I am in Ho CHi Mihn City this week. No not for the APEC meeting! So while waiting for my flight back to Singapore, I posted this Part 11 for you guys. This part just tells you, as a prelude of our family growing up in Telok Anson. Many a stories there to tell later as we stayed 4 long years there. The longest that we ever stayed in one place. So here goes....
When we got back to Malaysia from UK, we stayed with our Grandma Tok Bi at their Wadi Hassan house in JB. It was cramped but comfortable. I am sure you remember the house that I mentioned earlier.
Meanwhile, before Bah got his new posting, he was attached temporarily at the Teachers’ College in JB. The following week Bah came back home with a new car. It was a Peugeot 403, quite a big and comfortable car. I loved that car because many years later, I took my driving test with it.
Bah put us i.e. my brother and I back to the same school, i.e. Ngee Heng Primary. It was a funny feeling coming back to the same school that I started with on my first year of schooling. Then everything looked huge or large. Now that we were that much older, i.e. Primary 6 & 5 respectively, everything looked small. The playing field that I thought then was so large, was no bigger than the garden at Bah’s Stulang Darat’s house. The primary 1 boys looked so small…..
Anyway, lessons were ok as the medium of instruction in those days were in English. When it came to the Malay language class, I was totally flabbergasted because I realised I couldn’t read Malay! When I was asked to read aloud, I was like an illiterate who had just started to learn to read. I had to spell it out in my mind as quickly as I could, literally word for word. Of course all that while, my classmates were snickering behind me. It took me many months later of intensive reading that at last I could read Malay without faltering.
Bah received his posting about a month later. It was to Telok Anson (now called Teluk Intan) in Perak. Bah went earlier himself to get settled and ready for us to come. After a couple of week, he came back and we had to start loading our stuffs into 2 or 3 train boxes. After that was done, we were ready to leave JB.
On the day we were to leave, very early in the morning, we had to load the car with whatever stuffs were had to bring. The boot was fully loaded to the brim, but Bah had installed a roof rack, and we stacked the rest of the stuff on top of the car, covered them with canvas in case it rained, and tied them down. When I stepped back to look, the car looked quite funny, more like a commercial lorry than a car.
Inside it was full. Bah was driving. Mum sat in front with Fuzi who was a year or two old by then. At the back was my brother, Fizah, Noni and myself. Being elder, my brother and I got seats by the window. I wasn’t keen on the journey as I was prone to motion sickness. In those days, such a journey lasted more than 8 hours. 6 hours to KL and another 2 to 3 to Telok Anson.
As a note, you would have noticed that Noni came with us. She had stayed back with Tok Bi and Mak Siti while we were in the UK. I guessed Bah and mum wanted the whole family to be together now.
The journey to Telok Anson was not memorable except that we stopped quite often along the way for toilet break and coffee, lunch and late tea. Also, I must confess, we had to stopped several times for me (I mentioned that I was prone to motion sickness right!).
When we arrived, it was already dark. Our house was a typical large government bungalow, with 2 main bedroom, large sitting hall, and huge dinning area with dinning table for 12. The kitchen was big and annexed to the house were 3 more rooms possibly for the maids.
Bah warned us before we started exploring that we were not to go onto the garden area, which was very huge. He said that this town was infested with cobra snakes and they are there even in our garden. I hate snakes!!!
The week was taken for us to settle in. Our train load of stuffs arrived. Of course during this time, mum was like a tough general, telling us what to do with the stuff, where to put them etc. It was very trying not to mention tiring.
Bah, mum and Fuzi had the master bedroom while my brother, Noni, Fizah and I had the room opposite them. Our room was like a dormitory, with 4 single beds lined up side by side.
School came next. My brother and I were enrolled in St. Anthony’s School (boys only) while Noni was enrolled at the HIJ Convent. These schools were directly opposite each other. Fizah was not of schooling age yet then during our first year there.
The routine was taking place. Bah took us to school in the morning and picked us up after. He found a piano teacher for me and a violin teacher for my brother and I. The violin teacher was actually my music and arts teacher in school.
So life continued in its own way for us, in a new place, new school and new friends………
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Growing Up Part X
I know it’s been a looooong time since I posted my next instalment of Growing Up. Better late than never…..
