Happy 80th Bday Tok Uteh!

(The backdrop of the event)

Last couple of months on the 8th February was a great day. My family & all of our extended relatives were celebrating the 80th birthday of our granduncle Mohd Ghazali Bin Mohd Seth known to our relatives as Pak Uteh, Tok Uteh or Tok Tan, but he’s more familiar to me as Tok Uteh. The event was held at KLGCC Bukit Kiara. It housed most of our fellow Johorean family which comes from the bloodlines of Seth – Abdul Rahman – Onn, who were related by blood & marriages and were once a great name in Johore back to its early formation until Malaya’s independence. The event started around 12pm and end around 5.30pm. Uncle Jaja @ Reza Ghazali was the emcee of that day handling most of the talking until the very end of the celebration.

(Tok Uteh being greeted by family members at the hall)

My family arrived at the KLGCC around 11.30pm. Arrived early, I had the opportunity to meet and greet all my aunts & uncles whom we were not often see due to our busy schedule. After chatting with them for few minutes, I realized that there were some people missing. “Where are all my cousins?” Aunty Nina @ Rowina Ghazali replied, “They are all getting dressed up and preparing for the dance show” and I was like “What?!”. I was totally shocked to hear this, but I’m sure it’ll be great for Tok Uteh seeing that his grandchildren will be performing something for his birthday and not some hired dancers. Probably they were inspired by Sasha Bashir’s ‘Dansa’ show :-).

(Cultural dance performed by Aliya, Marissa & Ilyana)

After the cultural performance by my cousins, all the guests were allowed to take the food served by way of buffet. While eating, we were entertained by a 20mins video clip of Tok Uteh / Tok Tan compiled by Aliya, Marissa & Ilyana. The clip shows the story about his early life until he retired as a General in the Malaysian Armed Forces. The video clip was definitely entertaining. I stopped eating the whole session just to enjoy it because it’s not often for you to get to see the rare old photo albums of your granduncle.

(Unc. Jaja @ Reza Ghazali the emcee of the day)

Next, the event was followed by Quizzes. The questions were mostly about our dear granduncle. Some of the questions were; 1. What’s his full name? 2. What doesn’t he eat? 3. What’s his motto in life? 4. What was his nickname when he was young? Etc. To answer these questions, each of us were required to flap our wings, not raising our hands. I manage to answer 1 question. Yana present me a gift for manage to answer that question. It was a box of chocolate! Woohoo! J

(Playing BINGO with my siblings)

After that, we were all given a BINGO card to play with. Though some people manage to get hold of more than 2 cards to increase their chances of winning the game :-p It was definitely an entertaining game. My little brother Mohamed Ridhuan Firdaus aged 7 years old were the youngest person to win the BINGO game that day. It was definitely the talk of the people! What a lucky fella!

(2nd cousins reunited)

Nearing the end of the event, we took once whole big family pictures. The elders & their offsprings, me & my cousins etc. I guess it could have been the biggest tagging picture ever I had. Sadly though the picture was not taken by my camera but some hired professional photographer hired for that day. Oh well, it’s a matter of time til I get 1 copy of it.

(The General's grand-nephew)

Anyway, it was a great day. I definitely enjoyed it.
Happy 80th Bday Tok Uteh! We will cherish our memories with you in our hearts & thoughts. As General Douglas McArthur once said during his Farewell Speech to The Congress “An old soldier never dies!”