Renegade unidentified hopping objects on the Highway

Friday, October 26, 2012

Renegade unidentified hopping objects on the Highway

Assalamu ‘alaikum,

Renegade unidentified hopping objects on the Highway.

It was an ordinary start to a Raya balik kampong trip. We had planned it months before. Tok Aboh had made a special wish to sacrifice a cow for a grandchild each from all his child bearing sons and daughters.  We nominated Kakak for the honour and I threw in a cow for my own reasons but Tok Aboh said one cow is enough but he will accept my proceeds for the kubah of a musolla he has started building on his Gong Lilit Kem Ibadah. I agreed and there we were on Wednesday evening starting our journey back to Qurbanland on the shores of the South China Sea.

We were in the middle lane just after the Behrang layby on the north bound highway when I heard something hit my car. Wife in the passenger seat was also shocked with the unceremonious bang. A limping lorry on the slow lane just ahead of us told us it was a renegade tyre off the lorry playing unwelcomed hopscotch with our 4 wheeler CRV. It was the sort of accident which was truly destined to happen for there was nothing I could have done to avoid it. It wasn’t a lapse of concentration or driving weakness which could be pinned on me. The sound of the whack told me I’m not going to be left with a minor scratch. With trepidation we slid to the emergency lane to examine the damage. It wasn’t pretty, the front left bumper was deeply indented like a lost front tooth; the rebound dirtily indented the bottom panels of the border between front and the back doors dislodging the front rubber lining. It was a sort of Samsung and Apple made-up as we took pictures with my Samsung K-phone whilst the wife’s Apple of the IPhone became an overpriced flashlight for me to give the car engine and axle a clean bill of health. Did I not just paid Honda Service Centre hurtful bucks a few hours ago to replace the wheel bush, mounting and power steering whatnot to get this 8 year old back in trim? Wife said this is a signal to say bye bye, or buy buy if you know what I mean, to our dear trusted horse. I quickly hushed her and hesitantly made a mental note of her logical deduction, as Hondie has been to us, almost family.

Mindful of the need to lodge an accident report within 24 or was it 48 hours we exited the highway and made our way to the Slim River Police Station. Now this was one town whose name fascinated me from small. It was always there in our journeys to and fro from hometown Perak and I never did once had an opportunity to see what the town looked like. I knew it was named after a major British hero during the Japanese war and I also remembered how we hurt the entire Slim progeny with the innocuous Malaysianisation of the hero’s name to Selim River. And that was just how we spelled it! If they knew we pronounced it as Selim Riva….! Anyway I thought it was magnanimous of the authorities to revert back the town’s name to the original name in honour of the man who had after all laid down his life. It was just about midnight and I probably did not see all of the town but it turned out to be rather ordinary. The Traffic Sergeant was a bit slow dealing with the guy ahead of me so I called for reinforcement and brought up mum and kids from the car. That hastened his report taking somewhat particularly with Zahir’s light emanating top wheezing across the police station floor every so often.

We had already booked to stay at this hotel in Ipoh so I thought we should just proceed there to consider our options. We had to return to Slim River tomorrow anyway to collect the official version of the report. Cancelling the trip was uppermost in our mind. Kids were long in faces and I had to play the Kidzania card near Curve Damansara to appease the swelling rebellion. But what struck us most was, every seeming acceptance by Tok Aboh with our decision to miss his Qurban event on second Raya was annulled with a second sms from him offering a counter suggestion of how we could still make it there. So when the Chinese mechanic/foreman we consulted gave us the green light to proceed onwards with our shakened but not beatened Vehicular Pal, we thought we should honour Tok Aboh’s unspoken wish. So that was how we ended at this Banding hotel this Raya Haji night with another 150 km journey to continue tomorrow insyaAllah. The last time we gave the Salam Dari Perantauan salutation we were in Riyadh!

Selamat Hari Raya ‘Aidil Adha and Eid Mubarak to friends, family and all.

Wassalam,

Zahid and family.