Merry Time

Raya was awesome. It was so awesome there should be a new word to commemorate it.

Raya was Lemanglicious!

I woke up around 8, went for the routine solat sunat aidilfitri, visited my grandfather's grave and beraya at Tok's house. I had lunch at with the whole troupe, during which my father being a pot filled with historical facts that he is, explained to us the etymology of the Ronggeng dance.

According to Azizan Pawanteh, when the Portuguese successfully invaded Malacca in 1511, they celebrated the event by dancing the night away. Some Malay men who lived nearby watched the Portuguese dance and were intrigued by the rather unusual dance style. So they dressed up and join in the celebration, fusing the waltz with the more traditional zapin only to be interrupted by a portuguese official "O que são você que faz?" The malay men shook their heads and hinted the official thay they didn't understand a word he said and told him that they only understand a bit of english. The official then called a translator and relayed the message to the translator. The translator translated the official's message in a small notebook and shouted out loud to the group of malay men "Sorry, but you're in the wrong gang!"

And that's how the Ronggeng dance, according to my father, got its name.

Anyhoo...

I picked up theStar newspaper and browsed through it and was saddened by the news of a horrendous car crash. Guess what else was on page N16?

Who would've thought that just above the strip of sad news is a mock raya celebration of us UIA students! The picture was taken a week before raya when I was still back in UIA. The photographer told us that our picture may or may not be shown during raya because it is really up to the editor so I wasn't expecting much. The photographer gave away all the props to me and I most humbly accepted them. Who in their right mind would not accept free lemang, satay, ketupat, rendang and a set of kueh raya? We had a feast that night, bludgeoning ourselves with food that weren't supposed to be served until Raya. It's like preparing for school only to find out that it's a school holiday.

Supposedly (nak dibuatkan ceritalah) I and four other UIA students are miles away from home so we accepted Suria Harman's invitation to her house at Gombak to enjoy local malay cuisine. I giggled a bit lah as I read the piece at Tok's house at Alor Setar.

Notice the spelling error? Afiq Dun. Hahaha. Dun. I wrote my name in cursive so they must have mistaken my ee for u. Or maybe Afiq Dun is more Sabahan than Afiq Deen. Maybe. But then it didn't matter because I, Afiq Dun, have a gift of laughing at myself silly.

My dimpled cheeks will also be in November edition of Fokus SPM for winning the recent short film competition. Next Stop?

My printed media appearance wish list:

1. Klue's Over 20 Under 40
2. URTV's Pemuda Bulan Ini (publisiti murahan)
3. CLEO's top 50 Bachelor (dream big bebeh~)
4. Mangga's Berenang Baik untuk Kesihatan?