Monday, January 07, 2008

choo.choke oh.tuck

Yesterday was the last day of school holiday and during lunch of kuey teow goreng (inspired by one of aliya's posts) Ilham did not heed my advice to duduk diam-diam (sit quietly) and he ran around the living room and fell and hit the back of his head on our coffee table (hard, solid wood). The cut was about an inch long and it bled profusely, so I had no choice but to call Taufik to come home (he was at work!! in a huge meeting with big bosses and clients!! I felt so bad) and bring Ilham to the hospital. Ilham was conscious and he didn't complain of headaches or blurry vision (he was actually praying out loud to God to not let him die. Such a drama queen! *rolls eyes*), so I proceeded to scold him for not listening to me when I told him not to run around the living room. I told him I was not mad that he cut his head, I was mad at him for not listening to me.
He got a patch of his hair shaved and 2 stitches. I told him to remember the pain the next time he feels like not listening to me when tell him not to run around too much. (Too cruel, ke? Maybe I've become jaded because this is the 3rd time he's fallen and cut his scalp). When we were all done, I asked him if he had learnt a lesson from all this and he said he will not run around the house anymore.

So last night in bed I was thinking about the fall and how we didn't go through a cat scan and wondered if a cat scan could detect a blood clot and it got me thinking about strokes which got me thinking about paralyzation and it reminded me of that time when I was in highschool and dory woke up with half of her face paralyzed. (You see, dory and I went to boarding school together).
It was quite an odd incident, mainly because it was the first time any of us had seen such a thing happen so suddenly. She didn't fall or hurt her head (kan, dory?) or anything. It just happened. I saw her that morning and she looked slightly lopsided and her mouth didn't move right when she talked. The warden brought her to the hospital and when she came back she told us the doctor said it had something to do with her nerves and that was the first time I looked up the word "neurology".
A few days later she got better bit by bit and I think by about a month she was back to her usual smiling self, and people eventually forgot it even happened to her. During the first few days there were a lot of theories of how she got sick, though. The common one was that she kena buat (hexed), perhaps by someone jealous of her luscious lips, soft almost brown hair, percelain flawless complexion and gorgeous bod. (:D)
The weirdest one I heard, however, was the theory involving the cucuk otak (choo.choke oh.tuck).
Cucuk Otak is what we call the pins that we use to hold our headscarves in place. It's usually about 1.5inch long with a pearlized bead on its head. We usually position the pin a few inches above our ears and pin the scarf so that it doesn't move about as we move ourselves about the school. Sometimes all you can see is the pearlized bead pin head on the side of our heads, which gives the illusion that the pin goes straight into our brains. Hence the name cucuk otak - cucuk = poke, otak = brain.
So the theory was that, while getting ready for prep (study hall, between 8pm to 10pm) the night before, Dory had accidently swallowed a cucuk otak (because we have this habit of holding the cucuk otak in our mouths while putting on our headscarves). During her sleep, the cucuk otak had travelled through her body and thus had affected her urat-urat (nerves), thus creating the paralyzation. She finally is cured after the cucuk otak had done all the travelling it could and is finally expelled from her body.
It's absurd of course, but hey, we were about 200 teenage girls held up in brick buildings, what else is there to do but make up silly theories?
Anyways.
That thought made me grin before my brain officially shut down for the night last night.

Funny how the actual thought took only like 5 seconds and it took me like half an hour to type this up.
How long did you take to read this?

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:54 PM

    AHAHHAHAHAHHA...cucuk otak!

    oh kenangan lama...sungguh kelakau!

    harap ilham dah baik.

    cerita pasal dory, ini musti masa form two kan? aiseh, i tak ingat lah bab tu. tapi i ingat pasal somebody sorok dalam locker and then sergah another somebody sampai almost histeria lari keluar bilik...

    AHAAHHAHHAHA..cucuk otak!

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  2. i tak ingat bila, but I'm sure it wasnt in form two coz it happened when we were not in the same room (F13 yang cursed itu).
    The Wan Norstanirazah pulled a prank on Farizah Bollywood Queen story tu *did* happen in Form2 when we were in F13.. heh heh
    Sometimes I rasa guilty lak that we made her scream like that.
    But that prank was classic! Tak boleh lupa muka Wan Nor!

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  3. It took me 5 minutes! hehehe. a lousy reader kot. kesian Ilham. It reminds me of my 2nd daughter (Coan) when she was 4. Dia naik sink in the toilet. Sink tu jatuh, pecah and dia jatuh together with the sink. Sink tu broken into pieces and totally cut her tendon (bawah knee. The blood... Allah aje yang tau. Kaki dia cemented 4 1 month..

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  4. Anonymous6:54 AM

    I've been your silent reader for so long tapi cite Medan Tok Sira ni kena comment ni.

    you were in F13? I was in F8 in 91. so F13 ni belah kiri ke kanan from the gate masuk asrama blok F? (all i know is my F8 is at the end of the block sebelah tempat penyidai.

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  5. Kids are tougher than they look but tell Ilham to be more careful.
    Huggers to all.
    Papa

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  6. 29 Dzulhijjah 1428
    Salam

    Another friend of your started blogging not so long ago. Visit her at http://www.nadwahab.blogspot.com/

    Ramli AR

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  7. Oh poor Ilham! I hope he's better now. Taufik has a lot of experience with bleeding children -- he took Adam to the clinic for stitches more than once, I think.

    I wish you had a clip of Ilham praying to God that he would not die. Definitely one for his wedding reception.

    Please post picture of victim. I'm sure he won't get any sympathies from my kids, but awe.

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  8. I have no idea why that came out as "tengku".

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  9. neeza - oh my, kesian nya Sobhan!! It must've been horrible.
    Those sinks look deceptively strong, kan? Memang senang sangat nak jatuh, actually (coz I pun pernah pecahkan... tee hee)

    Anego - you were in F8 in 91? wahhh.. I was already in US by then :) F13 is the first room on your left, the one facing the boys' entrance to the medan makan.
    (ini satu lagi memory.. tee hee)

    Papa - dah berbuih suruh "be more careful"! Heh heh bu I guess you've had your share of experience of repeatingly telling us to be careful. :)

    Ramli - (still terasa nak panggil 'Abang Ramli' heh heh) oh yes, I know.. she told me, but I havent had the chance to include her in my links :)

    kaklong - I wanted to take a video of him praying for his life because it was kelakar gila, but tak sampai hati lah pulak, coz he was seriously worried. He even started telling everyone he loved them... tu yang tak tahan tu. Punya lah drama !

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  10. Is it the Ilham (Elham for mine) that create the drama persona?

    Remember he had that huge ugly white patch when you first met him, from the fall. And Taufik relate to me how Ilham (again) had a bad fall around Harris age?

    Oooh he will remember all right, he will run but the moment the reminder come from you, I see Harris legs halting midair like a car skidding on icy road.

    Hope Ilhan is better..kesian juga

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  11. Yes, Ilham fell and cut his forehead when he was about 2, kena stitch jugak.
    Ihsan also fell when he was on the swing, that one kena 13 stitches.
    So far, anis and izani are the only onew that have not required stitches.

    I shouldnt be complaining really, because when I was small, I think when I was 5 or 6 ke, tak ingat, I ran up the stairs to tell my sister and cousins we were having yummy nasi goreng for lunch, slipped and fell on my face. The sharp edges of the stairs cut my face at equal distances on my chin, nose bridge and forehead. I was called 'Rocky' (for the bandages) for several weeks till I got better.

    heh heh

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