Walk In The Stream After Ismail Zain.

Ismail Zain atau panggilan mesranya yang biasa dipanggil 'Pak Mail' oleh ramai student dan juga pensyarah adalah Tuan Guru yang terulung pernah mengajar aku Drawing di Fine Art School dulu. Dia juga aku kategorikan sebagai The Grand
Master Artist Of Malaysia who was once upon a time had taught me how to really draw.Aku akan sentiasa menganggapnya sebagai Legenda yang terhebat di Malaysia dalam Seni Tampak.

Orangnya sederhana,bersuara serak-serak basah 'husky',garau bukan sembarangan,penuh dengan enigmanya yang tersendiri.Tapi aku ni...pulak agaknya antara anak-anak muridnya yang tak berapa jadi kot?!


Dalam studio,ada sekali tuu... tatkala mula briefing pasal drawing,tiba-tiba suaranya
terhenti,menghala mukanya ke pintu dan terus dia keluar dari studio.Senyap & terchengang kami!Mana pulak dia nak pergi...
sebentar kemudian ada rakan bagi tau.. dia tengah relax minum kat kantin tingkat bawah!

Ada sekali tu,bila kami tak bagi respon dengan soalan-soalannya,kami terus dichop
sebagai kambing aqiqah.Dungu!Selamba!! Senang!!!bila-bila pun kasi tarik dan sembelih.....
Aduh!!! adoi...kami ni..macam art student nii = kambing Qeqah...padan muka kami!

Ada waktunya sekali tuu..dia menunjukkan
nat dengan lukisan aku sambil menyatakan
"ini dah OK!Kalau hempas pintu studio kuat-kuat pun tak jatuh!!! Aku
pun ter????? Agaknya dia puji aku kot???

Aku juga pernah ke kebun buahnya somewhere kat Negeri Sembilan rasanya?!!
Bermalam di pondok kat tepi sungai,berbual pasal seni,pokok pisang,durian,sungai,durian,
sungai, ikan dan macam-macam lagi.Ada jugak sekali-sekala bermalam dirumahnya di Ampang sambil duduk atas 'kusyen tukang gunting rambut' koleksinya.Puan Wairah pun ada jugak sekali sekala melayan kami.Syokk......nya...waktu-waktu macam tuu!Setianya aku waktu itu persis anak murid mengaji di sekolah pondok. Oooii...dapat berkat tok guru...! !!

Dia jugalah yang bersungguh-sungguh menyuruh aku dan Hasnul menggunakan namanya
untuk mendapatkan bisnes tatkala aku mula membuka Art & Design Services atau NNT
di Damansara.Katanya "anak saya make a lot of money....guna nama sayala!..tak apa!!..."
Akhirnya dapat jugak kami bisnes rekaset pentas di KL CityHall ketika itu.Tok Guru punya pasal....kira OK!la...

Ada sekali tu...di awal mengenalinya aku memberanikan diri menyuarakan pandangan aku tentang karyanya Al-Rumi sekitar tahun1986-87 semasa pameran seni Digitalnya yang terulung.Dalam keriuhan majlis,aku mendekatinya sambil berkata "ada persimmon bersama-sama manggis".Dia hanya mengangguk tanda setuju.Terus aku selamba dan direct meminta maksud kata-kata Al-Rumi "I have lived on the lip of insanity wanting to know reason,knocking on a door ..............Its open,I've been knocking from the inside" memohon diberitahu. "Hmm..someday you will......." sambil berlalu melayani tetamu-tetamu kehormat yang lain. Makna dan Icon dalam karya Ismail Zain memang hebat walaupun ketika itu Digital printing nya terlalu sederhana yang juga membawa pengertian tersendirinya.

Ironinya,kata-kata Al-Rumi inilah yang bertahun-tahun menghambat aku mencari maknanya
di perantauan.Bayangkan tercari-cari maknanya sepertimana aku yang mudanya ketika itu menyusuri makna- makna kehidupan.Namun tatkala aku di Mexico dulu, suatu hari aku tersentak bangun dari separuh tidur.Terkejutnya aku!Makna kata-kata Al Rumi tiba-tiba berada didepan mata.
Terus rasa tak sabar ingin menaliponnya memberitahu bahawa aku telah menemui maknanya
kata-kata Al Rumi itu. Aku terus call rakanku Hasnul yang ketika itu berada di Albany New York, ingin bertanya khabar Pak Mail dan.........alangkah terkejut dan kecewanya aku bila
di beritahu yang Pak Mail baru saja meninggal dunia. Frustnya aku!The Iconographer had
passed away!!Damn it !!!?3*@........... terkilannya aku tak sempat nak bagi tahu dia.....

Lalu teringat lagi pada koleksi tulisannya dalam DEWAN BUDAYA yang aku collect dulu-dulu.Entah kemana perginya...??I still miss this guy so much and so dearly until today.
Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat keatas rohnya.Amin...
TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH.
Ismail Zain or 'Pak Mail' as called by all art student was a very passionate lecturer and was also a great master whom had taught me on how to really draw.I also categorised him as The Grand Master Artist Of Malaysia.I will also consider him as the great legend in Malaysian Visual Art History.
A simple guy with husky voice but full of enigma.As for him.... I am maybe one of his not so finished student.Maybe??
Once upon a time.... early in the morning, while giving us a briefing in a drawing class, he just suddenly shut his mouth, briefly watch the door and out he go..... Leaving us quiet,dumbfounded and surprised......where did he go? ....later a friend shouted from outside that he was at the cafe...taking breakfast...
There is also time, when we were not so responding to his lecture, that he started accusing us of like a sacrificial goat which is so very easy to be sacrifise,cut and cooked and eaten...what a shame...!!
I also recalled once, he put an interest in my drawing and say that "this is enough,it wont crash even if you knocked out the door hardly". I just go numb.......is he complementing me or...??
A friend and I had also went to his orchard somewhere in NS. I guess? Sleeping in a tent near the river,talking arts, walk in the river,talk about fruit,river and then fruit again,fish and many many more subject.Sometime overnight sleep at his house in Ampang,sitting on one of his barbershop's chair collection.Puan Wairah was also around entertaining us.Nice memory though.We are the most obedient student a teacher could get!!!
He was also keenly asking us to use his name if to get any new business when Hasnul and I start Art & Design Services or NNT in Damansara.He said that his sibling made a lot of money by using his name.Well!Its true,we got our first contract to design a stage set in the KL City Centre.Master Jedi had shown his power ............
Earlier year in 1986,during his first Digital Exhibition at Balai Senilukis Negara.It was really crowded with arts enthusias at that time and I just bravely approach him by saying that "there is persimmon among the mangosteen".He just nodded.
Then I just directly inquire the meaning of Al Rumi "I have lived on the lip of reason,wanting answer,knocking on a door....It's open,I've been knocking from the inside".He just replied that "someday you will" and swiftly walking among the crowd nodding all those dignitaries.His works is really a masterpiece,simple but yet full of iconic meaning with its own deep significant.
Ironically, it was this phrases from Al Rumi that came haunting me all those years abroad,it was during my stay in Mexico ..... I just suddenly woke up from a dream realizing that I already found the meaning of the Al Rumi's words.I hurriedly call Hasnul in Albany New York assuming that he knew the contact number of Ismail Zain.Sadly I was told that Ismail Zain just passed away.......
It was so damn frustrating..... the Icon had gone away and I .....I used to collect his writing in Dewan Budaya's magazine and just dont know where it is ....now....!!
I still miss this guy so much and so dearly until today.May God Bless His Soul.....Amen.