Of Tungku and Kahfi Botak

today will be the final of my 3-day mengurut pantang. usually the post-natal massage can be done as early as 3 days after delivery but in my case, i had waited almost 2 weeks! i wasn't procrastinating - the msian lady, kak jah whom i 'booked' weeks ago, just got back from msia. she went back as she was told i would deliver by the 6th of jan. can't wait, can you, kahfi?

it was a less excruciating experience compared to the one i endured with tokcik. man, tokcik had this move where i was asked to lie on my front and she would take both my arms towards the back. with one knee on my back she would pull my arms! man, that hurts! maybe my angin was more back then.

but now it's already the 12-13th day so my angin had pretty much 'escaped' already. kak jah said alhamdulillah from her observation and feel when mengurut me, it looks like my veins are void of angin.

"urat ni mcm longkang tersumbat. kena tekan-tekan bagi darah mengalir elok."

"adoi..!"

"sakit? kalau sakit tu maknanya banyak angin."

"geli.."

"ha, geli tu maknanya dah takde angin. kalau sakit tu kita lupa geli."

"ooo.."

kahfi botak!

incidentally too, yesterday Kahfi dah botak! kak jah shaved his head using her very own pisau cukur ke pisau lipat ntah and ever so carefully shred every single hair on his little head. Khaleef was so amused.

following the sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the shaved hair must be collected and weighed; converted into the value of gold after which the amount is donated to the poor. mr. khairul was thinking of giving it to the palestine fund...

anyway, with the starting of the 3-day mengurut so begins my traditional tungku and bengkung days. today i will tell the uninitiated, how to prepare your own tungku!


1> kak jah provided me with this batu sungai. it sure doesn't look like the long baton-shaped one i used when i had khaleef but don't let this fat, round fella fool you! this one is equally effective

2> heat up the stone/tungku over a stove


3> in the meantime, pluck out some leaves from this plant (daun mengkudu ke?) and

4> spread it over a cloth as shown from the picture below; a cloth that is large enough to fold the leaves together with the batu sungai


5> when the batu sungai is all hot and steaming, place it carefully on top of the leaves-spread - i love the crackly sound of the hot stone touching the leaves, followed by the distinct aroma of tungku and burnt leaves


6> next carefully pull up the corners of the cloth and bring it to the middle like pict 1 - don't touch the stone!

7> finally, take a reasonable long string (my mom-in-law brought this shreded piece of cloth) and tie it neat and tight around the cloth like in pict 2

8> in pict 3, you can see the final result - a nicely wrapped, heated up batu sungai sweet smelling of burnt leaves - my tungku!


ok, now shoo off. i want to bertungku - see ya later!