April is a girl's name...

Goodness me! It is the end of April already... and I have not posted anything apart from the Pantun 4 Kerat item to mark my 4th anniversary of being a blogger. It has been a terribly busy month. Plenty of unfinished and overdue stuff. Luckily the Inland Revenue Board has an extended closing date for e-filing of tax returns, otherwise I'd be late on that one too.

While I do have a few ideas floating in my head on what to write, the mental and physical fatigue at the end of each working day is hampering efforts to put those ideas on screen. Even blog-hopping is becoming rare nowadays... but I do hope it does not last, because I really enjoy writing in this blog and reading the entries in other blogs.

So what shall I write about today? Nothing serious, just another one in my `merapu' category.

Of the 12 months in the Gregorian calendar, a few of these have been used as female names. April, May and June are the obvious examples. I have also previously seen January being used as a girl's name, although not often like the other three. Of the other months, only August (from Augustus Ceasar, the Roman emperor) is considered a male name, at least to the best of my knowledge. The word `august', as an adjective, carries a noble meaning as well.

Of the 7 days in the week, perhaps only Friday is used as a person's name... even so, only as a fictional character in Robinson Crusoe. Compare that to the Malay names for days of the week. Isnin, Jumaat and Sabtu are quite common Malay male names. Persons with these names are obviously born on the days their names represent. Similarly, a few of the name of months in the Muslim Hijrah calendar are adopted as individual names - Muharram, Rejab, Ramadan and Shawal being some examples.

Our eldest son was born on the first day of the first month of the Hijrah calender, 23 years ago. Some of our elder relatives suggested that we name him Ahmad Muharram, or something similar. Of course, we didn't... that would've been too easy and uninspiring.

Ok then, let's say goodnight to April and welcome May...

Pantun 4 Kerat

Anak punai anak merbah
Terbang turun buat sarang
Blog ditinggal terlalu lama sudah
Sampai penuh habuk dan sawang


Asal kapas jadi benang
Dari benang dibuat baju
Hal yang lepas jangan dikenang
Ayuh dibuka lembaran baru


Selat teduh lautan tenang
Banyak labuh perahu Aceh
Kerana pembaca yang sudi bertandang
Ku ucapkan berbanyak terima kasih


Kalau pinang masih muda
Rasanya kelat sudahlah pasti
Kalau hilang pembaca hamba
Rasanya sunyi di dalam hati


Empat rangkap pantun empat kerat yang telah saya modify dari lirik lagu yang pernah popular zaman 70an dulu, sebagai posting pertama pada bulan empat ini. Dengan kesibukan tugas serta perjalanan ke sana ke mari, terlepas saya untuk menulis sesuatu sebagai tanda blog Just Observations ini telah pun menjangkau usia 4 tahun.

Terima kasih saya ucapkan kepada semua rakan blogger serta pembaca (samada pembaca senyap mahupun yang bersuara) yang telah menemani saya sekitar pengembaraan saya di alam siber.

Indah budi kerna bahasa... ingatan saya kepada tuan sentiasa.