much for organizing that wonderful evening and thoughtful gifts. It was indeed touchy and we will InsyaAllah, cherish all the memories that we had together. Wish you all the best.
Last but not least, please accept our apologies for our shortcomings and till we meet again. InsyaAllah.
Beef Thailand Rendang by the boys - Che Hanif. Tomato rice was mastered by Atef, Din, Muaz, Zul and Zainal
The spicy fried chicken and the chicken rice by the girls - Zana, Amirah, Atun and Ifa.
The rest of the foods and delicacies were prepared by Intan, Bayti, Bayni, Saadah, & Aklina.
A Tribute to Nek Nong by Afi. The materials used were ecoline black poster ink, a black ink pen, toothpick, white piece of art paper and a gift given by Allah swt – pair of his hands, and that is it! Using the old photo (a special thank must be granted to whoever had captured the photo – excellent composition, and to those who had securely archived the art piece) of their grand mom Rahmah Ayub otherwise popular known by her grand children as Nenek Nong, downloaded from the gallery of Kamilah aka Ikam’s facebook. Kudos to Afi and Ramadan Kareem to all Yayasan Yusuf and Nek Nongs’ fraternities.
