Family Goss-files

This year’s Raya has taught me quite a number of things about my mother’s family that I fail to notice all this while; my mother’s relatives have one thing they love to do in common – gossiping. As I joined their convoy to a few relatives’ Raya open house, I realized that the topic that they cover most in their conversations was the hottest and latest gossips about any of my other relatives. I was amazed by their very updated version of gossips on each family member and how they could alternate their gossip on one family member to the other.

The other day while I was listening intensely to their conversations I got to know about my cousin sister that I hadn’t seen for quite sometimes, about her wedding arrangement that’s being planned out of her approval and how her father (my uncle) didn’t say a word about the wedding which was solely organized by my uncle’s ex-wife. I never really like this uncle of mine. According to my mother, this uncle is the ‘miang’ type of person. When he was still married to his ex-wife, he was busy wooing his new girlfriend (now his wife) who was back then working in Perak. I got to know that they got married in Thai, there was no proper wedding reception done. So, by then he had two wives; his ex-wife & his new wife. Sometimes later, I learnt that he had officially divorced the 1st wife. I wasn’t really sure of the main reason that led to their divorce but one thing for sure, it was the toughest time for his four children upon knowing that they were then a broken family. My uncle and my new aunt were then blessed with two children.

The latest that I heard about this uncle from my mother is that he’s been smooching around with a new girlfriend, a student in public university. According to my mom, this uncle has been complaining about my new aunt’s physical feature; her height. My new aunt is considered short compared to any average M’sian women. I could clearly recall my mom’s comment about my uncle’s statement, “when he was head over feet for aunt nor**** he failed to see her shortness and didn’t say anything about it. Now that he’s found a new love everything on her seems wrong”. My mom said that my uncle’s ex-wife made this remark to my new aunt when she got to know about my uncle’s latest update, “I’d gone thru my hard times, it’s your turn to go thru yours”.

Sometimes, I just don’t understand my uncle. What exactly does he look for and want from a woman? His ex-wife is always sweet, smart, warm and friendly. The only thing lacking with her (according to my uncle) is that she wasn’t good at doing house chores plus she is a few years senior than him. Come man, two bloody weaknesses should never outshine one’s strengths. And man, don’t ever forget that my mom did warn you over marrying a woman who’s a lot older that you. You even said this, “I don’t mind, I wanna be like Prophet Muhammad, he was a lot younger that Khadijah” to my mom’s remark. I was never proud to have an uncle like him, he’s the black sheep of the family. He is nothing like my grandpa. I didn’t know what went wrong that he doesn’t inherit sense of loyalty towards his wife from my grandpa. Maybe because my uncle favored my late grandma over my grandpa, so he may not wanna have anything in common with my grandpa. The other two uncles of mine are truly loyal to their respective wives; they intend to spend the rest of their lives with their loved ones and not seeking for new loves.

This is just one of the gossips that I learnt during my Raya celebration. I rarely go back to my kampung, so sometimes I think it was good to be in my kampung, you know just to update the bank of family gossips in my memory and the least is that I got to know more about my mother’s relatives. My only family gossip’s resource when I’m back in KL is my mother who gets to know about them thru my aunt. Well, that’s how the chain of gossips flows whenever I visit my mom at her place.