What I remember most about Ramadhan.

Most people eagerly wait for the arrival of Ramadhan, the month for fasting. For the religious Muslims, it is the month to get closer to God by doing as many good deeds as possible. For food junkies, it is the time to indulge into the variety of foods at the bazaar. As for me, when I was a child, the only thing that I looked forward to during Ramadhan, apart from it's getting closer to Syawal which means duit raya, was playing with my friends as the grown-ups were performing the terawikh prayers at the mosque.

One of our activities back then was to play with karbait. This is the substance that is used inside the meriam buluh which made the explosion effect. It is actually used to light up lamps, is white colour and shaped like small rocks. I dont know if you can still find it now because I havent played with it for the longest time. As my friends and I find it difficult to get a buluh for our meriam, we stole the stop signboard pole at our neighbourhood and cut it so that it can be used as the meriam. Sorry Tok Penghulu......hehe

It functions the same like the normal meriam buluh but with supposedly added protection as it is less prone to shatter into pieces. But not everyone can play with them. Before you can play with the cannon, you have to graduate from something that is less exciting. For newbies, they have to use the karbait with paint tins first. It can still create the explosion but most of us still prefer to use the signboard pole as it gave better explosion. We had our own roles in creating the best explosion. There are the mixers who will mix the karbait with the correct amount of water so that the explosion wont sound like a false fart.Haha. Then there would be those who would ignite the mixture by using a long stick which is lit up at the far end of it. The rest? Just enjoy the show.

I had a great childhood as I got to play with DIY stuffs like this and learn things such as the virture of cooperating between friends, economics ( which is dividing money to buy the karbait) and even got to experience being chased by the police because someone complained about us.Haha. For me, those are the things that you cant learn in class and can only be learned through experience. Because of that, I wont trade the experience for anything else in this whole wide world.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.