Creative Writing Class - FAMILY & ANCESTORY
21:54In the name of Allah , the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Loughborough Library
FAMILY & ANCESTORY
Growing up, people around me are rather confused by who I was. A
petite girl with a fair skin, sharp nose and a bindi on her fore head would
almost be mistaken as a Malay. Where I come from, Malaysia is known with is
diversity encompassing 3 major race. The Malays which originates from the land
of java, Indians from land of the Pandavas and Chinese from the land of great
dynasties, all brought in over by the East India Company. Me and my sister,
well we look Malay but we are actually, well this may surprise you, a mixture
between Indian and Chinese. Actually in this 21st century, it’s not
a surprise for us Malaysians with all this mushy mixture going on! One can have
so much of race in them but yet we need to choose between this major three to
be called a Malaysian. Quite ridiculous but that’s a something we’ve all kept
inside our hearts.
I could only trace my ancestry back to when Malaysia was hit by the Japanese
occupation back in the 1940’s. The Chinese couldn’t stand a chance to survive
back then. So my grandmother who is a Chinese was given away to an Indian
family. She grew up embracing her lighter skin tone being in the midst of
strong, rough, build dark Indians. Of course, to this people, she is the most
beautiful women they have ever seen. Every women in the village envied her, so
she said! But I could not stop thinking why and how is she envied being flat
chested, with a tiny eyes and flat nose? Ah! It’s probably her skin! Yea, the
fair ones gets away quite easily!
She married my grandfather at such a young teen age, a rubber tapper
and found her happy ever after surrounded by kerosene lights under the rubber
trees. They bore 5 children and the second from that lot is my father. Ah yes! My
father was a lot like my grandmother and a lot Chinese. He was a proud, calm
and collected, wise, stingy when it comes to money but he was so in love with
his Indian culture. Growing up, he made sure we stayed strong to our culture.
Every Diwali is celebrated with new beautiful, colorful clothes and singing
hymns to the god and goddesses. Yes, and that includes not wearing anything
black as it is not auspicious for the Hindus.
Growing up, I learned a lot from my grandmother and father, taking up
their eastern values before I moved onto my path discovering Islam and being a Muslim.
I married my husband who is a Malay and by the grace of God, we have one
daughter now who screams 1Malaysia inside her, though I secretly think she’s
more Indian! It’s beautiful in the Quran, Chapter 49 Verse 13 God says “O mankind,
indeed We have created you from male and female and made people and tribes that
you may know one another”.
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