Tale Of The Great Man : My Perspective

One of my great uncle passed away last week on 09/12/2009. This is the tales between me and the great man.

Othman Saad. He's well known as Cikgu Othman/Man. we call him pak chaq. I dont know much about his childhood / teenage life, but I've heard a hell of the stories from him from time to time. He's the man who loves to tell you stories. Not some lame old man's stories, but a good one. He love to make jokes from time to time.

I've spend quite a lot of my childhood time with him and his family. Besides going back to our 'kampong' to visit our grandpa/ma, I'll definitely will visit his family in Penang during the school holidays.

Even though he's a teacher, he likes to do business very much. He ventured in quite some business, but I just remember the major ones like ikan keli pond, some cow/goat farm, and the ultimate is the traditional pharmaceutical business (minyak angin, gamat, ubat kesihatan lelaki/perempuan, ubat2 rawatan bersalin, makjun, etc.)

I even help him from time to time in his business. Of course he pays me quite a large amount of money for that, but thats not the main point. He's a very generous man. For him, money is just a 'thing'. He told me once that he must spread the wealth to be successful in business. I think I inherit the business passion from him. He teaches me a lot.

He loves food. He eat almost every food. I recognize he likes seafood on top of everything. When all our family gathers together, he's the one will provide us the enormous amount of food (actually pak njang also like doing this). I still remember he's buying crabs, small lobsters, shellfish, all in bucket size amount.

He's the F1 driver in our big family. He's a fast driver, followed by his passion with cars. He loves Honda very much, and his last car was Honda accord. I know some of my family would not agree the fact that he's the fastest driver in our family. I know they will say pak njang is the one, but guys, you're wrong. The fastest maniac is well known toksu mahathir, then pak chaq man. Then pak njang & pak ndak.

Still remember when 'hari raya korban', he's the one who always make the 'sup tulang' with tokwan. He's the one who will grill the meat, fish, and chicken. Those are the days. The younger generation didn't experience this. Actually the people who actually will remember this sweet memory will be just me, lon, pah, late paksu, my younger brother, and maybe kak na and shidah slightly remember this.

Then he started getting his 1st big hit. His passion for seafood is backfiring him. Started with small kidney stone, then a big one. Its the size of bath soap. Then he's getting worse every day, slowly.

My biggest regret is I don't have a chance to pay my debt to him. Put aside the things that he buys me. The amount of money itself is greater 30k. NO DOUBT. Last year, after my wedding, he told me that don't bother to give him money. Its useless. He said he can't spend it anymore. And for a man who has passion about cars, he told me this, "Son, I want to see you successful in your life, don't pay me back my money. The day you drive home a Toyota Camry or a BMW, I know that my money back then was well spend".

DAMN! I don't even owned a car up until the day he passed away. What a shame! I even can't attend his funeral due to work related issue. May he rest in peace.

Al-Fatihah