It was that time after 2 wonderful years in Wolverhampton, UK that we now had to head back home to Malaysia. It felt strange then because when we left for the UK, home was Malaya, and now we were headed home to what it’s called now, Malaysia. Guess you guys out there must be smirking at me telling my age!
About a month before we were to leave, my late Uncle Daud came to visit us because he was had to bring home our naval patrol boats. Uncle Daud was in the Navy. We had the opportunity go to the docks and visited his ship, and whilst inside, I saw a cabin door that was labelled “Magazine.” Being young and naïve, I smiled at Uncle Daud and asked why must all the “Playboy” magazines be kept in a locked cabinet? You probably guessed right that he laughed his head off.
Anyway, he sailed off the next day and we went back to our hotel in Southampton. What were we doing there? Well actually all of us were going back home by the cruise liner P&O. Can you imagine that!
My brother and shared a cabin whilst Bah and mom & Fizah in another. We were in the First Class. It was really luxury to the extreme. My Aunt had a berth in the economy class as Bah had to pay for her personally.
That night we went up on deck as the ship lifted its anchor and sailed out of the harbour. It was a sad feeling watching the country you stayed for sometime getting further and further away as the ship sailed away. I hadto wipe a tear away.
We slept nicely in our bunk beds but were rudely awakened with the ship’s rocking left to right & bow to stern. We were in the Bay of Biscay, the open sea out of the English Channel. It was terrible. I was sea-sick the whole time. I couldn’t understand why Bah and my brother didn't have a problem. It was infuriating but I didn’t have the energy to be angry with my brother, too sick to do that.
Everything became heavenly as soon as we nosed into the Mediterranean Sea. It was calm and the weather nice and warm. There were many things to do on board the ship. We could go swimming, watch movies, play table tennis and also made a few friend along the way.
What I liked about the trip home was that the ship stopped in many harbours. The first was Aden before we cross the Suez Canal. We were allowed go down and tour the towns too. Crossing the Suez Canal was an amzing experience. The ship was so slow that along the bank where we were watching from the deck, an Arab boy was cycling along with the ship. You know what, he was faster than we were!
As we got into the Arabian Sea, our next stop was Bombay. Bah was so excited about visiting Bombay. I didn’t know why at that time. When we got down into Bombay, Bah brought us along as if he knew the place. He was mentioning it was just like back home. He pointed out to the “kacang putih” seller (this is a person who sell different types of nuts). As the norm, he carried his goods on top of his head. Bah stopped him and he put down his tray. What surprised me was that Bah bought some speaking in Malay! What was more astonishing was that the Indian kacang putih man seemed to understand him! Nowadays, I frequent Bombay (now called Mumbai) a lot in my line of work, I do think of Bah at times especially when I see a kacang putih seller.
Colombo in Ceylon was the next port of call. After that, we crossedthe Indian Ocean and next port was Penang. Home at last!
Of course Bah had to bring us to meet some relatives in Penang. We even went to the Botanical Garden. Fizah had the worst experience in Penang. A monkey snatched the fruit from her hand and that frightened her a lot. Later, Bah bought bunch of rambutans. While we were eating them, Fizah suddenly started screaming her head off. We didn’t know what as wrong until she showed an ant crawling up her arm. Can you imaging that she had not seen an ant before!
Back on board, just one more night and we were to disembark in Singapore the next day. As it was the last day, I thought I might as swim at the pool while I could. My brother had beaten me to it. He had left earlier in the morning for the pool. As I was about to get into the swimming trunk, I noticed it wasn’t mine. It was my brother’s because the string that tightens the trunk was missing. OK, as it was the last day I didn’t want to spoil it. So I used it, a bit loose, but it was alright. Went to the pool and started swimming. Saw my brother there and gave me the dirtiest look I could. The pool was nice but crowded. I had to keep pulling up the trunk from time to time, but it was alright, until I step out of the pool, and a group of boys jumped in dragging in with them. I was caught by surprise. Not being the best of swimmers, my first priority was to get much needed air into my lungs. I kicked the bottom as hard as I could to surface and managed grabbed the side wall.
Coughing out water and gasping for air, I was oblivious to those around me. All I knew was that I had to hang for dear life onto the side of the pool. Until I started to hear laughter around me and my brother swimming frantically towards me. He said in a serious tone, that my trunk was covering my ankles……..
