Last night I was having a conversation with my dinner partner and we joked about how weird each one of us sleep. So I said “Kalau ada mentadak mentadu boleh tanya kan?”. He wrinkled his forehead ” Ask what?”
“Mentadak mentadu macamana swirlyman tido?”
“What is that?” he asked. I can’t believe he didn’t know. I told him it’s one of the game that we used to play when we were small. You know, whenever we went balik kampong and play with our cousins, we will go around my grandma’s house to search for anything to play with and sometimes we will see mentadak mentadu .
“What is mentadak mentadu?”. Tsk, apolah kau ni, monatang tu pon tak kona. He gave me a long oooooooooo when I told him mentadak mentadu is praying mantis.
But he still didn’t know that game. So do you know that game?
It goes like this, when you see a praying mantis you go and chant the magic word “mentadak mentadu macamana [name] tido?”
Mentadak mentadu macamana bunnies tido?
And then the praying mantis will move and give you a position.This is definitely a silly game ok, but it was fun menggelakkan cara orang tido padahal sikit punya tak logik manusia nak tido macam tu.
There were times when the praying mantis refused to move, so apa lagi kau goncang-goncangla sikit pokok tu ke apa, confirm dia bergerak dan memberikan pose tido yang baru. Tapi awas, jangan terlebih goncang, nanti dia terbang ke arah kau dan kau akan menjerit “nenekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk” sambil menggelupur lari.
His face looked puzzled so I asked him another question. Did her mother ever chant a magic word whenever he got any bump on his body for bring naughty? He said no.
Meaning, he never heard this one either. I still remember when I small, sometimes I would play and terhantuk kepala. Me or my brotherlah. Surely we will go to mengadu to emak. What emak will do was, she would take a cloth hembus her breath there and chanted
“Tuka takal balik pintu, budak nakal memang begitu”
And she will tuam the benjol place with the cloth.Usually I will feel sedikit suam disitu. Maybe it was psychology, sebab lepas tu selalunya mesti baik :)
Later I asked him, “What about when you hiccup, did you mom do anything to stop it?”. His answer was no. Hmm, pelikla apsal dia tatau ni? I don’t know about you but when I was small, whenever I hiccup, my mom would pluck a leaf. The she would patahkan the end of the leaf and paste it to my forehead. More than often, aku akan berhenti hiccup. Macam magic sial, masa tu aku rasa mak akulah manusia yang tahu semua benda. Tak ada masalah dalam dunia ni yang mak aku tak boleh settlekan. Haha, padahal apa jela masalah budak kecik kan.
When I told him this, he provided me with a simple explanation. He said “Maybe when your mother want to put that thing, you held your breath, sebab tu la berhenti hiccup”. You see, few weeks ago, I hiccupped and I was told to hold my breath, sometimes it works he said. True enough, the hiccup stopped immediately after I let go.
Tapi tak kesahla ada logik ke tidak behind it, benda tu semua nostalgia ok. I wonder whether mothers today are still doing the same things or kids today still play mentadak mentadu?
I think these are all a Malay thing sebab he didn’t have any clue tapi bila aku tanya dia reti main a.e.i.o.u. ke tak, dia kata dia reti.
Best siot game tu.
A.E.I.O.U. ! [Sila jadi patung sekarang]
….
Eh jap. Ke aku sorang je tau tahu benda ni, adakah family aku sahaja? Do you bunnies know or not?
