i. Sekitar tahun 1987, keluarga kami (SD Dumaring Clan) memulakan pembinaan rumah famili di Kg. Lingkudau, Ranau. It originally had seven rooms. But over time, it now has evolved into a 15-bedroomed house with three separate sub-units. My sister and two brothers live there now, with their families.
Some time in January 1988, my late father (Gapa) brought me to the newly-completed house. To help him doing some cleaning. That was when he said this to me, in his rather plain monotonous but distinctly dictating tone:
“Kalau sudah masuk rumah baru, tidak mau lagi ada gansing. Bikin malu.”
ii. Gansing adalah ‘kain buruk’, dalam bahasa Dusun Bundu. Ini satu item tipikal bagi komuniti Dusun. Kebiasaannya, ia berampaian di seluruh rumah. Terutama di tempat yang selalu lembab, i.e. dapur dan bilik air.
Gansing diguna untuk mengelap tumpahan di lantai. Bergantung kepada tahap kebersihan si pemakai, ia boleh diguna untuk pelbagai jenis kotoran tertumpah. Termasuk lap kencing budak-budak!
Budaya gansing, dalam kebanyakan kes, agak menjijikkan. Kain buruk yang lembab dibiar berampaian di serata rumah. Berhari-hari tidak dicuci. Bahkan, acapkali mencapai beberapa minggu.
When I was a little kid, I remember my (late) mother used to have gansing everywhere. All over the house. Fortunate enough, my mother had a ridiculously high standard of hygiene practice.
She, at least, always made it a point to keep her gansings clean, and had them regularly washed. Jadi gansing itu tidaklah teruk sangat.
iii. But a gansing is still a gansing.
It doesn’t matter how hygienic you are – the fact remains the same. Gansing is a piece of dirty unwanted cloth. Yang diampai merata-rata dalam rumah.
Sebab itu barangkali, Gapa sangat tidak suka dengan gansing. It does not only look disgustingly ugly. It basically ruins the visual esthetic of a house. Not to mention it also accumulates all kinds of harmful germs.
Ya, memang betul. Gansing adalah pusat penternakan kuman dalam rumah. Ia juga manifestasi budaya ‘tidak endah’ orang Dusun (dan komuniti lain yang turut amalkan budaya gansing!) kepada aspek kebersihan dan estetika mata. And, that is the embarrassing part.
iv. We moved from the small crowded Rumah Murah to this big ala-banglo Lingkudau family house in the early 1988. My super hygienic mother died of cancer in the very same year, less than six months after moving in. Almost a decade later, Gapa also passed away. In that very house, which he himself built with so much passion and love.
Good for him.
But the sad thing was, until his very last breath – gansings were still scattered all over the new house. Nobody in the house seemed to care much of his wish. Or may be he never told anyone else, except me? I actually did my part in trying to make the house gansing-free. But it was a futile effort. Because soon after we relocated there, I spent most of my time away in Kuala Lumpur.
Gapa being Gapa, he would never repeat things more than twice. Dia pernah jadi polis semasa muda. Sebab itu dia percaya pada disiplin diri sendiri. If you didn’t listen to him the first two times, he wouldn’t remind you again. For him: nobody else can change a person. You, yourself, are the change you want to see in life.
Self-discipline: this was Gapa’s quality that I have always admired; and have tried to emulate (and still trying) my whole life.
v. Gapa was a man of wisdom. He was, most of the times, very philosophical about life.
When he said: “Kalau sudah masuk rumah baru, tidak mau lagi ada gansing. Bikin malu.” – as much as he wanted me to understand it literally, he could also have meant it metaphorically. And I believe that was the real message.
Betapa hidup ini penuh dengan hijrah dan pembaharuan. Setiap kali berlaku peralihan, gansing lama dalam hidup harus ditinggalkan. Barangkali metafora ini yang Gapa betul-betul mahu saya fahami dan hayati. Bukanlah pasal gansing sangat, yang berhamburan di lantai rumah. Itu hanya aspek sekunderi.
