Open House Eidul Fitri 1428H

Date: Sunday, 4 November 2007

Time:
Official: 2.00 – 6.00 p.m.
Reality : 1.00 – 9.00 p.m.

Menu: Nasi tomato (tomato rice), Ayam masak merah (spicy tomato chicken), Kari dalca kambing (mutton dhal curry), Mee bandung, Nasi himpit (pressed rice), Kuah lodeh (mixed vegetables in coconut milk), Sambal kacang (peanut sauce), Pulut tanak (glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk), Serunding ayam (chicken spicy floss) , Mixed fruits pudding

Chef: the first 3 items – Faizly, the rest – yours truly... (with exception of the serunding ayam, which was bought from Giant, Kelana Jaya)

Invitees: A lot, from all over Kanto area, but we expected around 80 people to show up. Around 80 people showed up, alhamdulillah. Thank you to all who “memenuhi undangan”, and thank you for bringing menu sampingan – karipap, wajik, various sweets, beverages, cakes, fruits, etc. Special thanks to Brother Telat Pasha, for 4 dozens of 1 liter Apricot Nectar juice from Turkey, and Brother Ehsan for sending them to us.

Photographers:
Official: Lutfy
Unofficial: Che Lee

Thanks a million!

Helpers:
Before: Basharan, Hubby, and 2 musafir from India, Hassif and Ajeed, who insisted on helping. Masumi Emi came earlier too, helped vacuumed my house and took turn looking after the kids as I bathed the boys and changed them into their respective Raya clothes. Arigatou ne, Emi...

During: Kak Pah, Kak Ita, Kak Zah, Baim and co. who helped cleaning the used pots and pans, Apid who helped with refilling, plus so many others who helped looking after Huzaifah and Humaidi

After: Shah Reza, Shahreeza, Dean, Lutfy, Zaimi (the last visitor, from Yokohama)

Thank you, thank you, thank you – may Allah bless and reward you for all your contribution. Special thanks for all who ‘tapau’ed stuff back home, for without them, we might have to eat the left over for 7 days and 7 nights…

Preparation time:
Started working from around 7.00 p.m. Saturday. Chef Faizly did not sleep all night long on Saturday. Basharan napped in the train when he went to fetch his ‘kawan’ from Haneda Airport early Sunday morning. Hubby too, slept at around 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. Yours truly napped for about three hours, 6.00 – 9.00 a.m. on Sunday.

Side notes:

• Brother Ehsan promised to bring the large rice cooker on late Saturday night, but he fell asleep and did it on Sunday morning around 9.30 a.m.

• Nasco sent our order in 2 parcels, but we only received the cold one on Saturday morning. We called them to enquire about the other box – containing rice, ghee and dry stuff. They said that they had already sent it and it should be arriving anytime soon. What about the beef (which I bought in another shop because they ran out of beef at that time, but asked them to include the beef in the parcel they were supposed to courier to me)? Oh, the guy who was supposed to do it forgot all about it – so could they send it to us later? It would reach me first thing on Sunday, they assured me. But the parcel containing rice and everything did not show up by the time we reached home (from Ichikawa Ono, where we attended Green Heights open house/open block) at around 6.30 p.m. After numerous calls to and fro Nasco, a guy from the courier called us up, saying that they were sorry, there seemed to be a mix-up, but since it was impossible to send the parcel that night, could they do it first thing on Sunday morning? Chef Faizly was like “Haaaahhhh? Sempat ke???” Since there was nothing esle we could do about it, we said okay. They kept their promise too – as the courier guy arrived even before 9.00 a.m., with both the dry stuff and the forgotten beef.

• There were about 15 girls attending a seminar on the 2^nd floor from Saturday to Sunday. When one of the organizers asked for permission to use the place earlier, I half jokingly mentioned that maybe I could use their help with the cooking, but the girl replied “eh, bukan jemput open house ajak kitorang makan je ke?”. A senior girl was a little bit more diplomatic; said that they would be finishing the seminar by noon on Sunday and they would assist me after that before the open house started at 2.00 p.m. They knew I was busy because I needed to rummage through the small kitchen in the 2^nd floor while they went on with their seminar. At one point, when it seemed like they had reached the last portion of their program on Saturday night, I mentioned loudly “kalau korang dapat tolong, amatlah dihargai”. Somebody replied meekly, “tapi kitorang dah bukak tudung…”

Their seminar did not finish at noon on Sunday, but around 2.00 p.m. The girls came up to attend the open house, but sadly, some did not even greeted me earlier before started eating (tak kenal tuan rumah ke?). Upon learning that Faizly and I did not sleep all night long (Faizly napped for a while on the train on his way back to Saginuma to refresh himself since he forgot to bring a spare change of clothing), some of the senior girls among the organizer came to see me, and apologized, “Kalau tak kerana program ilmu, kami mesti tolong Kak Azra punyalah”

Truth is, even when they did not help me, we still managed to do everything on our own – but the real loss is theirs. While Rasulullah s.a.w taught us the importance of knowledge, he put more emphasis on adab (manners). Adab with neighbors, adab with those who need help (like the Jewish granny as sung by Dawud Wharnsby), adab with the host. The girls were on the 2^nd floor while we were busy cooking on the 4^th floor; that made us almost neighbors for the night. They knew I was cooking for many, and it would possibly be more afdhal if the girls had spent one hour of their time to help out a bit, then went on with their program. There were 15 of them – one hour of 15 assistants could have meant a lot of difference to us back then.

It was sad really, what with these girls having quite good religious background. Maybe my expectation was too high, but this ‘elitist’ attitude – it will do them no good in the long run. There will be more encounters with neighbors/acquaintances who might need their help in the future; which might require them taking some time off from their “seminar/program jamaah/etc”, and I wonder how they would react then…

Wallahualam…