A couple of years ago I visited my grand uncle, Tok Mimi, who I’ve always known to be a great storyteller from my mom’s side of the family. He was a charismatic man with an animated and artistic flair in his storytelling. He was also a musician in his younger days while he was an officer at Jabatan Perhilitan Negara.
This visit, was the last time that I spoke to him.
While dining over a staple Aidilfitri meal, our conversation centered around his band days. I always knew he could play music, but never knew that he was in a band.
His band would play shows around the Malayan peninsular, and sometimes host bands from Indonesia and Thailand when they would play in town. And he would invite them to his house and have a big feast after the show and exchange stories and laughs.
That sent some chills up my spine, as it sounds a bit too familiar to me. As most of my work revolved around music in the region.
I then asked him, “Apa nama band Tok Mimi?”.
To which he replied “Bayangan Sukma”.
Photo via Lenggong TV
At this point, my entire body had goosebumps that kicked off my thinking frenzy. I had been playing as Bayangan for about 2 years at this time and have never heard of his band name prior to this conversation.
Is this a mere coincidence – that both of us had a similar experience and used a similar name, or could it be something to do with the genetics or an inherited personality?
I have been trying to figure it out, out of my own curiosity, if there is some sort of scientific explanation to this. From a mystical perspective, well..
Genetics / Turun Temurun
Maybe a specific non-shared experience can trigger a certain type of personality trait (in this case, musicality) in a person that might be similar to their parents or grandparents or someone in their family tree. That experience, hanya Tuhan yang tahu. There could be a trillion possibilities, but both of us had this almost identical experience.
I came across this page on behavioral and molecular genetics recently that sparked this writing. Here are some key takeaways:
I guess what’s meant to be, will be.
Al-fatihah (dibaca) untuk Tok Mimi.
FF