The Girl That Was But Not The Same

I did not know any of the girls at Extravaganza that prances well except for Annette but she was already booked so I was quite in a fix as to four stepping the evening. However I was quite comfortable to just chill and listen to the other guests belting the favorite numbers at the open lounge. Wendy too did not help as she dance very little and not into the intricacies of peculiar dance steps in accordance to specific genres, let alone the dancers that was able to prance any particular wiggles. The Mummy arrived to inquire if anything she could help, and I was further befuddled as she looked near as much Mummy Dierdre that I thought she was Dierdre's daughter. I asked her but she politely answered no and mentioned also that she was often mistaken to be such. I laughed and commented that she could be a young Dierdre but lovelier. She blushed a bit but I can see the utmost sincerity in her reaction. There was a certain innocence in her disposition or her entire persona making her the enchanting woman she was or revealing the elusive beauty that but lurked behind her magical fullness as a person and of the gentler sex. Or in other words she was extremely lovely and if only I could be twenty years younger and vibrant as such. Alas I am what I am and at an age that can only enjoy nostalgia. And what I did exactly when conversing with her following the chance meeting, I lavished her with nostalgia of wonderful times and stories from which, however, always going back to the present in order to suit her time and age because she was not one of those eras but concurrent and ongoing. Besides,I did not flirt her sudden and brash like but complimented her all the more as a liberated and self dependent person. There was no dangdut in her, more so, she viewed her vocation as just work and she could not but loved it because it pays. Hohohohoho! or that's what she said. However she was nice and lovely to chit chat with and must say I quite enjoyed her company. Maybe I could go ask her out but said I will come back to Extravaganza to wiggle and to seduce her. She laughed and answered most welcome. I did not even get her name let alone her number. It is difficult to feel the art and the philosophy if one only sees the occupation and not the entirety! It was only a job to her! Oh the dangdut girls are gone and never coming back!   .   

ROHANA JALIL DAN NASSIER WAHAB - SITI ZAWIYAH

Dangdut's Wordless Dualism

It was a typical night at Extravaganza like any nights, Annette had already been booked so I did not get her to be my dance partner for that particular evening and should she be free to wiggle with lucky me I would not be able to recognize her for so long without boogieing the mighty dangdut. Wendy was smiling and grinning so. upon seeing Prince because that I got to know later that Prince and me and the dangdut consociation have not emerged for a good few years in Extravaganza! No wonder Wendy was beaming although Prince managed to call her beforehand and to inform her that we were coming and also to ask whether she still was with Extravaganza. Lucky that Prince has their numbers. Miera was short listed to be company for me. A young girl, bubbly and energetic, was eager also and very keen to acquire peculiar steps to the dance that long have been lost but only a few years in fact for reason: veteran dance hostesses leaving the trade. A karaoke room was soon to be available but not immediate that we waited in the open lounge whilst the chamber prior booked be readied. Since it was an open hall Prince took initiative to inform the DJ to play two songs ala karaoke to while the minutes before the comforts of a single singing room arrives. Knowing the tune I like wiggling face to face to, he chose Karisma Cinta - the tone to do the four step with a girl so beautiful. Quickly I took Miera by the hands and gently shoved her onto the dance floor which was the proper floor cum platform but not specifically earmarked for earnest prancing. The lounge was not carpeted but tiled, shining white and romantically slippery and perfect for four stepping. I started the slow steps two to the left, two to the right and swirling soft to bring the dance genre to character but Miera was at lost the first few seconds yet managed to reciprocate the dance cue remarkably well even though she reacted not with the orthodox method of twirling ladies I was so familiar with. Her steps were her own, not taught or trained by older dance girls and ones from a long line of dangdut dancers two score and more years ago. She conjured her own steps real time and instant but synchronized immaculately in tune and in tone, she has talent and natural the aptitude was that it was serene and stunningly lovely. Descartes dualism, I think and I am, could not be more off tangent if innermost the evolved, refreshed and wholesomely overhauled four steps - Miera and myself did salsa to and in the milliseconds of dangdut's nothingness, the entire art and philosophy became meta to go beyond dance and the mundane cum inane. Miera pranced the genre to its beyond plus transcends its beingness to its becoming and more of such such - the four step of lore and yore and of dangdut entirely and absolutely! Hohohohohohoho!    

