Ariff Iqhwan

ariff iqhwan, his name means 'one who knows of brotherhood' but clearly that is not the case at the moment. ariff is currently on a mission against asyraf. when it comes to asyraf, ariff turns into mafia...a weapon-weilding, ass-kicking, fist-throwing, nail-scratching mafia.

it irks me to the core whenever i talk about ariff's violence only to get comments like 'no...he's so cool, no...he's a softie, no...he wouldnt do that'. yeah...like hell-u, were you actually there when it happened. jangan cakap you werent there, you werent even 2million metres near him!

ariff, generally, is easy. he can entertain himself, usually with his number of cars, his string of trains, his rownie. or he'll play alongside akmal, playing with thomas, watching the telly with him. he's wonderful during meal times. he'll sit quietly from the word go till he finishes every single item on his plate (and then some). he's great in the car, he'll sit quietly in his car seat, looking out of the window. he's excellent when it comes to nap time, he will fall asleep on his own way, before others.

but take those away, and you're left with a boy who refuses to budge whenever he's given instructions, a boy who puts his head under running water and come out gasping for breath, a boy who cant stand the sight of his abang and does everything he can to show that, a boy who is a terrible, horrible patient who screams and whines and cries at the hint of slight fever (he's been that way since he was a wee baby).

for now, out of the 4 ariff's the worst when we're at home. he's difficult to talk to, he's terrible when we're giving instructions, he shouts and screams, he bulldozes his way down the stairs, he opens and shuts and locks the doors, the plays with remotes on the bedside table, he pushes his trains and cars to and fro in front of the tv. his worst attitude is his vendetta against his abang asyraf. nothing and everything asyraf does is not acceptable to him, not asyraf's jumping, his running, his hands clapping, his colouring, his cough, his sneeze, his snore, the way he sits, the way he bathes, the way he talks. if ever asyraf were to step an inch over the boundaries ariff has set, its world war 3. ariff will run and run and run after asyraf, hitting him with anything in his way be it thomas, a helicopter, shrek, woody, the remote, a pen, anything he can grab hold of.

when we're out however, ariff takes on another persona. he's relaxed, he's quiet, he listens, he obeys (as much as he could), he says 2 words in an hour and, most importantly, he ignores asyraf and the lack of shouting and screaming and hitting and scratching and the crying that follows, make the world a beautiful place.

in school, his teachers say ariff is extra helpful. helpful in the sense that he brings his classmates bags to the door, sometimes passing the bags to their parents. ariff gets special treatment from his kak yus and sometimes, from his cikgu fatim. they are actually the carer of babies. his own class teacher, cikgu sally is not so soft with him. but when she scolds him, there comes kak yus to save him. one of the way to make ariff angry is to say 'nanti babab kak yus' then ariff with get all protective-like and shouts 'eiiii tak bolehhhh!!' spoilt boy!

ariff is the echo. he echoes everything abang long and abang says. his 2 elder brothers have 400 stories everyday on the way home from school. ariff, who is in a different school and are with toddler classmates, have no stories to tell. that and he hasnt really adopted the story telling character. so rather than being left out in the car, he would shout out every now and then with 'cikgu sally naik motor', 'ariff pakai baju red' or his very famous 'ehhh busssss'.

ariff has the worst pelat case in history. its difficult to understand what he wants to say, only amir, his mummy and occasionally asyraf understand his language. mok nak run rang rang means 'ariff nak turun sorang-sorang', 'nak we we' means 'nak dua dua'. ariff now is slowly learning to say the one word he has never said in his life - ariff. he is learning to drop the word 'mok' and use the word 'ariff'. he regused initially, then slowly used 'ariff mok' sort of to still stick to his normal 'name' but will open to using mummy and daddy's name, now have progressed to using 'ariff' on a regular basis.

ariff's favourite line is 'anti mok atam ye' (nanti mok datang ye). that's his line whenever he bids anyone farewell. while people would use the normal (and simple) 'bye', ariff would be going all 'anti mok atam ye' to his parents, his brothers, his teachers, his aunties even to the stray cat that walks past our porch. its as though he wants to tell everyone that he'll come back, not to worry. sorta like arnie's trademark 'i'll be back' but, well, not exactly like that.

ariff has a lot of character, honestly. he has a lot of sides to himself. a lot of people see the 'outdoor' ariff, not the 'indoor' or 'in school' ariff. that's what pisses me off when i talk about ariff because people find it hard to see him in other light and make it seem like we're telling tales about him. telling tales is one thing but there are also people who seem to 'know' ariff...without even meeting him, or meeting him only once, twice, three times. again, that's the 'outdoor' ariff. trust his mother, trust his father...there are other sides to ariff iqhwan.