Burger Ayah

Abang ipar aku ada buka kedai burger. Lama dah dia mula bisnes sendiri ni. Dah more than 3 years and counting. He accepted the VSS offered by his previous company to focus on this burger business full time. Walaupun pada mulanya mendapat tentangan dari abah kami, tapi aku rasa, considering kecekalan dan keazaman dia, somehow, lembut hati juga abah dengan pilihan dia. Yelah, orang tua kan -- given the career option of a guaranteed-end-of-the-month-income vs. non-guaranteed income, the choice is pretty clear. 

Ada satu malam, balik dari jumpa kawan lama sempena cuti pendek sempena rehatkan minda, kakak aku jemput dari LRT baru yang serba bermasalah (akan diceritakan di entry lain). Memandangkan sejak balik Malaysia, keinginan untuk memasak tak berapa nak memuncak, jadi kami decide untuk singgah di kedai burger suaminya untuk beli burger buat kudap-kudap malam hari. 

That day, it was -- raining -- quite heavily. Understandably, dia proceed untuk bukak kedai. It was closed for the past few days sebab dia tolong drive aku pergi Melaka for some official matters sambil-sambil depa sekeluarga bercuti. Jadi, rain or shine, kedai dibuka juga hari tu. No business, no work, no money. Simple life maths. 

Upon reaching the stall -- I witnessed a pretty heartbreaking scene. Heartbreaking untuk aku lah. It was etched on my mind like some visual on a projector that keeps shuffling the same frame -- hence, this entry. It was raining, and my brother in law was sitting on the plastic chair, just behind the building pole, reading something from his phone (kot) while waiting for anybody to stop by for some delicious burger. Immediately, it struck my soft spot. I do understand his passion in cooking and his own business, but witnessing how it may not be easy to earn an income to feed the family while pursuing his interest -- it's heartbreaking. Customer tak ramai -- tak tentu -- moreover, it was in the midst of a pretty long holiday, hujan lebat lagi tu -- sedih kot. 

Many times we would drop by his burger stall, order some quantity for us, and he would give us the requested amount -- for free. One time, lepas kami dah order quite a huge amount of burgers, later that night, abah would stop by his stall and told his son (my nephew) to pass some amount of money to his dad. He would -- as always, refuse to take the money. 

I just wished -- that such sacrifices -- affects his wife, and his kids -- in a positive way. I really hope that they understood the sacrifices being made -- and treat him better and respectfully -- the way a dad, and a father should be treated. Semoga Allah sentiasa murahkan rezeki dia, permudahkan perjalan kerjaya dia, dapat menggerakkan hati-hati anak dan isteri untuk menyayangi dan menjaga dia selayaknya dia.