Sebab itu Gapa tidak pernah lagi mengungkit soal kain gansing itu, sepanjang 10 tahun dia tinggal di rumah baru kami. He naturally found a way to tolerate it, because he was perhaps focusing on the much bigger ‘gansing war’. Iaitu gansing hati dalam kehidupan.
vi. Mari kita sama-sama mengikis budaya gansing dalam diri. Bukan saja gansing fizikal, tetapi yang lebih penting lagi adalah gansing non-fizikal.
Antara sedar dan tidak, kita kadangkala suka mengumpul gansing dalam minda. Ia bersepah merata-rata, hingga jadi tempat pembiakan pelbagai kuman dan bakteria jiwa. Gansing itu menjelma dalam bentuk dendam, benci dan amarah.
Budaya gansing adalah manifestasi mentaliti ‘acuh tidak acuh’. Tiap kali ada tumpahan, kita ambil jalan mudah. Lekas-lekas capai gansing yang ada terampai di mana-mana sudut, lalu mengelap kotoran yang tertumpah. Kemudian gansing yang lunyai ini, kita campak semula di sana-sini.
Mungkin kotor itu sudah tidak nampak. Sudah tersembunyi di celah gansing. Tapi ia tetap ada dalam rumah. Ya, ia masih lagi ada dalam diri, bagi konteks gansing non-fizikal yang bersabit dengan isu hati.
vii. It was the day Gapa passed away that I made this promise to myself: one day when I have my own place, I would never allow gansing to be anywhere in the house. Because living in a gansing-free home is the first step towards a baggage-free life.
At last, I am able to honour his never fulfilled wish. Of trying to eventually ditch the gansing from sight. At Rumah Pangi, I only authorise the use of proper doormats, which must be changed regularly.
STRICTLY. No gansing is allowed.
Siapa buat gansing, memang kena teriak sampai pekak telinga! All my former maids knew this VERY WELL, and took it extremely serious. Tapi sejak saya mengembara ke padang pasir ini, tidak taulah apa kejadian di rumah sana sekarang.
viii. Untuk Gapa, Al-Fatihah, semoga rohmu diberkati.
Thank you for sharing with me one of your best outlooks in life: living a gansing-free life.
Note: Gapa (Sinteh @ Sulaiman Dumaring 1920-1997) was the older brother of my biological father (Dambul Dumaring 1922-2005; whom we fondly called Yama/Ama). Both of them had played the role of ‘father’ (in every sense of the word) to me and all my other siblings. He was the one in the middle (see photo).
NOTAKAKI:
Mohd Soffian Osman'Betapa hidup ini penuh dengan hijrah dan pembaharuan. Setiap kali berlaku peralihan, gansing lama dalam hidup harus ditinggalkan. Barangkali metafora ini yang Gapa betul-betul mahu saya fahami dan hayati. Bukanlah pasal gansing sangat, yang berhamburan di lantai rumah. Itu hanya aspek sekunderi.'
Peringatan yang tepat untuk muhasabah diri yang mudah tewas. Kata-kata orang tua cukup halus & enak didengar tetapi membawa maksud yg sgt mendalam. Analoginya sangat SHARP dan sukar untuk disangkal. Al-Fatihah buat org yg tersayang Dr Rem.
Rem Dambul Gambar diambil di Kundasang pada awal 60-an. Sebab itu masing-masing bergaya dengan fesyen rambut besar yang mungkin perlukan satu botol 'Tancho'. Sesuai dengan iklim Kundasang yang sangat sejuk ketika itu. Sebab rambut besar menebat haba agar kepala kekal suam dan selesa.
Kalau angin bertiup pun... masih tidak hilang hensem. Sikatan itu nampak sungguh kukuh. Mangkali ribut pun tidak boleh kasi urai.
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