A tribute to a mother....

Pakdokter have been picking up and reading a number memoirs, autobiographies and biographies lately simply for wanting to see how other people went about writing such books. One of pakdokter's wishes for this year is to come out with a book -hopefully a memoir....

Pakdokter's friend, Zaid Ibrahim, in his book, 'Saya Pun Melayu' , included in the book a few chapters about his own life from childhood to the present. One of Singapore's most outstanding civil servant, Ridzwan Dzafir, in his autobiography, regretted that he did not have the habit of keeping a diary and notes, for when he started writing his book, he had to largely rely on his little memory.

So it was quite a pleasure when pakdokter saw this new book on the shelf in the book-store recently, "Zainab Ahmad", written by her own daughter, Kalsom Taib, which was launched to co-incide with the Mother's Day celebration in May. Kalsom, had, some time ago also written a book on her father, Taib Andak, an outstanding Malaysian civil servant who was responsible for the successful land development project for the poor, Felda, during the times of Tun Razak.

In this book, Kalsom traced her ancestry which had their Bugis origins from Riau, Siantan ( somewhere in the middle of the South China Sea between Pahang and Borneo - pakdokter only came to know about this from this book) and Semantan (old Pahang?). She had researched her roots quite extensively using sources from her own mother and surviving relatives as well as from published references. Coming from well connected families of the Johore establishment, naturally there are many recognisable and successful personalities in this clan. Despite of this it cannot be denied that Zainab Ahmad and her husband, Taib Andak, had been a successful parent, having been able to raise many successful offsprings during their life time.

The latter half of the book, Kalsom devoted to describing the life of her mother. The lady who would have become a doctor was taken into marriage soon after secondary school but managed to adapt and adjust very well to become the supportive spouse of an improtant civil servant and a successful mother. Pakdokter felt a 'tinge' of envy at the many happy 'family photos' which adorned many pages of the book.

Well done Kalsom....