Errors are like the sails on the ark of life – they determine the course of which life sets sail; either towards the catastrophic doom of self-destruction or towards the triumphant glory of success. For those who fail to manage their errors rightfully, they will be overwhelmed by failure and lead themselves towards the former. However, for those who are able to cope with these errors, they will earn the golden opportunity to set their course of lives towards the latter. The story of which I am about to narrate regards a boy who rose from the ashes of his burnt ark of life like a mighty phoenix and flew towards his promised land of success to claim his rightful victory over life’s own suffering. It is the story of a boy named Bara.
Bara was an average “kampung” boy who lived a less-than-mediocre life with his father and two sisters. The word “easy” was never present in his vocabulary throughout his high school life. While other high school children face the hardship of unsatisfying flavours of fried chicken, Bara was weighed down by a more unsavoury hardship - the burden of having to work and support his family financially. Ever since his father was diagnosed with cancer, Bara had to carry the responsibility of becoming the backbone of his family and sacrifice having a normal teenage life. Every morning, he would wake up as early as 3 to bust his sweat collecting latex to generate some few ringgits for his family. Being lazy was not an option for him – he had to be hardworking.
Although it always seemed like the weight of the world was constantly pulling Bara down the ground, he never thought about quitting his studies – not even once. He never let his hard and busy student-cum-worker’s life drift him away into the tainted river of educational deprivation. In the beginning of 2011, his efforts finally paid off; he received an offer letter to enrol himself into Universiti Malaya. He was overflowed with euphoria; the thought of furthering his studies in one of the most prestigious universities in Malaysia was certainly mind-blowing but the thought of having to leave his ailing father and his two sisters tore him apart. He was ensnared in a dark pit of dilemma.
He constantly thought about rejecting the offer but when the news got into the hands of his bedridden father, he was assured to accept the offer. His father who was usually only barely able to stand was so happy that he sprang out of his bed and did ‘the chicken dance’ – it was as if he was drugged by delight. The sudden and dramatic partial recovery of his father built a newly profound persistence in the old man’s soul; to send his precious Bara to college by himself – despite his disapproving condition. Seeing him in such a lively spirit, no one seemed to have the heart to kill the dying old man’s wish. Hence, when the day Bara was admitted into Universiti Malaya finally arrived, his father was there to witness his son making his first step towards success.
A few months passed by and while many expected excellence from Bara; little did they know that Bara was proving them otherwise. Campus life was something newly unfamiliar to Bara; and he vitally needed to adapt to the alien environment. However, his definition of the word “adaptation” was completely wrong. To make himself feel included, Bara succumbed to the dreaded peer pressure and joined his rather rebellious friends in the publically-detested activity of “rempit” or illegal racing. Through “rempit”, he finally felt the burning blood of teenage rebellion flowing in his veins and arteries which had gone missing all the years before. Bara fell deep into the oblivious abyss of profligacy and he loved every moment of it.
One cold night, Bara engaged himself in yet another event of his over-glorified “rempit” – it was the biggest one he ever participated and the one he most anticipated. He was intensely fired up that night as it was supposed to be the night he would claim his 10th victory and be crowned as “Raja Jalanan” or King of the Roads; or so he thought. When the race was signalled to be initiated, Bara, the Raja-Jalanan-to-be sped like the roads were his. He rode his steel stallion with his head held up high and soared like a mighty eagle through the streets of KL. With the crowd going wild over his dominance of the ignorantly illegal race, he felt like he was the King of the World. Little did he know; that night would be the night he would lead himself towards the malicious pit of self-assassination and crown himself with the thorns of despair and helplessness.
As he was accelerating towards the finish line, a blinding light flashed right into his eyes – causing him to lose control over his mechanical steed. He tried to steer his RXZ back into the race but it turned out disastrously horrific – Bara crashed into an old Proton Saga. Blood filled the lugubrious atmosphere at its cruellest panorama. Time slowed down for Bara as he witnessed his life shattering like a frail dusty mirror. To make things even worse, the car was his father’s. Yes, Bara met with a tragically calamitous accident with his own father. Accompanied by his two daughters and Bara’s favourite roasted “ubi kayu”, the old man was apparently on his way to give his only son a surprise visit; but to no avail. The road that witnessed the tragically devastating incident was ornamented with glass shards, blood and roasted tapioca. Reality definitely slapped Bara hard on the face – it slapped Bara so hard that he lost his consciousness for a few days.
On a squeaky hospital bed, Bara was finally able to reopen his eyes; only to realize that he could not feel his legs anymore. Bara hence, started to panic. When he slowly tried to reach his legs with his hands, he was terrified to feel nothing there. Screams of agony escaped his vocal cords when he found out that both his legs had been amputated. Only Bara’s despair and sadness could stand now. However, a more tragic news awaited him; it was the news regarding his father. Apparently, the accident had put the relentlessly resilient old man in a deep slumber like no other – a coma to be exact. Only machines and wires were keeping his tired heart beating. Bara thus, instead of oxygen, breathed guilt and remorse in every gulp of air from that day onwards.
However, that night of tragic devastation did not stop Bara from continuing to live. Instead, the incident became the reason for him to begin thrusting towards success. The image of his father wired to complex medical machineries kept haunting him and reminded him of why he should only be throwing his best at the world. After a few years of hard and tireless work, Bara finally graduated at the top of his class and got recruited as the youngest medical practitioner at the very hospital his father is staying -despite his disability. Yet, his father still had not opened his weary eyes.
Year after year, Bara kept looking after his ill-fated father and tried to put him back to perfect health – but to no avail. The old man’s eyes were as shut as Hell’s door to Jesus (pbuh); but Bara never gave up. He believed that God would not have kept his father’s heart beating only for him to die. Hence, he kept waiting and praying to God for the day his father would finally be resurrected – patiently and faithfully.
After seven long and hopeful years, his patience paid off; his plea to God finally reached Heaven’s seventh door. As he was holding his father’s cold hand, he felt his own hand being gripped firmer and firmer. His heart began to pump faster in a wondrous rhythm– could the day he had been yearning for finally arrive? When he looked upon his father’s tired face, he saw a smile – blissful and beautiful; a smile that had went missing from the world for seven years. Bara could not stop himself but to cry a stream of joyous tears down his smiling cheeks. His father hence, in the most loving caress, wiped the tears off of his face; and was replied with Bara enveloping his father in the warmest and most heartfelt embrace eternity had ever witnessed. From that miraculous moment onwards, Bara could not stop but to propel forward towards a better future.
Errors are like the sails on the ark of life – they determine the course of which life sets sail; either towards the catastrophic doom of self-destruction or towards the triumphant glory of success. For “Captain Bara”, his ark definitely landed safely on the isle of success and happiness. Though it faced near destruction on the way there, Bara proved that even a broken ark can reach the promised land of success.
THE END! =.=
