My daughters call me Bapak. They call Yan, Mak. Simple. Very basic.
Both Yan and I call our fathers and mothers, bapak and mak jugak. When I was younger, I remember that many others - friends and cousins - call their fathers, abah. At one point, my brothers and I pun musykil jugak. Why bapak?
Anyway I just remembered that my Mak Temoh called her father (my Tok Temoh) ayah while almarhum bapak called his father, abah. Macamana boleh jadik bapak ni? And get this, both my parents called their mothers, Encik. Funny, is it not? Well, in the good old days ramai my sedara mara call their mother, Encik. Why? Don't ask me. It's a Perak thing, I guess.
Apapun, there's one time when I was in secondary school and somehow I managed to incur almarhum Bapak's wrath (can't remember why though, must be something about my report card, oh well!). Bapak simply went berserk and boomed at me:
"Kepala bapak kamu!!!!"
And I just stood there trying to restrain myself from bursting out laughing. Gila nak gelak, but I was very kecut then.
