I am actually not born to be the biology scientist. Looking back into my family background, science is just a thing that my family think can divert one faith. Hehe! Even my mother was afraid that I would defy God existence because of the scientific values which I virtue so much. Nevertheless, it proved otherwise.
My family have a strong religious believe, especially from my father's side. From my mother’s, many of them are teachers. In the early days, almost everybody in both families were farmers. Even my father was a farmer. We grew paddy. Yes, that’s normal for someone who live in Kedah. Kedah is the state that’s supposed to be the biggest rice supplier to the whole country. Used to, I guessed.
My great grandfather, who created the strong pillar in my early life received his education in early 1930s and was accepted to enter Sultan Idris Training College for Malay Teachers. The only setback was that his parents were against it as he was first child in the family. Obedient he was, he set himself to be the farmer and ‘golok’ maker. I would say that he had a very creative hand, a craft maker. He was good at making ‘wau’ (big kites). The wau would be set flying for days with a string attached to it, making sound through out the day and night known as ‘dengung’. This was common those days in ealy 80's during the paddy harvesting season, once a year.
Like I said before, I do a lot of thinking even when I was a little girl. Thus, I spent a lot of times asking and listening to his lifetime story. He was born in 1913 and amongst the first batch of students in the first school of Pokok Sena, Kedah. There was nothing much happening to Pokok Sena area during Japanese occupation, only the lacked of food supply. But the communist things were really a problem as there was up until now a place name as ‘Dalam pagar’ (behind the gate). It was a place where government had set up to curb communism during emergency time.
The other interesting story was about my mother, his granddaughter who was born 2 months before the due date and how he created tools available to keep her alive because hospital was far. One was by using the young banana shoots to put her onto to avoid the young skin attached to the cotton clothes. And she was placed in the small ‘buyong’ (water container made from clay). In order to keep the baby warm, soft drink cola bottle filled with warm water were set besides her.
Nearby the house, there was a Gurkha soldiers stationed. Everyday, one of them would made short visit to see the baby while off duty. “Baby suda besar?” (Baby is getting bigger?).
My great grandfather passed away after 5 months I left home to stay at a hostel of Sultanah Asma Secondary School. It left a deep impact in my life. To analyse thing, it was like I am the last person that he needs to take care before he went to see his Creator. God Bless his souls!
All his stories stayed with me. It made me think hard especially when I was asked the question, "What would you like to be when you grow up?". After so much thought about that, I just said to myself, "I shall be the one who set the path, different from the usual life that I have seen. I just wanted to wonder out, out of ordinary". Science then become my weapon to reach the unreachable. I am glad I took the decision and now I just trust and pray hard that He will show me the successful way.
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