The Stories of My Brother

If you ask me who the person in the family I miss the most is, I would say my little brother, Aiman. I miss his crazy stories, jokes, and insults. I want to dedicate today’s post for my most beloved brother, as tomorrow is his 12th birthday.

Aiman and I are very close. Unlike my little sister who tends to take everything seriously, my brother is someone who loves to laugh and make jokes. And I like THAT! He NEVER fails to make me laugh. When I am extremely bored, I always ask him to tell me ANY stories and they always make me entertain. He has this amazing high spirit when telling stories that makes his “audience” related to them. He would tell me about his least favourite teachers, school activities, and friends in a very funny way. He would sometimes speak Arabic with funny and heavy Egyptian accent perfectly (he has a Saudi accent by the way). He said that he always pays attention on how his teachers talk, as most of them are Egyptians. He would also imitate how Indians in Saudi Arabia speak Arabic. He criticised about their Arabic pronounciation, grammar, and typical Indian accent . For example, an Indian cleaning service at his school warned him, “Ana fi kalam mudir!” (What he meant was “I will talk to the principal!”) He explained to me that its grammar structure was totally wrong! “The Indian man was right… putting ‘Ana’ at the beginning of the sentence. But why did he have to put ‘fi’ afterwards??? He spoiled the whole thing!!!,” he said Oh, he is so smart!

He always complains, “What’s school for? What’s studying for? I hate it!! I want to play all day!!!” So I told him, “Why don’t you just QUIT???” But then he answered, “No… no. I can’t do that!” Hahaha. What a weird guy! My parents always ignore him when he starts to complain about his school. He hates school, but we know that he never fails to attend it! He always becomes a top 3 student in the class. When he talks about Maths and Religion, he always says that they are very easy! He often gets full mark for these subjects. But it’s different when he talks about Science. He said that he studies hard for it, but he never completely understood the subject.

I recently called him and asked him about his progress at school. He said that he got a rank of 3 in the class. He complained that he supposedly got the second place, but because he didn’t cut his hair, he got the third. Hahahaha. What a good excuse . FYI, his Arabic school is quite strict about hair… it must be cut every few months. He also told me about the next sport competition that he’s going to play. He said that his teacher asked him to choose the kind of sports he wanted to play to represent his school. There were 5 of them: basketball, football, handball, badminton, and tennis table. He then answered, “I want to choose ALL of them!” Hahaha. He’s very greedy . He said that he wants to smash the balls to his opponent, and he can’t wait for that! He is very good at sports. Last year he and his team won basketball, football, and volleyball competitions defeating many schools in Jeddah. He became a captain in those 3 teams. He is a striker and proudly said that he made most of the goals. He also won a tennis table competition in both his school and our Indonesian embassy! Hahaha. Can you imagine, an embassy!!! He defeated an adult who was much older than him! And he was only 11 years old. Gosh, I’m so proud of him!

Aiman once told me the story about his teacher. He proudly said, “You know what? The school principal really likes me. He believes me!” My brother said that he often comes into the office and talks to the principal. He would tell him about the least favourite teachers and the reason why he hated them and ask him to fire them! LOL. He once busted his teacher smoking in a secret place at school. He reported to the principal about it, and the teacher immediately got fired hahaha. He is indeed so mean. He complained to me, “The teacher said it’s haram (not allowed) to smoke. But he was the one who smoked cigarettes!!!” He also discovered that many of his teachers, who always wear shimagh and igal at school (covering their head), have a looong hair. He said, “It’s weird. I can’t grow my hair, even a tiny amount! But they have a long hair! It’s not fair.” That’s why I have to be careful when I prohibit him from doing something. I have to make sure that I haven’t done it before or else I have to give him a very clear explanation!

Unfortunately, he only likes to tell stories when I am presence. My mom said that he barely does it when I am not at home. Maybe because most of the people in the house are too busy to hear his stories . When I am at home, I’m always on vacation. That’s probably why I am always available for him. He always calls me “Kakak” (meaning older sister), but he never wants to call my sister with the same name although she is 5 years older than him (so naughty, eh? ). He always calls her with her nickname, Ira (full name: Amirah). He is a known procrastinator and very stubborn — these two are the “basic” personalities of my dad and I . But he always follows my orders and commands. Everytime my mom and sister tell him to take a shower, he never wants to do it right away! They have to remind him over and over again until they get sick of it. But thank God he is obedient when I order him to do something. I have a full control of him .

So I take advantage of that. If he is in good mood, I’d tell him that it’s not good to do this and that. He listens to it very carefully, but he always has a point to make. He was born when my family’s financial situation was improved. He never really experienced “the other side of life.” My dad pampers him with toys and gadgets — something that my mom and I are always against!!!! When he asks dad to buy something, I always tells him “No, you can’t get it! Dad won’t get it for you!” Then he would reply, “Aha! You are jealous. Dad, see. She is so jealous of me. Why can’t you just ask Dad to buy it for you?” Hahahaha. Then a week later, he and dad stop by at the shop secretly and buy something that he wants. Yeah, he wins. He’s also very “big” about branded stuffs… like Nike, Billabong, etc. But this time he always loses. My mom is the one who buys him all of his clothes. Whenever he asks for a specific brand, she always gets him the fake one hahahaha. Thankfully he still wears those clothes, though he complained about it . So, I lectured him that it’s not good to ask so many things to our parents and that brands are not important. But then he cut our conversation by saying, “No! Mom is the one who buys me branded stuff. I didn’t ask for it!” I knew about it and it happened very rarely! Maybe once or twice –it’s sort of a “gift” after he achieved something. But he made a big deal out of it… compared to those requests he always made to our parents! Hfff.