Anatomy of a Bruneian sentence

“Kids baru balik dari swimming,” announces my sister in our family Whatsapp group chat, “we inda join jemaah.”

She is talking about our nightly congregation at maghrib, the one obligatory prayer for which my father would avail himself at home, to worship with the rest of the family. He prefers to offer the other four mandatory prayers at the village mosque. It is a ritual that takes a great chunk of the day. The nationwide circuit-breaker during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown must have been hard on him. Years of post-retirement routine upended. Thankfully, it did not last long, at least not in Brunei.

My sister adds, “We singgah arah night market, tapau ayam salai for dinner. Anyone berkirim?”

Me, I silently reply. Sometimes, I text that back at them, which often results in a promise to belanja me when I come back home. Otherwise, one world reply in emojis. The 🙄. The 😝. The 😂. I quite like the roll in 🤣, but I do not get that often.

I put down the phone and turn to my non-Bruneian friend, ask her ‘Can you pass me the salt, please?’ and smile at the reverberation in my head.

“Eh, pass ku the garam ah.”

-

This piece was originally published in Poetry & Miscellany.