Respect and goodwill

1. They still call me pak cak [pɑːk tʃʌk]. Pak cak is Kedah Malay dialect for bapa besar literally big father. Actually, the precise translation of pak cak is uncle.

2. Yes, they still refer to me as uncle when I met them last Saturday (7 December 2019) at a feast held by Haji Hasbi to celeberate his daughter’s wedding. The rest of the siblings I met at the occasion were Ismail, Balkis, Sabariah and Latifah.

3. They are the children of Darus bin Samaun who I refer to as abang Darus (brother Darus). However, we are not related by blood. Abang Darus was a son of a younger sister of Chik binti Hassan, the first wife of my father.

4. Thus abang Darus was related to my father by marriage. The relationship was further strengthened when my father adopted Abdul Hamid, another nephew of his wife’s. Abdul Hamid married Hamisah binti Saad, a girl from Kubang Gajah, Perlis. They were blessed with a son and a daughter.

5. However, Abdul Hamid died young and subsequently Hamisah was married to abang Darus. I refer to Hamisah as kak Ah and she called me adik [ɑːdɪk] and not by any other appellation. They settled down at Jalan Kaki Bukit on the outskirts of Kangar, the capital of Perlis.

6. Ismail once told me that my father used to visit the family and was usually served with his favourite local seafood dishes such as crab, scampi, squid and snapper. As a matter of fact, abang Darus was a fishmonger at a wet market in Kangar.

7. Abang Darus and kak Ah revered my father and all of their children refer to him as tuk wan (grandpa), so in consequence they refer to me as pak cak (uncle).

8. On occasion my brother, Hussin, and I used to spend our school holidays with the family. We would journey north to Kangar by bus and I for one very much enjoyed the scenery along the way, inspiring me later to show off my watercolour skill that caught the admiration of my “nephews” and my “nieces.” Thus, I earned their respect and goodwill.