Ramadan fills Na'imah with nostalgia

By Loong Wai Ting - May 14, 2020 @ 10:00am

KUALA LUMPUR: Since the passing of her parents a few years ago, Hari Raya celebrations for Na'imah Mohamed, 36, are done on a modest scale.

Na'imah, who hails from Batu Pahat, Johor, says that whenever Ramadan draws near, she can't help but feel nostalgic.

Growing up in a large family, the seventh of nine siblings (seven girls and two boys), Na'imah said the family would start making their signature "popia simpul" as soon as Ramadan started and stop a week before Syawal arrived.

"It's a family tradition... I can't remember the ingredients exactly but I remember sitting in front of the television from morning till night making little knots like tiny ribbons," she said, reminiscing about the good old days.

As a child, she disliked the process of making the crunchy snacks but looking back, the public relations executive said she rather enjoyed it because she got to watch television the entire day.

"My mum was a very strict woman. She disliked her children spending too much time in front of the TV. So while making the popia simpul, we would take the opportunity to sit in front of the TV. Our eyes were glued to the TV set while our hands were busy making knots on the popia simpul," she said.

Currently residing in Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Na'imah shared a funny incident, where her late mother accidentally stitched the pant leg onto the sleeve of her godbrother's baju Raya.

"It was quite funny when my godbrother tried on his new baju Raya. He felt something was not right when he realised that one of the sleeves was bigger than the other. It was then he knew that my mother had mistakenly sewn on the pant leg instead of the sleeve," she said.

Describing her mother as a very hands-on woman, who "did everything by herself", Na'imah added that her mother would make new curtains all by herself as well. On top of that, her mother also worked as a supervisor at the Community Development Department (Kemas) in Batu Pahat.

Back in her kampung in Batu Pahat, her family followed the Javanese tradition called munjung, where they cooked Raya dishes such as ketupat, lodeh (like lontong) and rendang to be distributed among family members and those living nearby.

"Towards the end of the fasting month, we hardly needed to cook anything else because every day there would be someone sending us food and vice versa. My task was to wait for the ketupat to be cooked before sending it out," she said.

As for her celebrations this year, she said there would be no visiting, even though her sisters lived nearby in Shah Alam.

"We won't be visiting each other soon but perhaps we'll send out food to each other," she added.