I will not comment any further on this issue nor tell you how I overcame that embarrassing situation nor the conclusion of it. I just like to say that life is not fair to the second born.
We harboured in Singapore. My Pak Long Dang (Bah's eldest sibling) was there to meet us with an entourage of family members. I can’t recall how all of us got into the small cars or where our large amount of baggage went. All I knew and wanted then was to cross the Causeway and back home, sweet home.
It was that time after 2 wonderful years in Wolverhampton, UK that we now had to head back home to Malaysia. It felt strange then because when we left for the UK, home was Malaya, and now we were headed home to what it’s called now, Malaysia. Guess you guys out there must be smirking at me telling my age!
About a month before we were to leave, my late Uncle Daud came to visit us because he was had to bring home our naval patrol boats. Uncle Daud was in the Navy. We had the opportunity go to the docks and visited his ship, and whilst inside, I saw a cabin door that was labelled “Magazine.” Being young and naïve, I smiled at Uncle Daud and asked why must all the “Playboy” magazines be kept in a locked cabinet? You probably guessed right that he laughed his head off.
Anyway, he sailed off the next day and we went back to our hotel in Southampton. What were we doing there? Well actually all of us were going back home by the cruise liner P&O. Can you imagine that!
My brother and shared a cabin whilst Bah and mom & Fizah in another. We were in the First Class. It was really luxury to the extreme. My Aunt had a berth in the economy class as Bah had to pay for her personally.
That night we went up on deck as the ship lifted its anchor and sailed out of the harbour. It was a sad feeling watching the country you stayed for sometime getting further and further away as the ship sailed away. I hadto wipe a tear away.
We slept nicely in our bunk beds but were rudely awakened with the ship’s rocking left to right & bow to stern. We were in the Bay of Biscay, the open sea out of the English Channel. It was terrible. I was sea-sick the whole time. I couldn’t understand why Bah and my brother didn't have a problem. It was infuriating but I didn’t have the energy to be angry with my brother, too sick to do that.
Everything became heavenly as soon as we nosed into the Mediterranean Sea. It was calm and the weather nice and warm. There were many things to do on board the ship. We could go swimming, watch movies, play table tennis and also made a few friend along the way.
What I liked about the trip home was that the ship stopped in many harbours. The first was Aden before we cross the Suez Canal. We were allowed go down and tour the towns too. Crossing the Suez Canal was an amzing experience. The ship was so slow that along the bank where we were watching from the deck, an Arab boy was cycling along with the ship. You know what, he was faster than we were!
As we got into the Arabian Sea, our next stop was Bombay. Bah was so excited about visiting Bombay. I didn’t know why at that time. When we got down into Bombay, Bah brought us along as if he knew the place. He was mentioning it was just like back home. He pointed out to the “kacang putih” seller (this is a person who sell different types of nuts). As the norm, he carried his goods on top of his head. Bah stopped him and he put down his tray. What surprised me was that Bah bought some speaking in Malay! What was more astonishing was that the Indian kacang putih man seemed to understand him! Nowadays, I frequent Bombay (now called Mumbai) a lot in my line of work, I do think of Bah at times especially when I see a kacang putih seller.
Colombo in Ceylon was the next port of call. After that, we crossedthe Indian Ocean and next port was Penang. Home at last!
Of course Bah had to bring us to meet some relatives in Penang. We even went to the Botanical Garden. Fizah had the worst experience in Penang. A monkey snatched the fruit from her hand and that frightened her a lot. Later, Bah bought bunch of rambutans. While we were eating them, Fizah suddenly started screaming her head off. We didn’t know what as wrong until she showed an ant crawling up her arm. Can you imaging that she had not seen an ant before!
Back on board, just one more night and we were to disembark in Singapore the next day. As it was the last day, I thought I might as swim at the pool while I could. My brother had beaten me to it. He had left earlier in the morning for the pool. As I was about to get into the swimming trunk, I noticed it wasn’t mine. It was my brother’s because the string that tightens the trunk was missing. OK, as it was the last day I didn’t want to spoil it. So I used it, a bit loose, but it was alright. Went to the pool and started swimming. Saw my brother there and gave me the dirtiest look I could. The pool was nice but crowded. I had to keep pulling up the trunk from time to time, but it was alright, until I step out of the pool, and a group of boys jumped in dragging in with them. I was caught by surprise. Not being the best of swimmers, my first priority was to get much needed air into my lungs. I kicked the bottom as hard as I could to surface and managed grabbed the side wall.
