Malaysia, The Power House of Badminton?

 

In the recently concluded Commonwealth Game held in Glasgow, Malaysia only managed to secure three out of the six medals for Badminton event.

 

Malaysia Mixed Team

Women's Doubles: Vivian Khoo & Woon Khe Wei

Men's Doubles: Goh V Shem & Tan Wee Kiong

 

Malaysia had been a dominant force in Badminton since the inception of Commonwealth Game in 1966. Since 1990, Malaysia has been winning at least three of the five individual events. This time, Malaysia failed to secure the Men's Singles. The absence of Lee Chong Wei was surely a factor.

Singapore's rise in badminton is a surprise when Derek Wong made it to the Men's Singles Final and winning a silver.

Malaysia potential Gold medallist Chong Wei Feng ranked 18 was ousted by the 34th rank R M V Gurusaidutt of India in the Quarter Final.

Extended Family

We were told by my Haji Uncle to look for a yellow house by the main highway where the open house of the engagement ceremony would be held. We drove along the stretch of the highway near Kg. Darau but did not see any yellow house. Finally, we had to stop and asked someone for direction. It turned out that the house is not yellow but orange!

 

My uncle, Hj. Mandamin has four siblings, all male. He is third and the only surviving one among the four. The man in green T-shirt is Kasim, one of the sons of the late Mandahir, the eldest among the four. He organised the celebration for the engagement of his daughter, Shakira.

 

Before we left, Kasim offered an open ended invitation, " In all future Hari Raya Aidilfitri, just drop by at any time!". Truly friendly family.

 

With Hj. Mandamin and his youngest son, Basseri and grandson Mohd. Azhari.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2014

These couple of days, traffic was still not heavy because many who took advantage of the Hari Raya break were still on leave and have not gone back to work.

Our Muslim neighbours (Read here) for a second year running delivered some Hari Raya goodies to our house just a few days before Hari Raya Aidilfitri. This time, we reciprocated their kind gesture by also extending them a small gift. We discovered from conversation with the young lady of the house that they in fact employ two guards to guard their house 24/7. Indirectly, this has also benefitted houses along this lane. Since this family moved to our neighbourhood, we have not seen any kid roaming and scavenging the dust bins!

We also took advantage of the occasion of Hari Raya to visit my Muslim Uncle, Hj. Mantamin in Darau  (Read here) whom I got to know in early 2013. He was ever ready to enhance family ties. In fact he was instrumental in the project to compile the Gomoron Family Tree. We could see that he was pleased that we had taken the trouble to visit him this Hari Raya. He immediately invited us to attend his brother's open house scheduled to be held on 3 August 2014. The open house was held in conjunction with the occasion of the engagement of a grand-daughter of his elder brother. In fact, according to Hj. Mantamin, the son of his deceased eldest brother really wanted to meet us and to introduce the rest of the clan to us.