Engelbert Am I that easy to forget - 2009

Am I That Easy To Forget

Well I took a drive to Waterlily or what route familiar to take to reach the old dangdut club and of which bore many epithets before Waterlily came into being and upon reaching or what that I can gather of the old place except that everything has changed. Luck that the old old block housing the establishment is still around but painted and renovated to look gentrified and there was also an impressive lodging house in front - all prim and proper and looking at least three stars! Imagine that! Where were the Tomyam stalls when at prior were many and with customers coming and going in the hundreds regard less at witching or the wee hours? But they are still there even though arranged neatly and systematically 100 meters up ahead and sparkling clean cum wholesomely attractive. It was early about ten past ten pm but no sight of the old signboard or archetypes of signboards I was very familiar with but a state of the art and contemporary neon and huge notice board displaying "Waterlily Club and Karaoke Lounge" without any of the term  Dangdut mentioned! There I stood undecided whether to enter or not until a well dressed bloke in white sports jacket took a peep out of the front door and it was an ordinary wooden one normal sized and not wide and extravagant that one expects a famous establishment. Immediately he called to me to come in but I was rather perplexed and not really sure because the main epithet that should be displayed fully was not. Noticing I was hesitating he asked whether I was waiting for someone, I wasn't really so I asked whether Dierdre was inside? He gave a nod and a light chuckle and opened the door all the way for me. I entered the club that was dimly lit as usual but saw Dierdre in front, pretty as ever but this time attired in jeans and a light colored blouse denoting a utilitarian outlook or the clothes fit for a busy Club Mummy. She came close to me or to be near in order to converse or to hear clearly words uttered amidst music so loud and lively. I wasted no time in asking for a Hostess that can dance. She pointed at two or three girls still available that I chose the one looking the most energetic and built more to a dancer's physique. We sat down upon a nice couch ample for two persons and comfortable to be spacious for three. We talked on general topics yet not saying anything but typical of such rendezvous when the couch in front seated a lonely patron, waiting, until a girl arrived and immediately both gave each other mouth to mouth resuscitation! Ah! A couple in love and what a spectacle of them passionately kissing except invoking moments of physical embrace and at the same time exploring each other most deep and secretive domains. Something stirred in me but not enough to launch a projectile since so long not becoming spontaneously aroused. Besides there was no viagra in my possession and I came for the dance not sex whence dance is invigoratingly art - philosophically and sentimentally but sex is just plain physical, brazen and harsh. Perchance the couple in front is in love and what can love be but deep cum enigmatic! However its good to be heated up for such unplanned reason! Hohohohohohoho! A cha cha number arrived and I earnestly asked Lila or the sobriquet or the peculiar words utilized for her good and prodigious nomenclature or in other words - her admirable name. There we were on the dance concourse and I gave cue by swirling to the four steps starting with left two followed right two but Lila was stiff all over and her legs benumbed and not responding! She can't dance! Immediately my thoughts came to Dierdre plus why and in heavens name that she passed me this girl when I specifically asked for one who can or more than can - sway! Surely she knows the girls if not all of them and why's that she recommended three who's supposed to prance excellence and all apparently worst off wiggling! Perhaps there aren't such women anymore because dangdut is actually not like before and disappearing and inasmuch gone when its death should be earlier. A dangdut number after the cha cha but I continue the four step just to feel once more the mighty dangdut however salsa ing alone with a partner so dumbfounded and unresponsive! Yaya mentioned that she need be inebriated to joyously move but its really more the Malay adage of " Tak tahu menari tapi kata papan jongkang jongkit" or one who cannot dance blames the uneven dance floor! We went back to our seating arrangement and I courteously waited for a while but a second later asked for the bill and drove home after which.. I feel despair much like Emile Cioran's poem of perpetual despair when mountains don't laugh and birds don't sing yet the philosopher and Schopenhauer - a fellow logician were  perennially woe betide for a world so desolate and unfeeling marking her existence only; without concern for anything living upon and below her surface. Could be that they deride God for being indifferent and aloof most times, yet, God is most merciful and compassionate if men took to care the world and mother nature and of whom are God's own alongside men.. Platitudes can be cheesy but God is his own, already existing before nothing whence Cioran felt nothingness only in hopelessness and not eagerness in God's embrace. Descartes also concludes that perception is passive which of course it can be when one observes from afar without exploring not unlike dance when it is viewed only and not danced. Around the concourse and full and complete with all the twirls and swirls and spectacular dips at the end and in the middle! Hohohohoho! Yet, there I was outside the club, perplexed, bewildered and bemused with words of The sage Lao Tzu spinning around that the only constant is change, yet, I still pine for the old dangdut knowing fully well it could not be when dangdut becomes and becomes to no longer be. Leaving me all in all a dangdut aficionado dangdut forgets! Hihihi!

Kini Dah Tiba - Nassier Wahab & Salwa Abdul Rahman

The Club Mummy Is Back!

Howsoever that a nuomena or nuomenon can be but a thing in itself that none of senses can perceive yet to perceive and sense is phenomena or phenomenon to nuomena or nuomenon. But can it be phenomena in order to sense of nuomena or nuomena perennially stands on it own. Or phenomena for all since nuomena must always be tested to phenomena. Somewhat the universe can be nuomenal but phenomenal if not the nuomenal felt. Or must all things be felt or experienced or sensed. Spiritually, materially or sentimentally. Thence that I was so much moved to hear that the mummy is back and back as such at another dangdut joint called the Waterlily and in fact one of the oldest there is but for the number of names it was called prior. The fact that I came to know of dangdut and what it could be was through an unplanned visit to Waterlily when it was mentioned by another name and under a different Boss man. Ya Effendy brought me to the place and it was totally out of curiosity that I went  but was hooked till now if not for other dangdut establishments that brought me as frequent customer. However Ya Effendy stayed sane to not be a dangdut aficionado but a top earning salary man.Bro K hollered over the phone that Dierdre of Extravaganza is now mummy or Lounge Manageress for Waterlily. I was shocked dumb upon hearing and the entire self vibrated to sudden dangdut tones, overwhelming my beingness and the accompanying nothingness that changes to dangdut melodies and steps to songs ever more.. Hope of good dancing and pleasant moves reaches me and I say to myself that I must go soonest to Waterlily when Dierdre the Club Mummy can choose the best dancer and of steps so old and classy if for an hour or two of earnest salsa cum cha cha dangduting!