Coughing out water and gasping for air, I was oblivious to those around me. All I knew was that I had to hang for dear life onto the side of the pool. Until I started to hear laughter around me and my brother swimming frantically towards me. He said in a serious tone, that my trunk was covering my ankles……..
I will not comment any further on this issue nor tell you how I overcame that embarrassing situation nor the conclusion of it. I just like to say that life is not fair to the second born.
We harboured in Singapore. My Pak Long Dang (Bah's eldest sibling) was there to meet us with an entourage of family members. I can’t recall how all of us got into the small cars or where our large amount of baggage went. All I knew and wanted then was to cross the Causeway and back home, sweet home.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Growing Up Part IX
Let see what else did we do while in the UK.
The family went to an outing to London. It was sometime in autumn where the weather was cool enough for us to need our overcoats. Bah was in a good holiday mood. He bought us a matchbox car each. I chose a Ferrari, red colour of course. I can’t remember what my brother chose. Anyway, very excited and happy with it, that I refused mum to put it together in her shopping bag. I wanted to carry it myself and put in my overcoat pocket.
From time to time I took off my coat whenever I felt warm. When not wearing it, I carried it across my arm. Whilst following mum with her shopping, I would find a place to sit and wait for her. A while later, after going passed a number of outlets, mum asked me where my overcoat was? I looked around hoping that either my brother or Bah was carrying it. Unfortunately neither of them was. So we had to back track to search for it. You can guess that it was gone and truly lost. Mum was grumbling saying how careless I was and how expensive it was. We still have the coming winter to contend with and she did not want to waste money unnecessarily to buy me a new one.
All this while, I felt very guilty and quite sad because of my carelessness. While having tea at a restaurant before heading home, Dad said to me not to worry about it anymore. Perhaps we could ask Mr. Badar to hand us down his son’s coat before they leave home for Malaysia in a month’s time. Well it didn’t actually cheer me up because I did like that coat as it kept me warm and dry during winter, especially walking to and from school. I guessed my sad facial expression showed. Mum looked at me and commented that I was not sad because of losing the coat, but because I had lost the matchbox car! It wasn’t true but that was not the time to argue with her. I could feel her dying to clip my ears or something, but she can’t, being in a public area. So going home was a drag as I was expecting her to let herself loose on me. Such a wonderful start to the day’s outing spoilt by my own carelessness!!
What happened when we reached home? Nothing because I pretended to sleep all the way until we reached home. Smart you may thing, but you do not want to be at the wrong end of mum’s wrath. Must be the Dutch blood in her. Anyway, to make up, I was very attentive to her that whole week and was at my best behaviour, most of the time.
A tragedy happened at the college one night. One of the student girls' hostel caught fire. I remembered that 3 girls died that night. The reason I brought this up was to remind you of Bah. He took the lead in almost everything. He had to identify the girls at the morgue, he telegrammed their parents, and he made all the necessary arrangement to prepare the bodies to be flown home. Bah had this natural leadership quality which he seldom showed, but it usually goes into overdrive in events of adversity. It was a sad tragedy for us all at the college and it took quite a while to get over it. The girls that escaped the fire came over to our house frequently. I didn’t understand why then, but now I would guess that they were there as a form of therapy from Bah to get them to over the trauma they went through. Don’t forget that Bah being an educationist is also quite a psychologist. I can tell you later of cases where I succumbed to his psychology.
Each morning in school, all students and teachers had to assemble in the hall for morning prayers. This was done before lessons began. I was exempted and usually spent the time alone in the class. My teacher was quite strict. He confiscates anything that did not belong in class, like marbles, toys, comics etc. He would take from you and put in his desk drawer. I never saw him returning anything that he confiscated.
One day during my time alone in class, curiosity got the better of me. I went over to his desk and opened the drawer where he kept the items. It was full of so many things that belonged to my classmates. I saw a Dandy comic that belonged to Andrew, confiscated the week before. I took it out of the drawer and hid it in my coat. When school ended, as we were walking home, I called out to Andrew, and looked behind my shoulders to check that no one was looking, I handed the comic book to him. He looked surprised, but before he could say anything, I walked away as fast as I could towards home. I wasn’t sure whether he appreciated it. If he didn't, then I would know the next day in school.
