Light by the Window

I am grateful to my second cousin Khairil Skymmar for the photo below, of the Besut house that I wrote about in GUiT ("Light By the Window", p.96). It is my grandfather's house in Kampong Raja, Besut, that is now still ringing with the cries and shouts of little children, and of my grandfather's voice leading the early morning prayer, of the murmur of adults sitting down to recite the zikr, and of Ayöh Ngöh telling us tales of Pok We. The house may be silent now, but there are noises still coming from afar.


The window that my grandfather sat at is in the middle, but it is closed now. There were birds chanting songs from a cage outside the window (see GUiT, p.297, but also p.59) that broke the stillness in the air of Besut, but the birds have all flown now.

And I thank young Khairil for the picture.