Mahal kita

I am certainly not one who digs into ‘Hari Raya songs’ (there is one by a girl group called ‘Lips’ whose lyrics and video are completely bimbotic), but I like this song because of the diction in it.

It came from a time when people still said ‘takber’ instead of ‘takbir’, ’suboh’ instead of ’subuh’, ‘bawak’ instead of ‘bawa’, ‘hamper’ instead of ‘hampir’, and they felt it was all natural, and right. (Of course, until the snobbish ‘Melayu Baku’ people came along and defiled the language.) And I love songs where the vocals and lyrics take centre stage, because that seems to be the most worthy purpose of music. Simple song, no chorus repeats, just pure song.

But there was another reason for the significance of this song.

I had it on repeat mode on the night of 1st Syawal, and at 4 am that night, a biologically distant grandmother of mine who lived in the same block passed away. It was the first time for me that someone close enough passed away on 1st Syawal, so the day took a really different course from the usual.

A song about missing one’s parents, it was almost fateful, especially when I went to the pusara that very morning.