Malay Culture

There are two things which I observe and like about the Malay culture.

Firstly, whenever a husband drops off his wife to work, the wife will clasp their husband's hands and kiss it. Or when they next meet, this is their standard greeting which, to me, is quite sweet. Even in the news, when the mother of a murdered child is met by her husband, they will first do this before embracing and crying.

I'll go ask my colleague what this gesture means.

The second thing is that they are very relaxed with their children. They allow them the freedom to roam the entire kampung, jump into streams, hang out with the other kids in the neighborhood etc. My colleague took the entire week off last week to bring her kids back to her kampung. Her 4 kids had a blast, running free and wild in the jungles. It sounded like so much fun!

Somehow when I look at the city kids here, I feel their childhood is so ... sanitised. Everything they do, they are being watched, "Don't do this/that!" being a common command. This freedom given to the Malay kids is something I would like my kids to have. Of course, it's easier for me to say that now since I don't have any kids. For all I know, I'd be the most paranoid mother ever.

Besides, we don't have kampungs to go to. Again, it makes me treasure the times I was allowed to climb trees, trudge through padi fields despite snakes and scorpions living in it. Or did we have less things to fear back then?