๐Ÿ  Education Information: Before Preschool



I was born on Friday, 18th October 1996 Anno Domini in the Gregorian calendar, 5th JamadilAkhir 1417 Anno Hegirae in the Islamic calendar, at Hospital Alor Setar in Alor Setar, after my mother was transferred from Hospital Sungai Petani in Sungai Petani due to the lack of equipment and expert surgeon in Caesarean delivery that was needed for premature birth.

Hospital Alor Setar has since moved to a new place and renamed as Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah, the old building of Hospital Alor Setar is now used as the main general health clinic for Alor Setar city, Klinik Kesihatan Bandar Alor Setar, which also houses the health office of Kota Setar district.

Hospital Sungai Petani has also since moved to a new place, and in their case it was renamed as Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim. The old building of Hospital Sungai Petani is now used as the main general health clinic for Sungai Petani, Klinik Kesihatan Bandar Sungai Petani, which also houses the health office of Kuala Muda district. Some blocks of the old wards are sometimes used for additional bed capacity when beds in Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim runs out.

We grew up in the small town of Sungai Lalang, technically part of Sungai Petani but geographically its own town to the north of Sungai Petani. As of 2021, Sungai Lalang is labeled as its own township or sub-mukim under the name "Bandar Sungai Lalang" in the official land partition website. This township/sub-mukim is considered to be part of the mukim Sungai Petani, in the district of Kuala Muda, in the state of Kedah. The diagram below shows the complicated division of my hometown.

Regional division of Sungai Lalang


My father was not at home most of the time as he was serving in army at those time, and I lived with my mother all the time at home. My mother is the one who took a good care of me and helped me to form the basis of my native language, Malay.

The Malay language that I learnt as a kid is more of the standard form of Malay because my mother herself is using standard Malay to avoid confusion with the actual local people since she is from Perak which uses different dialect of Malay. My father who uses northern dialect of Malay (Kedah Malay) seldomly came home and thus it couldn't affect much of my standard Malay.

    Due to the politics at the time (1996 to 2003), and the prime minister at the time (Tun Dr Mahathir) didn't really care for the people but more towards development, my parents only live with basic amenities. I grew up drinking plain black tea (Teh O) in baby bottle, because the only formulated milk that is suitable for me, the S-26 by Wyeth was too expensive and the salary my father get working in government sector at the time was too low, and sometimes paid late. Only people who grew up in this era knew how hard is life.

    Even with those hardship, my parents taught me some basics stuffs to prepare for the preschool, like how to use the toilet, how to brush teeth and wear my clothes. We, the Malay, and the rest of South-East-Asians, use a different toilet compared to western countries. We use the bum gun instead of the weird toilet paper to wash our bum after excreting. Plus, we were all raised to use squat toilet instead of the sitting toilet.

    My parents also taught me some cultural and religious stuffs so that I behave appropriately. In speaking, I still use the formal Malay word "saya" in all situations instead of the more casual word "aku" as first-person pronoun, because I grew up using the formal word. They also teach me certain basics of Islam as we, the Malay, were born in Islam. They bought some VCD off the night market (pasar malam) that guided me how to pray, among others. Of course, my parents also bought some cartoon VCD like Tom and Jerry like anyone else here.

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