Stories About My Father

Gambar pencopet ayam ini tidak ada kena mengena dengan catatan di bawah

*****
He wanted me to see to some documents he had still saved on his desktop computer, so post-terawih I tagged along to his office. My dad turns 56 tommorow, and officially he is a pensioner. This, of course, makes no dent in his day-to-day dealings; come Sept 19 he will ‘report’ again for duty, and life goes on for the good professor. But he has to move offices; vacate the room he used when he held office, and go back upstairs to his old office.

As I transferred his personal files onto his thumb-drive – a gift from me a few years ago to wean him off the archaic disks he sometimes still uses – I suddenly realised that I had never been in this particular office of his. The past seven years I have spent abroad suddenly seemed longer than it has felt thus far.

His offices brings back a million memories of growing up… yes, there have been many over the years, housed in the same building, but different rooms). He is quite the perennial last-minute man, and whenever he had a working paper or a presentation due pretty much the next day, one of us would have to accompany him to his office the night before. Armed with our homework or a book to read, I would try to stay awake for as long as I could as he tapped tapped tapped away at his old Amstrad PCW 8256, which he still used until only a few years ago. I know this, because it was me who had to teach him how to use Microsoft Word. As he moved upwards in station, his office would become more and more comfortable. The presence of a couch during the later years before I ‘fled’ to the UK made sleeping much more comfortable as he worked late into the night and early morning.

Because he held a particular post that required him to have another office, I often used his permanent office as my base when I was in my final year as an undergraduate. We didn’t have an internet connection at home until very, very recently (or a computer, for that matter) so his office was my gateway to the world. Interspersed with writing term papers, of course, and studying this and that. I owe that little office computer quite a bit, now that I think more about it.

As I finished carrying the last of his stash upstairs, I noticed a yellow, faded newspaper cutting stuck to the bulletin board of his office. It was a news item, in the education pages of a local paper from seven years ago that announced his Chair. I noticed the date of his appointment. “Wah, Abah dapat Kursi ni birthday Along lah,” I said to him. “Eh ye ke? Wah, bermakna betul tarikh tu,” he replied, one of his rare smiles flashed across his serious face.

“Abah, kalau diorang suruh Abah sambung jawatan ni, barang semua kena turun balik lah?” I asked him on the way down to the car. “Itu perkara kecil. Tapi kalau boleh Abah tak mahu lah. Nak diorang tinggalkan abah diam diam, banyak boleh buat research.” I laughed. My personal sentiments exactly.

I talked to him about my impending sabbatical, and what I planned to do. He talked to me about his latest project, and I was delighted to learn that he was looking to network with scholars I respect wholeheartedly. Groupie opp, hehhee. Was it less than a decade ago that I told my mom the last thing I wanted in life was to be like him? Perhaps ten years ago was twenty years too late.

Tadi kan, masa Abah tanya Along, macam mana duduk kat sini sekarang, Along tak berapa tahu nak cakap apa. Biasalahkan, orang bukan macam Angah, tahu aje apa nak borak dengan Abah. Tapi tadi masa Along naik keretapi nak pergi ke Frinton, terfikir pulak macam macam yang patutnya boleh orang cerita kat Abah.

Masuk hari ni, dah dua minggu orang duduk kat sini. Terasa besar yang amat lah pulak bandar ni. Maklumlah, Lancaster dulu ada satu je jalan besar. Kalau Lancaster tu sebesar Tanah Merah, Colchester ni macam KB kot. Tak pun Kuantan terus. Dulu nak ke mana-mana dari rumah ada satu bas je, nombor 3. Supermarket besar ada satu je. Naik bas, turun kat hujung town, jalan dari kedai ke kedai, sampai bawah, gi supermarket, naik bas balik. Senang. Kat sini Tesco je ada dua. Asda satu. Sainsbury’s satu. Pening orang. Jadi sekarang orang buat rutin baru. Kalau dulu orang pergi grocery shopping hari Sabtu, sekarang pergi petang Jumaat lepas kerja. Sebab ada bas direct dari sana ke rumah. Tak lah jenuh memunggah. Jadi hari Sabtu boleh jalan-jalan.

Banyak beza duduk kat sini kalau nak banding dengan Lancaster, Abah. Lancaster tu macam Durham dulu. Uni town. Siap ada dua lagi uni kat Lancaster tu. Kira macam Bangi jugalah. Along rasa macam tak banyak beza sangat duduk kat Lancaster kalau banding dengan Durham. Yelah, orang Utara kat sini, diorang memang back to basics, very down to earth. Ni dah duduk kat Selatan ni, kena biasakan diri dengan slang diorang. Lawak jugak hari tu tau Abah, Along pergi naik bas pakai jaket walaupun tak lah sejuk sangat.. lepas beli tiket driver tu buat lawak, dia kata, takkan orang kitorang pun sejuk kot. Along ingatkan orang macam mana, rupanya dia ingatkan Along orang Utara, yang kononnya terror tahan sejuk.

Kat Lancaster dulu kan Abah, nak minum air bukak paip je. Kat sini kena filter dulu, limescale. Macam kat rumah jugaklah, nak rebus air, filter dulu. Abah tanya tadi kan, macam mana rasa duduk sorang sorang. Ada jugak yang bestnya. Seronok masuk dapur, try masak-masak benda yang tak pernah masak sebelum ni. Jaga rumah pun seronok. Tapi bab check pintu tu, dok check lah jugak. Semalam enam kali. Mungkin malam ni boleh kot lima. Tapi kadang-kadang tu rasa juga sunyi. Bukan sunyi sebab duduk sorang, tapi sunyi teringatkan adik-adik. Kalau dah biasa bising lima enam orang kat rumah tu, terasa la kosong kan, bila diorang takde depan mata.

Rumah ni macam rumah kita kat Bangi jugak.. terlebih-lebih TV. Semalam orang beli tv lagu satu, secondhand je, dari student kat university. Along pasang speaker sambung dari hifi, macam orang buat kat tv kat atas landing kat rumah tu kan.TV kat ruang tamu ni, tak boleh nak pasang kuat-kuat sangat. Pakcik sebelah rumah ni selalu tidur awal, lepas tu, dinding nipis. Jadi orang beli wireless headphone satu set. Bagus juga menda ni Abah, pasang bola kat radio kat ruang tamu, duduk kat dapur masih boleh dengar. Abah sure tak heran Along cerita macam ni, tapi nanti kalau Abah dah rasa mesti Abah nak jugak. Macam handphone dulu lah. Konon tak perlu. Hehehe.

Along harap Abah faham lah kan, kenapa Along ambil keputusan untuk duduk di UK buat masa sekarang. Kan Abah cakap dulu, kita tak boleh tunggu nasib kita berubah.. kita kena ambil tindakan. Bukan senang Abah nak buat keputusan macam ni. Hari-hari teringat kat adik-adik, sampai dah tak tahu dah macam mana rasanya bila tak teringat kat diorang. Hari tu Abeb suruh Along tengok satu anime ni.. katun Jepun. Grave of the Fireflies, tajuk dia. Abeb kata budak kecik dalam cerita tu macam Ya. Along dah beli katun tu punya DVD. Tak tengok lagi.

Tu lah, Along nak cakap kat Abah semua tu tadi. Tapi tak tahulah kan, kenapa. Tak pernah terkeluar kalau kita borak, kan?