Jerebu

Yesterday my 6 years old nephew Naqib shouted "Yay, esok Akib tak sekolah!" as soon as he entered the house after my dad fetched him from school. "Acu jangan bagitau Mummy tau, esok biar Mummy siapkan Akib pastu hantar Akib gi sekolah. Bila sampai sekolah je baru Akib nak kasitau, 'Mummy sebenarnya harini teacher kata tak yah gi sekolah, jerebu..'"

Good plan. It's been few days now since it looked so murky I could barely breathe going outside the house. As alarming as it is, mum's not going to school today, Naqib's not coming to the house, K. Rina has her school closed too, so Ariff's probably not going to come either. It's basically a free day for us.

Time like this brought me to remember the 1997's haze, when I was in high-school in the midst of KL's polluted air. Waking up in the morning looking far into thin air searching for the twin towers was always my own method of indicating the index quality of air each day. I remember we were so happy to be given the masks to wear during classes, that we could pretend talking whilst having some chocolates or sweets in our mouths, unnoticed by the teacher and the blue-blazers. And that for you who don't know, because the strict rules of the school that forbid us to eat inside the class, na-ah, not even a single sweet.

Speaking of which, MERCY's been giving away free masks to public for 2 days now. Expect to see few weird-looking people at your nearest LRT stations handling the masks, and don't be afraid to ask for one. We don't bite. Again, it's free, percuma, gratis, and I still don't get it when people asked "Kenapa percuma?" when I gave the masks to them.

Perhaps in time like this, it's good to look out and ponder. Why God created such fog? My nephew would say it's because God wants to give the schoolchildren an extra holidays, the unbelievers would blame the Nature for such a disaster, what say you, people of faith?

Perhaps the free holidays given by God was not meant to be taken alight, so think, for God creates your four lobes of brain to think.