When I was in a high school, I read a short story in our local Malay newspaper (or maybe Dewan Bahasa magazine). It was about a man called Tamim. Tamim and his wife had two children, a young man in late teens and a young adolescent girl. They were poor and couldn't even sent their children to a high school. They lived at the far end of the village, away from villagers. Tamim supported his family as cattles herder, and his son helped him.
When his wife died, his son decided to move away to another village. After years passed by, Tamim desired to marry again mounted. But he knew, he had two problems. First, he was too poor to marry again. Second, he had a skin deseased that drove people away from him. The villagers, especially the women avoided him when they saw him. As a matter of fact, Tamim and his daughter were an outcast.
Tamim's daughter grew up as a young woman. One night, Tamim approached his daughter. One thing led to another, Tamim's daughter got pregnant. As her daughter's stomach grew bigger, Tamim wouldn't let his daughter went outside the house. The villagers who never gave a second thought about Tamim's family started to wonder what was going on because they hardly saw his daughter outside the house anymore.
One night, the rain was pouring. Tamim's daughter was ready to give birth. Thunders and lightning held Tamim back to go out to get help. Tamim's daughter begged him to get help. As Tamim ready to go out in the stormy night, his daughter delivered a baby. A baby cried drowned in a heavy rain. A few minutes after the baby was born, there was a bright light across the pitch dark night. A lightning struck
the little house at the edge of the village and everybody in it. When the rain stopped, three dead bodies were on the floor.
I knew it was a fiction, but the story bothered me a great deal for a long time. I remember the title called "Anak Cucu Tamim" -Tamim's ChildGrandChild. I knew it was some kind of moral story to teach people how the incest relationship ends.
But as a fifteen years old girl, I saw it as unfair to Tamim and his daughter, the questions swirled around my head was: Where were the villagefolks? Where were the imam, the mosques attendees, the village women who supposed to help the girl when she was in need. Where were they?
Hello Neng,
Thank you for stopping by.
Posted by: anasalwa | July 10, 2004 at 07:43 PM
hallo, just dropping by while having break from lecture. thanks a lot for being a member of rumah buku. it's nice reading your blog :).
Posted by: neng | July 09, 2004 at 07:55 AM