Update on Irfan

Di tengah-tengah kerisauan (sedikit) menunggu result MRI Afiq yang akan diketahui dalam masa dua minggu lagi, hati kembali terhibur  semasa menonton Berita di TV3 hari Jumaat lepas ada keluar berita mengenai Irfan aka cucu saudara  sedang merai rombongan Isteri Perdana Menteri dengan alunan petikan piano bermain lagu ciptaannya "Twelve Tone Variation" di Juilliard School of Music, New York.  Its being a while since we had any news from my niece (Irfan's mum), emails sent by the grandaunts here were unanswered since January, rupa-rupanya mak Irfan deman (bronchitis) dah lebih sebulan, maklumlah duduk di negara yang bercuaca sesejuk peti sejuk perkara macam ini adakala tidak dapat dielakkan.  Alhamdulillah the kids Irfan, Hana and Iman were spared.  

Cedok dari The Star

Cedok dari akhbar mana tak ingat...yang senyum di tengah tu Irfan's dad

Juilliard School of Music

Alhamdulillah Irfan is doing wonderful and received praises from his Mahaguru Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky (nok ejo namo pun payoh weh!).. click here for more. 

Cerita Tok Teh (my elder sis)..Baru tahu Irfan ambil elektif conducting di samping piano dan gubahan musik.  Teringat ke satu petang sewaktu Irfan balik KB sebelum ramadhan tahun lalu,  tercekik pisang goreng di mulut apabila Irfan mentioned bercita-cita nak jadi conductor...waduh...kata tok teh dan toksu, pemain piano, penggubah muzik dan sekarang conductor pulak?  Ya, jawabnya.  Tok-tok saudara yakin Irfan boleh sebabnya Irfan rajin membaca dan mengkaji hal alat muzik wind instrument, string instruments, percussion, keyboard malah alat muzik traditional pun Irfan baca dan kaji.  Macam pro pulak dia menjawab bila tok-tok bertanya hal orkestra.  Masa audition di Juilliard dulu, juri terkejut dengan knowledge Irfan tentang violin, dari alat dan nota muzik, mereka bertanya, Irfan belajar main violin kah sebab dapat gubah muzik note untuk violin dengan baik?  Irfan jawab tak pernah, terkejut besar para juri tu sebab Irfan very knowledgeable.  Let's hope Irfan dapat cipta muzik yang memasukkan elemen rebab, gong, serunai dan rebana bertaraf dunia ya...

Snippets of what Tok Teh wrote when Irfan was a baby....

Baby Irfan is amiable and will go to anyone, unlike some babies who strangled their parents necks when strangers coming close to them… And l remember his mum will flash card, written in Arabic script, the word Allah  and our beloved prophet Muhammad. Probably that contributed to the fact when he started learning to read and recite Quran, at five years old, he can write down the whole surah Al Fatihah from memory. He khatam the Quraan when he was eight. The Ustaz praised him for being faultless in tajwid. That’s for sharp memory.  (Yours truly was unknowingly asked by Irfan to test his memory by asking him the headlines of Mingguan Malaysia of 3 years back in 2006).

Let me go back to his baby days… l remember teaching him to call me ‘Wo Teh’, at that time he could not talk, probably four or five months old. But he was a baby who watched  you when you speak… so you imagine  that you are not  talking alone but to an intelligent baby. A few months later l decided to change to ‘Tok Teh’ and l taught him to say it. Then  he was just beginning to say ‘full words’ at seven months. Baby Irfan kind of looking at me with surprise, probably he was thinking, ‘why?’  It took him months to address me with that name …. He did not have enough vocabulary to ask me why, l guess. He did not call me with anything, until he was toddler. Poor dear l have confused him and he remembers his baby days …

Another surprising occasion was when at two years old,  he blurted out the name ‘Afdlin Shauki’ when he watched the comedian on tv. His parents told me probably he remembered them saying the comedian's name while watching his show, then he was yet to start talking. He must have remembered Afdlin Shauki from memory, once he mastered the art of talking, the name just came out when the comedian appeared on tv.

Memory.... Another instance was when he has started piano lessons and has shown interest in western classical music. His father bought him Beethoven’s composition.  He has yet to be introduced to Chopin. One day his father played a composition by Chopin in the car while he fetched Irfan from his drama class, about 10 minutes drive to his home.  I was there, as usual on most Sundays. Immediately once he reached home, after greeting me and salam, he went to the piano and started to play.  I remembered his father was standing behind, astounded. “He is playing the Chopin piece. I just played the CD in the car, and now he is playing that piece.”  That’s Irfan. Sharp photographic memory.

Walau apa-apa pun tok tok saudara di KB mohon Allah melindungi cucu saudara ini dengan RahmatNya dari dilanda bencana, musibah hasad dengki manusia dan bencana lain di dunia dan selamat di akhirat.... and Irfan just be your humble self like we always know you.