The Lift

Still in the haj mood and at this very moment, miss my roommates at Maktab 90 in Mecca so much as we had spent almost 40 days together battling the hardships, sharing joys and sorrows and most importantly comforting each others ... and forgiven all the misdeeds...

I really miss them, Kak Fadzillah, the toughest and superb amongst us, Kak Siti, the most gentle and cool, Kak Yati, very talkative, friendly and informer (she used to get the fresh news offhand), Kak Aya, a happy go lucky and finally Shah, the healthiest pilgrim as she only had a slight cough while the rest of us were struggling with  heavy cough...

Our Maktab was about a kilometer from the Al-Haram and our room faced the 'Al-Mala' cemeteries. Well, it was not really a pleasant scenery but it was good to remind us of our next stations and lives. Our room was on the 7th floor of the 12th floor building. It was equipped with two lifts and about 2000 Malaysian pilgrims occupied the whole hotel.

So, the lifts were always packed especially after Isya prayer as we hurried to get to the cafeteria to get our prepacked meal as dinner was served from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. In order to avoid the long queue, both my husband and me would opt to take flight of stairs, which was 2 floors down from the lobby...for the first week...

The situation worsened as there were always clashed between those who just got back from Al-Haram pressed the 'down' button to the cafeteria and those from the 'surau' (located at the mezzanine floor) already occupied the lifts to their respective floors.

Today, there was entry in my fb about our pilgrims this year, from northern states, were scared to get out of the lift as they claimed the lift would gobble their heads once they get out, so they were yo-yo, up and down in the lift while their other counterparts had completed their umrah.

Astaghfirullah, I pitied them...during my time, I came across a few oldies who were also scared but as time flies they got used and overcome their fears. Hopefully, Tabung Haji will relook into this matter and get the pilgrims familiarise with lifts before they boarded.

Even, the escalators in the Al-Haram are hazardous as some pilgrims were scared and started to ding dong ... by seconds the place was jam packed and people started to push...I heard this year, the trains has been opened to public ...hopefully it goes smooth sailing and no tragedies.