..man's proposal, God's disposal..

..Jabal Rahmah..

...he stood out like a sore thumb from among the golden, way past expiry date jemaah like pakmat and company...fair of skin, youngishly handsome, clean-shaven and hair cropped short..... .with a Colgate's smile, to boot...ahh...to be young and handsome...and in his case, to be young, handsome and on the plains of Arafat, doing the haj....its all that pakmat could do to supress his envy...

..waiting for pakmat's turn at the loo..

..I hardly noticed him earlier at Misfalah, being seldom at the hotel, but here we shared the same tent...and he was here as a mahram, family, to his grandmother..hmm...grandma's pet...and he smiled when I said that...but his smile was not that of a happy man....

... I mentioned him later to the wife as we were strolling around the tents whilst waiting asar...bakpo nyo....why, they were from Bachok...the grandmother was in the late fifties or early sixties...hale, healthy and smartly dressed when we left Kuala Trengganu Sultan Mahmood Airport, with dark shades, even...but her health took a turn after three or four days in the Holy City...

..Jabat Rahmah..

...she pee'd on the carpet as she walked pass, causing discomfort to the other jemaah's...slowly she started losing control over her body...and it was causing great discomfort to the grandson, unable to be with her as segregation among the sexes was enforced for the benefit of all...

..boiling hot water on tap...

..her daughters volunteered, but she refused, preferring her grandson....my wife added, reading the query in my eyes...she did not bargained on being sick....and I nodded in agreement...

...later I was to learn that she never recovered...her illness aggravated to the extent that she was certified by the medical authorities as 'lost all control over her bodily functions'...somehow they managed to complete the haj rituals, albeit wheel-chaired and left for home immediately after, missing out Medinah...I remembered her grandson's forlorn look as he wheel-chaired her for their trip back home...