Silaturrahim during Hari Raya

Sometimes we pay lip service towards one of the aims of visiting each other during Hari Raya which is to extend silaturrahim. We take that for granted as most of the time that is what we happened. We visit each other's houses and see the same family members, the same friends and so on. Nothing new in that. Very seldom do we get to see more than that. This Hari Raya, I thought the same thing will happen but this year I came across two family friends who we have not seen for eons. If if it wasn't for having open houses and having the practise of letting virtually anyone to come visit us, we will not have come across these two cases of really espousing the case of extending silaturrahim.

The first happened during first day of Hari Raya. A family friend who often dropped in for Hari Raya this time round brought his mother who was a Malaysian. It was the first time she came with this family friend. And when she saw my mother, it was the most joyous of occassion. Apparently she and my mother were teachers together in a small town in Malaysia some 45 years ago. My mother left Malaysia when she married my father and ever since then she has never met her friend until more than 45 years later, the first day of Hari Raya this year. They had a lot of catching up to do.

The second was yesterday. I was at my brother-in-law's when I saw a vaguely familiar face. We looked at each other and it took a while for my brain to process through its face recognition software and for those who knows me, I have a very poor software, but yesterday it worked. We said each other's names and we remembered our piano playing days. I used to take lessons from a very distant cousin and he was her friend then. The last time I met him was more than 17 years ago. If it wasn't for my brother-in-law's open house, we wouldn't have met each other. He doesn't even know my brother in law but he was there because he was with his friend. (Anyway, I promised him a quick plug, this coming Saturday, there will be a music gig at the Dreamcatcher Music Studio in KB (same block as WyWy at Jalan Pandan) where he will be playing for the Bluesmaker, one of six bands that will be playing music ranging from Jazz to Alternative. Call the studio for more details.)

So Hari Raya does provide the opportunity for us to meet each other but it does more than that too. So, go out and do your rounds. You might bump into someone and really extend your silaturrahim that much further.