With a Cup of Teh Tarik...

Christmas Day was spent with my Uncle and a cousin joining us for some barbeque. It was nice to be home with family. What was even nicer was having some time with me and a hot cup of teh tarik. Yes, my Uncle came home from Malaysia bringing the powdered version of my most favorite drink…teh tarik. Two packs of this fragrant and delicious drink. My mom took one and I was left with an opened pouch that I unfortunately had to share with the family. Call me selfish but mom really had to work her way with me making a cup for everyone, which got me pondering during my alone time…

What makes some things in one life too hard to share?

Teh Tarik to me is a like a book that takes me on a story. Each sip is like flipping a page of that manuscript which takes you on a journey back through time. A journey that you want to take pleasure in alone for the fear that maybe other people may not understand its true value to you. Having teh tarik is like being back in Malaysia again, a place were great memories have been authored. It’s about the great (and cheap) food I have enjoyed almost in every corner of Petaling Jaya and KL. Its about spontaneous laughter brought about by ever flowing teh tariks and limo ice during late night mamak escapades. It’s about a sport called paintball and the men & some women (harmful yet harmless men) that make it even more exciting. It is also about being able to travel and let my free spiritedness fly, roam and conquer yet another nook of this world. Most of all it’s about a boy with a beautiful smile who is willing to buy me all the teh tarik I drink, hop & skip with me with childlike enthusiasm and assure me that I will always have a friend who's at the very least an sms away.

Maybe it’s hard to share my teh tarik because I felt that if I finish the pack I also am letting go of the memories I have attached to it. That one of these days when I look and see that the pack is empty I will forget the people, the places and the boy. I know I need to release this chapter of my personal history and make space for new and unknown worlds to experience. But for now let me sit and enjoy my teh tarik by myself cause I’m not ready to let go...not just yet.