I felt rather guilty about what I did and dreaded going to school the next morning. Since I couldn’t find any good excuse not to go, I started off with my brother, although he kept calling to me to catch up with him. I was really dragging myself. At the school gate, Andrew was waiting for me with Paul, another of my classmate. He pulled me aside and with a smile he said thank you. The comic actually belonged to his elder brother and he couldn’t afford to buy a new one to replace it. So he said I had saved him from a good beating from his brother.
He asked me how I did it and I told him. Paul suddenly grabbed my arm pulling me towards him. Excitedly he asked me whether I could try to get back a whistle which the teacher took away from him the month before. I asked him for some detailed description of it. He said it was silver with the letters TG engraved. He said it was given to him by his grandfather before he died. His grandfather was a referee in the English football league. Actually, I didn’t want to do it anymore, but I said I would, but only just this once for him. I felt sorry for him losing something to remind him of his grandfather. I didn’t have anything from my late grandfather except for the memories.
Keeping it short, I passed the whistle back to Paul when school ended. I didn’t want to give it to him during school lest he took it out and the teacher would notice it, then I would definitely be in trouble if he found out that it was me who took it out from his desk. Paul appreciated the help from me. After that Andrew and Paul became my closest friends.
I didn’t look into the teacher’s drawer after returning Paul’s whistle, afraid that I might be caught. Anyway on the last day of school before the summer holidays, the teacher took all the stuffs he had confiscated during the year and laid it out on his desk. He told us to take back what was ours. I could have kicked myself then. I realised that the teacher didn’t know to whom the stuffs belonged to, nor could he remember what he had taken! I was kicking myself for losing the opportunity to be the most popular guy in class!!! If Andrew and Paul were that appreciative, I wondered how the girls would have reacted if I helped return to them their stuffs. Janet in particular, the farmer’s daughter whom I had a crush the whole year but dared not even speak to her!!!
The family went to an outing to London. It was sometime in autumn where the weather was cool enough for us to need our overcoats. Bah was in a good holiday mood. He bought us a matchbox car each. I chose a Ferrari, red colour of course. I can’t remember what my brother chose. Anyway, very excited and happy with it, that I refused mum to put it together in her shopping bag. I wanted to carry it myself and put in my overcoat pocket.
From time to time I took off my coat whenever I felt warm. When not wearing it, I carried it across my arm. Whilst following mum with her shopping, I would find a place to sit and wait for her. A while later, after going passed a number of outlets, mum asked me where my overcoat was? I looked around hoping that either my brother or Bah was carrying it. Unfortunately neither of them was. So we had to back track to search for it. You can guess that it was gone and truly lost. Mum was grumbling saying how careless I was and how expensive it was. We still have the coming winter to contend with and she did not want to waste money unnecessarily to buy me a new one.
All this while, I felt very guilty and quite sad because of my carelessness. While having tea at a restaurant before heading home, Dad said to me not to worry about it anymore. Perhaps we could ask Mr. Badar to hand us down his son’s coat before they leave home for Malaysia in a month’s time. Well it didn’t actually cheer me up because I did like that coat as it kept me warm and dry during winter, especially walking to and from school. I guessed my sad facial expression showed. Mum looked at me and commented that I was not sad because of losing the coat, but because I had lost the matchbox car! It wasn’t true but that was not the time to argue with her. I could feel her dying to clip my ears or something, but she can’t, being in a public area. So going home was a drag as I was expecting her to let herself loose on me. Such a wonderful start to the day’s outing spoilt by my own carelessness!!
What happened when we reached home? Nothing because I pretended to sleep all the way until we reached home. Smart you may thing, but you do not want to be at the wrong end of mum’s wrath. Must be the Dutch blood in her. Anyway, to make up, I was very attentive to her that whole week and was at my best behaviour, most of the time.
A tragedy happened at the college one night. One of the student girls' hostel caught fire. I remembered that 3 girls died that night. The reason I brought this up was to remind you of Bah. He took the lead in almost everything. He had to identify the girls at the morgue, he telegrammed their parents, and he made all the necessary arrangement to prepare the bodies to be flown home. Bah had this natural leadership quality which he seldom showed, but it usually goes into overdrive in events of adversity. It was a sad tragedy for us all at the college and it took quite a while to get over it. The girls that escaped the fire came over to our house frequently. I didn’t understand why then, but now I would guess that they were there as a form of therapy from Bah to get them to over the trauma they went through. Don’t forget that Bah being an educationist is also quite a psychologist. I can tell you later of cases where I succumbed to his psychology.
