'Pokok Tai'

A few hundred metres away from my parents' house in Sg. Korok, Alor Star. Used to be a row of 7 trees fronting a padi field. A nice view! Now there's only one left. When we were schooling those days, back in the 70s, we would passed these row of trees every morning to get to where we have to take the bus to school. We had to walk few hundred metres, ok, and that's not a short distance! But we had fun, walking very, very early in the morning. It was as early as 4.30 or 5.00 am! The only challenging times where when it rained or flooded. Huhh!!.... But we survived those challenging days, no matter what. More importantly, we had fun as school kids. Not sure if you asked any of our children these days if they would want to walk that far and wake up that early! And these row of trees also became our 'landmark' whenever we took the bus from Alor Star town back home. Whenever we saw these row of 'pokok tai', that would be the indication to alert the bus driver to stop. And missing the 'pokok tai' would mean the bus would stop further away from home. Seha, if you are reading this blog, you will remember all these and others, I supposed. Another thing, my mom used to make 'kueh bengkang' from these 'tai' fruits - orange in colour and the kueh was so delicious - our standard for that matter and in that point of time! Seha, do not mean to bring back any memories, especially the 'not so-nice' ones - but you had been a part of those growing up memories and to me are all 'sweet memories'. The sweetest memories of growing up.... Thank you, sis. Haiza would also remember these 'pokok tai'. She used to be a part of our morning rendevous as well.

Went back to Alor Star last December and snapped pictures of what's left before all is finally gone...."We cannot change our memories, but we can change their meaning and the power they have on us"