Grandpa's journal

I never really knew my maternal grandfather whom I never get to meet in my lifetime was an avid journalist until my uncle showed us his journals this year's Raya. It is refreshing to know that I come from a lineage that loves to read and write, I thought my ancestors back then were all illiterate.

He has written quite a number of entries in his very old paper journals. The papers in his journals are very thin and yellowing, but the writings are still very clear up to this day. Today I got to read one of his journals, which contains memoirs of his children, his family and some recipes. He writes the dates of the entries in Gregorian and Hijri calendar, in English, Jawi (Malay in Arabic letters) and the local Malay dialect. It contains things from his everyday life, the religious studies he had participated in, the births and deaths of relatives and names of people related to our family.

It amazes me that he has such a good handwriting; big, words nicely linked by each alphabet and the points well organized. His handwriting appears well in both Roman alphabets as well as Arabic ones.  It seems to me that he loved to record what he saw and the details of the lessons he learned. Each page would start with "Pelajaran pada tarikh [insert Gregorian date here] bersamaan [insert Hijri date here]". That translates to "Lessons learned on [this date]".

I can sense the proud feeling of him becoming a father to twelve children when he jotted down the exact date and time of their birth, their nicknames, along with some tips and recipes for new mothers. I guess those recipes worked for my grandma, who had to give birth naturally to all twelve. Grandpa even wrote down all the menu ingredients, the number of guests and what the atmosphere was like during my parents's wedding in 1983. He shared the traditional recipes on how to cook for more than 300 guests, which we never really practice anymore.

I enjoy reading old writings and discovering photos of old people from our lineage in pursuit of learning my roots. It's exciting to know their thoughts, what it was like during that time and the treasured feelings in their choice of words. I hope to continue the 'journalist' trait in my blood.. Haha. I have no idea where the paper journals I kept when I was 12-14, but still keep ones from Form 5. Quite funny thoughts they are when I read them back... but now I just blog online, with less colours, more words, less poems, less visual, boring. Maybe I should go back to paper journals?