Disassembled Mind

Mat Jeng didn't look like other passersby. His hairs were tangled like hairs of a demented ghoul. He walked about the row of classrooms, wore ragged shorts with and a t-shirt once white. He was holding a bottle of soy sauce for a reason we never knew. He mouthed some uncertain murmurs, poked his head into the entrance door of ours and shouted "arghh!!!". He dragged us out into temporary haywire. We screamed our heart out like he did, but the difference was; he did that with enjoyment while we almost had our heart explode.

He walked away a few paces, paused, glanced back at us with his contented chuckle, revealing his severely decayed teeth, and off he went to somewhere he never thought of going. Teacher, a local lad, looked calm. He knew Mat Jeng -- a mad man.

Mat Jeng was a famous figure among several other weirdos who roamed about our little town Dungun when I was still a boy. Rumour had it that he was a genius scholar when he was an altogether man. Many sad things happened to him then. I did not know what the sad things were. My friends at school told me, Mat Jeng read too many books, which finally led him into the state of disassembled brain. That got me thinking about it the whole week. Another rumour I heard was – he had involved in an accident; a stone was hurled at him (which came out from nowhere and no one knew who did that) and hit his head, resulted an obvious swelling on his forehead and you could see the swollen flesh from a long distance. He lost his mind ever since.

There was another mad man named Pok Arab. He had another nickname; Orang Salamualaikung, known for his weird everyday outfit -- putting on Arab's headgear and a sunglasses (even in night darkness) and his tendency to greet "Assalamualaikum!" at every single person he met, hence his name.

He cycled alone about the town, and sometimes traveled the whole district from Sura Hujung in the south to Kuala in the north. In his never-ending journey, he smiled and greeted "Assalamualaikum!" at every single person he met. He would pause his journey at certain places, stood there still, buried his hands in his pockets, recited a few holy verses from the Koran and Hadiths (the sayings of the Prophet) and started giving out religious lectures occupied with hand gestures which perhaps, an attempt to describe something indescribable by strings of words like heaven and hell. Unfortunately, no one was willingly listening to him.

I’m not sure I can write Pok Arab’s history in good depth. Too many rumours evolved into variations of exaggerated stories about this mysterious man. But the most famous one I’d heard about Pok Arab was about his journey during his younger days. It was told that he had been too obsessed with mystical part of religious teaching the wrong way. He spent the rest of his life thinking of matters beyond his mental ability, such as, How God looks like? or Who created God in the first place? However, there was one thing I loved about this man -- which was the way he lost his mind in searching for truth.

In 1999, a strange man was given a weird nickname, "Mat Boggel", became a part of daily talks among coffee shops' morning dwellers around the town. Mat Boggel was a man who wore nothing but a long piece of cloth wrapped around his loin area, only covered part of his belly and his butt. When it was blown by strong wind, God helped him, that sight wasn't suitable for minors. One fine day, when the wind was as cruel as people around him, he was taken away to a mental hospital in a place called Tanjung Rambutan.

I haven't forgotten the moment I asked Mother regarding those unfortunate people – “Mok, orang giler masuk syurga dok?” (Mum, will a crazy man find his way in heaven?).

She said, yes.

Do I have to be crazy to go to heaven, Mother?

Ha! Ha! What a naughty boy. Keep yourself accompanied by good deeds everyday, and there's a big palace for you there.

I wanna go to heaven.

Haven't you missed your Zohor prayer today, son?

***

A Dungun man from Dubai named Kamal Musa had posted a comment about Mat Jeng. He said, copied verbatim:

"Mat Jeng passed away before his mum perfom the Hajj. Glad, his mum was not worried about his late son while she's in Mecca... knowing that no body will take care of Mat Jeng mkn minum sakit demam dia. Mat Jeng is lucky enough to have wonderful mother.."

Thank you Mr. Kamal Musa. Al-Fatihah to Mat Jeng. May he found peace in Jannah!