Each morning in school, all students and teachers had to assemble in the hall for morning prayers. This was done before lessons began. I was exempted and usually spent the time alone in the class. My teacher was quite strict. He confiscates anything that did not belong in class, like marbles, toys, comics etc. He would take from you and put in his desk drawer. I never saw him returning anything that he confiscated.
One day during my time alone in class, curiosity got the better of me. I went over to his desk and opened the drawer where he kept the items. It was full of so many things that belonged to my classmates. I saw a Dandy comic that belonged to Andrew, confiscated the week before. I took it out of the drawer and hid it in my coat. When school ended, as we were walking home, I called out to Andrew, and looked behind my shoulders to check that no one was looking, I handed the comic book to him. He looked surprised, but before he could say anything, I walked away as fast as I could towards home. I wasn’t sure whether he appreciated it. If he didn't, then I would know the next day in school.
I felt rather guilty about what I did and dreaded going to school the next morning. Since I couldn’t find any good excuse not to go, I started off with my brother, although he kept calling to me to catch up with him. I was really dragging myself. At the school gate, Andrew was waiting for me with Paul, another of my classmate. He pulled me aside and with a smile he said thank you. The comic actually belonged to his elder brother and he couldn’t afford to buy a new one to replace it. So he said I had saved him from a good beating from his brother.
He asked me how I did it and I told him. Paul suddenly grabbed my arm pulling me towards him. Excitedly he asked me whether I could try to get back a whistle which the teacher took away from him the month before. I asked him for some detailed description of it. He said it was silver with the letters TG engraved. He said it was given to him by his grandfather before he died. His grandfather was a referee in the English football league. Actually, I didn’t want to do it anymore, but I said I would, but only just this once for him. I felt sorry for him losing something to remind him of his grandfather. I didn’t have anything from my late grandfather except for the memories.
Keeping it short, I passed the whistle back to Paul when school ended. I didn’t want to give it to him during school lest he took it out and the teacher would notice it, then I would definitely be in trouble if he found out that it was me who took it out from his desk. Paul appreciated the help from me. After that Andrew and Paul became my closest friends.
I didn’t look into the teacher’s drawer after returning Paul’s whistle, afraid that I might be caught. Anyway on the last day of school before the summer holidays, the teacher took all the stuffs he had confiscated during the year and laid it out on his desk. He told us to take back what was ours. I could have kicked myself then. I realised that the teacher didn’t know to whom the stuffs belonged to, nor could he remember what he had taken! I was kicking myself for losing the opportunity to be the most popular guy in class!!! If Andrew and Paul were that appreciative, I wondered how the girls would have reacted if I helped return to them their stuffs. Janet in particular, the farmer’s daughter whom I had a crush the whole year but dared not even speak to her!!!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Growing Up Part VIII
Fuzi was born at Wolverhampton hospital. As Fizah was still small then, hence the reason why Bah took Aunty Cha along. The task of taking care of 2 small girls was divided. Aunty Cha looked after Fuzi and Bah looked after Fizah. Mum helped Aunty Cha. Not a lot though I noticed.
That’s why if you know my family well, Fizah was always much closer to Bah and Fuzi was to mum. Anyway, the house was quite noisy with baby Fuzi as well as Fizah blaring all the time. The house adjoining us was meant for lecturers of the college who were without their families.
There were not totally happy with the noises coming from our house. It made matter worse because I used to bowl a rubber ball on to the wall continuously for hours at a time. Yes, I was into cricket then. Mind you, with all that practice, I was good in that game. One day, one of the lecturers next door complained to Bah. All of us knew that this guy was a very typical prudish English gentleman. My brother and I didn’t like him very much because he never ever returned our greetings when we passed by him.
