This is a picture of babah taken in 2009. Back in 2009, he was admitted and hospitalised for a broken hip. It was serious. He fell at the mosque where he was performing his duties as an Imam Rakyat. Later, he was fired from the job due to this (we are still fighting for his case with JAWI). It is a long story. I am not going to go into that. Back to babah, he has diabetes and a weak heart. The doctor had to postpone the surgery several times to make sure that he was ready. For someone who has been on heart medication for quite a while, the body needs to be in a stable condition, the blood pressure and everything else that is concerned. Alhamdulillah, the day came and the surgery went well. With god’s will, after only 7 months or so, he was already walking again. My sister hired a personal therapist who came to the house twice a week. Babah had to go through an agonising therapy session each time. The exercise looked easy and simple for a normal person but to those who had gone through it, I think they will say it’s like going through the surgery and excruciating pain all over again. But since he is a very courageous person, it did not stop him to learn to walk again, one step at a time. That being and also with lots of doa to Allah SWT.
Babah is a fighter. He never takes no for an answer. Try and try again. Fall seven times, get up eight times. Once, a friend of his came to send a wedding invitation of his son. The wedding was held at Sunway Lagoon Hotel. My dad insisted that we meet him and show him our work. I told Babah to forget it, he must have already arranged for a photographer for the wedding. It’s no use. It doesn’t really matter. You must show him your work. Why do you need to be shy. If he said yes, it’s OK, if he said no, and that’s OK too. I did not get any job offer (as expected) but above all that, I was very moved by my babah’s intention. He believes in me. He believes in what I do. He believes that I can DO IT. That reason is enough for me to believe that whatever I am doing is worthwhile.
I am not a self-taught photographer. Everything I have learned, I learned it from my Babah. The mind & spirit, determination, persistence is what keeps you going. Just believe in yourself.
