Nostalgia puasa zaman bujang

One of my most memorable Ramadhan was when I first started staying at a rented house outside the Uni campus. Before that I was staying at the residential college and during secondary school I was in a boarding school. So, the feeling was like langit dan bumi. Ramadhan at the hostel/residential college was a lot of fun where I had many friends to lepak with in the late afternoon while waiting for break fast time. We walked around the school compound (yeah, that 'exercise' was known as 'round compound') starting at around 6.30pm. When I was staying in one of the famous UPM residential colleges, we used to lepak at Nyah's or Riza's room before we walked berduyun-duyun to the dining hall.

So, on the 1st Ramadhan after I decided to stay at the rented place there were only the two of us at home. The other housemates went out with their boyfriends and coursemates for breaking of fast. Kak Eina and me (the only two who were boyfriend-less at that time) walked to the nearest (and happened to be smallest) Ramadhan bazaar in the entire Seri Kembangan to buy some food. We went there quite late, so there were not many choices. I don't remember what we bought but we went home with one small plastic bag each.

After setting the dining table with two plates and two mugs only we realized that we've ran out of tea, milo and nescafe. There was no more juice left in the fridge. In the end Kak Eina poured some sky juice in both mugs with a forlorn face. Then we sat quietly facing each other reminiscing the good old times back in secondary school and at home. When there was plenty of food on the table, homemade dessert, piping hot teh tarik and then we suddenly realized that we also forgot to buy dates.

When we heard the Azan from the nearby mosque we both recited our doa and sipped the plain water from our mugs. Then we stared at the food we bought for sometime. Suddenly Kak Eina said, 'Sedihnya buka puasa macam ni...' I was sad too, but words just failed me at that moment. I started eating my rice and told her, 'Apa nak buat Kak Eina, macam ni lah nasib perantau...' And then I saw tears trickling down Kak Eina's cheeks. Alamak, it was a sad buka puasa for me but didn't realize Kak Eina took it really seriously.

I told the other housemates about it later that night and the next day all of them stayed at home for buka puasa. And we had more than enough food on the table plus the piping hot teh tarik! Yeay!