We knew which particular room he was in. When we played at the backyard which adjoined theirs, we could see through the windows to which each room belonged to. I in particular was exceptionally unhappy after that complaint. It meant that I was grounded from practicing my bowling in the house. One afternoon we noticed that the window of his room was opened. I climbed a tree to see whether he was in. Giving the all clear sign to my brother, we collected any moveable rubbish that we could find at the backyard and started throwing them through his window. Satisfied with our “revenge,” we cleared out of the area as fast as we could and quickly went home. We stayed with mum all the time. This was to create and ensure we had a fool-proof alibi. But she started getting suspicious as we never use to hang about with her.
As expected, all hell broke loose when he came back to his room. We could hear from our bedroom him shouting and swearing. We tried to stifle our giggling afraid that he would hear us. Not long thereafter, there was only silence. That was when I started to worry. Was he coming over to our house? I broke into cold sweat contemplating the punishment mum would lash out on me should the truth unfolded. I couldn’t trust my brother because he would act dumb. With my track record, I would always be perceived guilty even though I was innocent.
The waiting was taking its toll on me and I could feel my heart beating rapidly. The knocking on the front door made my heart stopped and I felt faint. I heared mum opening the door only to let in Aunty Cha who just came back from the clinic. The relief was exhilarating like a being reprieved from execution at the last hour. In fact, I did fell like a 'dead-man walking'. To end this part of the story, Mr. Jones never confronted us nor did we hear of any complains from him as to the subject matter. We noticed that he was more approachable after that incident as he would nod his head in acknowledgment of our greetings. About a month later, he even began talking to us and we realised that he was actually a nice person. Lesson learnt here was that we should have been more proactive in our relationship rather than reacting to his prim behaviour.
Bah planned a holiday for the coming summer to Dublin in Ireland. Before the trip we had a lot of fun playing with friends as it was the start of summer holidays. The college where we were, had a very big gym. We were allowed to play there most of the time. Most of the students would encourage us to use whatever equipment that we there.
One day, we saw a rope tied parallel to the floor about five feet above the ground. I came up with a wonderful idea of placing a trampoline and we would run and jumped on the trampoline. The idea was to catch hold of the rope. It was quite easy and most of us could do it. We increased the difficulty factor by moving the trampoline further away from the rope after each successful attempt. At a certain distance, all that tried before me couldn’t make it. I was determined that I should be the one to make a successful attempt. Taking a longer running length, full of concentration, I started for the jump. I could really feel that I had made a very high jump because I saw the rope was below my chest level. Although I got the height, I didn’t manage the distance. I fell awkwardly on the floor and felt excruciating pain on my left elbow. A student who was there at the time came over to help, but each time he touched my elbow it hurt a lot. He took me to the college clinic where the doctor after examining me, put a sling for the injured arm. He brought me home and told Bah that I would need to be taken to the hospital.
You should know Bah’s character by now. He was calm and very collected. Told me to change my clothes and then took me to the hospital in Wolverhampton, about an hour away by bus. Skipping the details, end result was that I had a chipped elbow. Serious enough for it to be on a sling for at 2 months but didn’t require to be casted.
Remember that planned trip to Dublin? Everyone went for the trip except me. I was left behind as I had to be checked by the college doctor every other day. That’s Bah for you. Nothing stopped his plans. I was left with a neighbour while they were away. What was worse than being left behind was that I had to be on my best behaviour all the time when staying with the neighbour. How I questioned the fairness of life!!!
Friday, February 17, 2006
Growing Up Part VII
The time spent in the UK, to me was absolutely wonderful. English culture dictates that proper etiquette is a must at all time.
It’s not the done thing to dig your nose, especially in public. My brother used to have that “disgusting” habit. I gave up telling him this because whenever I did so, he would chase me with one finger up his nose and would wipe that same finger on my face if he ever managed catch me. I don’t have to say how many times he succeeded in doing just that! How he could run so fast with a finger up his nose was still something that amazed me till today. I was glad that he stopped the habit after he was made to see how disgusting it was. Our friends would mimic him each time we saw him doing just that. The four of us would stop doing whatever we were doing, and dug our noses whenever he did. I was apprehensive at first knowing what he was capable of doing to me. But I acquired the courage with strength in numbers. I am proud to have contributed in making him into one of the most respectable and distinguished gentleman in the country today :)
My dad had a young English friend by the name of Michael who visited us each time when he came over from London. One afternoon, mum had poured both of them a cup of piping hot tea, dad’s favourite, stirred with condensed milk. Michael commented that the best way to drink hot tea was to blow on the tea to cool it. Now my dad, not one who would forgo an opportunity to enlighten the uninitiated of our Malay culture, told Michael that he had a much better and more effective way, and proceeded to demonstrate. He lifted his cup from the saucer, poured his tea onto the saucer with such grace, not a single drop spilt because he dragged the bottom of the cup across the edge of the saucer, and with one hand holding on to the cup and the saucer filled with tea delicately balanced with his other, started slurping it. As I was there watching my dad with pride at his expertise, I could see the smile on Michael’s face turned into disgust. Of course my dad thought nothing of it and neither did I as I had seen him doing that many a times especially when he was in a hurry. So this young brain of mine started to analyse what it was that Michael found repugnant. Was it the use of the saucer to drink from or slurping loudly? I deduced that it must have been drinking the tea from the saucer! What a genius I was with that analytical mind of mine. So from that day on, I have never poured my drinks onto a saucer to drink, but I have been known to slurp now and then, particularly when the drink was piping hot!
