Admittedly, I almost forgot about Merdeka this year. What with the raya preparations going on and all. I was only reminded of it a few days before when I heard a raya song & merdeka song played back-to-back at Tesco. I had a very fulfilling Merdeka celebration that I want to remember forever. So I’m jotting it down here for me to read again in the future and for others who would like to read it. It is simply a narration of my Merdeka Day no in-depth thoughts from me this time. Will add pictures soon. =)
I had 2 very Malaysian days on the eve of and the Merdeka day itself. Started with going around Jln TAR with Aneez, (joined later by Nawal) looking for baju kebaya. Though we got side-tracked quite a few times, we managed to find one in the end. While being trapped in Semua House in the rain, we bought a few the P.Ramlee movies at one of the shops there. After buka puasa and picking up Anna, we watched P Ramlee movies, trying to gather energy and get some rest before going out again for the Merdeka countdown. As we couldn’t figure out where the fireworks would be, we headed out to Dataran Merdeka where, without fail, people would gather at with or without fireworks (expecting the non-existent foreworks). By the time we decided on a place, it was already 11.45 but we were surprised at how empty the roads are. For once, we were asking for the merdeka-jam and we got our wish as we got nearer to Dataran. The road was barely moving that we even had time to chat with the uncle (who later actually got out of the car) next to our car. As we were still stuck in the jam by midnight, we were looking for radio stations for merdeka songs. Surprisingly, hardly any of the stations were playing them at midnight! Mix, Hitz, Fly, habuk pun takda. What happened?? I know the government intended to celebrate merdeka moderately but isn’t it too much if the radio stations are not even going to acknowledge the arrival of our 53rd Merdeka Day?? I am disappointed with the local radio stations. We eventually found a radio station playing patriotic songs 10 mins later, but it wasn’t any of the popular radio stations. Anyhow, getting back on my merdeka eve, we were wondering what to do since we were stuck in the car when one of my friends suddenly took out 2 packets of bunga api for us to light up. DOL! Epic! So we lit up those bunga api while in a stand-still jam, screaming, “Merdeka!” and honking our horn and the amused people around us responded and waved at us.
When we got to Dataran, we were greeted by the sight of a sea of people standing in the streets, causing a major traffic jam as the cars couldn’t go through. Rempits lined up the roads, sending up smoke into the air as some of them drove off in big groups. What we first thought was a riot was actually just a bunch of people standing in the roads who seem to be focusing on something. We followed the crowd, walked along the streets as if the roads were closed, walked between the cars, wondering what we’ll see when we would finally get to the point where everyone was looking at. Most of the people there though, were like us, looking around, wondering and expecting something to happen to commemorate the arrival of our 53rd Merdeka Day. It was actually a group of boys running on the streets bearing the Jalur Gemilang. Funnily enough, there weren’t any cops in sight. The only mark they left were their cones, put on one of the road dividers.It was quite exciting, but there was a scary moment when some idiot threw a mercun on the empty road which had A LOT of people standing by it. I even felt bits of it hit the back of my leg. Luckily no one was injured. And at the frustration of the absence of fireworks (I think) someone lit up one of those smaller scaled KLCC-like mercun. Ironically, the mercun was lit up from a place where Bukit Aman was clearly in sight at the back! We later made our way to to meet up with some friends to lepak to end the day in a very Malaysian style.
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