My mom is my dad's murukku.

My dad is an avid fan of murukku. I can see that when he is eating his murukku, he cuts a peaceful figure, watching Buletin Utama, with his kain pelikat and omnipresent baju pagoda.

My parents are sitting in front of me. My dad is sitting like an Indian Maharaja, legs on coffee table and his hands folded behind his head. My mom is sitting on the floor in front of my dad, with her arms on my dad's lap,crossing it.

My mom and dad has been married for 25 years. I have never seen my dad raise his voice against my mom and vice versa. My dad almost never calls my mom by her name. He would only call her by her name if he's joking around. He would call her Che Yah, just to spike my mom off for no reason. When my mom makes a sour face, he would than laugh his heart out and look at us, expecting us to join him laughing. Most of the time we would.

My dad would almost exclusively call my mom "yang", short form for "sayang". My mom would interchange the words she used to call my dad. Sometimes she calls him abang, ayah or darling. But most of the time she would use the word "yang"

My dad's number in my mom's phone is saved as "Darl"

My mom's number, in my dad's phone is saved as "Zahirah"

You would think my dad would be the less romantic of the two but believe me, my mom is my dad's murukku: He can't live without her. There was this one time my mom went out for a foot massage with my uncle and aunty. Ten minutes passed until my dad finally lost it:

"Call mama..tanya bila nak balik..dah lewat ni"

My dad, the usually ridiculously early sleeper waited for my mom to come home before he finally went to bed. My mom came home within an hour but faham faham sahajalah..kalau sepuluh minit keluar pun dah suruh call tanya bila nak balik...one hour must have felt like eons to him.

I pray to god that I too, will have a relationship with my future wife that is as loving and cute as my parents :)