As a young boy in the 60s, the eagerness to wake up for sahur dwindled after the first week of posa and I would rush through my early morning meals, eyes closed and head propped. Sleep was more valuable then having a meal but my grandma, Nek Smah would have nothing of this. Sahur was non negotiable.
I recall the years when posa coincided with the long school holidays in November and December. During those occassions we would become nocturnal creatures staying awake at nights and sleeping through the days. It was not uncommon to sleep till 6 pm in the evening till just before sungkei and skipping the pangs of hunger.
Nek Smah would grumble all day about our sleeping habits, telling us that our posa would not be counted and so forth. All these were soon forgiven come sungkei and after helping with the dishes, wiping the tables and sweeping the floors. Piruz would normally be the boss and delegated the chores to Betty and myself. Betty usually did the dishes and I seemed to be assigned to sweeping the floors most of the time. I remember an occassion many years later when Piruz and Betty quarrelled noisily over a transistor radio. Those days a teenager's life was centered around a radio just as ipods, laptops or mobile phones are to teenagers today. How else would we catch Credence Clearwater Revival. Anyway, caught between this 'terrible' fight over a radio, my trusted broom came in handy, swinging into action, hitting nobody but effective in breaking the fight. Betty and Piruz had a comical recollection of that incident.
The term 'posa yok yok' came about to refer to kids (me included) who posa but quietly raided the 'periok' (pots) during the day. Such raids were done stealthily and we thought we got away without Nek Smah's knowledge. Later we realised that she somehow must have known because how else can we explain the fact that she referred to our posa 'yok yok' on the very days the periok raids were executed.
We were often assigned chores during posa that I referred to as relief assignments by Nek Smah and mum. Such assignments included going to the 3 chinese shops in the kampong to buy stuff like bananas, ice blocks, sun valley orange squash, etc. On other days these assignments took the form of distributing to our neighbours the bubur kacang, bubur pedas and kuihs that Nek Smah have prepared. Our neighbours would in return give back other dishes that they had prepared. This practise of sharing dishes among the neighbours allowed us to enjoy added varieties for sungkei.
As these chores were normally done in the evening close to sungkei after a full day of fasting, resisting the temptation to dip your fingers in the goodies was not easy at all. I can recall at least 1 or 2 occassions when I completely 'forgot' (not conveniently forgot I must add) that it was posa month and ate one full banana before realising it. Nek Smah would say we were excused because it was not intentional and therfore it was our 'rezeki', thus our fasting that day would still count and not 'batal'.
On the occassions when we were awake and not hibernating during the days posa turned most of us into zombies especially in the afternoons. Nek Smah would remind us that we were supposed to remain active as usual and to work as hard as ever during posa as it is meant to test our resolve. Hmmm!
The nights of posa month however were totally different. We transformed, along with the entire kampong as all kinds of nightly activities unfolded. Small hawker stalls sprouted all over the kampong, selling stuff like 'sotong tutok', dried squid pounded on belian wood block with a hammer into threads of shreaded squid and eaten with hot chilly and black soya sauce. This would later be replaced with the machine pressed squids but they never tasted the same.
By mid posa month the kampong would be bathed in a sea of light and colours. Homes would be decked with rainbows of coloured bulbs. The home owners went to great lengths to outdo each other to be the best lighted home. And the streets would be lined with kerosene lamps or 'pelita' that were hung on wooden poles, the flickering lights emitted by the pelitas were a delight to the eyes (but not so the black smogs that clogged our nostrils). The more active young men of the kampong would often construct wooden arches and archways across the streets and lighted them up at night. The competition to be the best lit street at times pushed the friendly, amiable kampong folks a wee bit beyond friendly competitions. By 'malam tujuh likur', around the 27th day of posa, the kampong would be lit up like a delightful little 'disney land'.
The community activities during posa month would be powered by the young men and boys of the kampong. We started young and there was a clear hierarchy of duties. The young men constructed the arches and planted the wooden poles along the streets. The older boys filled the pelitas with kerosene, hung them on the wooden poles and lit them up. Meanwhile the younger boys' responsibility was to ensure that the lamps remain lit and policing to ensure boys from other streets do not sabotage their work.
In the midst of all this the boys of the kampong would have home made bamboo cannons or 'meriam buluh'. Dangerous contraptions filled with kerosene and lit with fire to create minor explosions. All to increase the din and noise during posa month.
The kampong streets would be filled with adults and children alike. People coming and going back from the surau. Kids selling and buying sotong tutok, families walking about admiring the lights and pelitas. Malam tujuh likur was indeed a sight to behold in those days. Betty was always in her element during those times with her friends Zaiton, Hasmah and many others and her usual comical mimicking of radio djs and raya greetings over Radio Sarawak.
To be continued..
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