Michael was quite a disciplinarian. One afternoon, Bah told me to take my bath. As I was watching a TV programme half way, I ignored him. Seeing this, Michael told me to do as what my dad told me to. I didn’t reply but instead gave him one of my infamous look that meant “mind your own business”. How was I to know that Michael was an expert interpreter of facial expressions? Without saying a word, he picked me up bodily and all, carried me out of the house and placed me right in the middle of our backyard. You may ask what was the big deal, right? The big deal was that the whole of our backyard was full of nettle weeds. If any part of exposed skin happens to come in contact with it, it stings like being bitten by insects. That part of your skin would swell, became sore and itched. It was quite a painful experience. At that age, I was always in my short pants and the weeds were so tall that it reached up to my thighs. Michael had no problem as he was wearing long pants.
I was hurting badly, but I didn’t want Michael to have the pleasure of seeing me cry or asking for help. Without further due consideration to the pain I was experiencing, I bravely (although stupidly) walked toward the high fencing at the back of the yard, ignoring the agony as I waded through the nettles. I climbed up the wire fence until such height that I was free from those nasty weeds. Thereon, I slowly edged laterally with the aim of climbing down at the border of our backyard where the nettle field ended. All the while, my back was facing our house. I knew Michael was watching me from inside the house, and I smirked to myself knowing that I had beaten him at his game. Just as I was about to jump down from the fence in triumph and glory, Michael, out of nowhere, grabbed me and plunked me down right to where I was before. I was absolutely furious, but with grit and determination, I did the same thing again. This time I was more watchful, looking around me to make sure he wasn’t around to snatch me again. I succeeded this time, and with a smile head held up high, walked back towards the house, with my legs swollen and the pain unbearable.
As soon as I opened the door, Michael was there standing tall, blocking my entrance. He asked whether I had learned my lesson and was willing to apologise. I have always been a person with very few words and suffer no fools. I just glared at him. After about a minute of this mexican standoff, he decided then that I wasn’t about to relent, and the next thing I knew, I was dangling from his shoulder and again ended up right in the middle of recent acquaintance, the dreaded nettle field. I knew that this time, I wasn’t going to win this battle with him. But I was adamant not to concede victory to him. I remained standing there. This was strategically sound as each time I moved, my new found friends would strike with vengeance.
I remained standing there for about more than an hour I guessed because it had started to get dark. Besides not yielding defeat to Michael, I had another sore issue to content with that didn't make my situation any better. It was my brother. Every now and then, he would stick his head out of the window from inside the house and grinned stupidly at me. I know that grin very well after living with him my entire life! It was the same grin wrapping his face every time that I was scolded, or caned by mum for one reason or another. Same grin when I fell and landed in a puddle of mud on the way to school. Yes, that same stupid, sickly and annoying grin when both of us were one day jumping on the bed pretending it was a trampoline. When it came to my turn, after only one jump, the bed broke with a loud cracking sound! I was still crumpled on the broken bed when in came mum into the room with a bewildered look on her face. My face on the other hand, blended nicely like a chameleon against the backdrop of the white bed sheet. My brother somehow, and until today I can’t imagine how he did it, was sitting on his own unbroken bed, reading a book just before mum entered the room! That grin simply meant, “better you than me!”
Sorry for digressing. Where was I? Oh, right, I was standing in the middle of the nettle field in sheer agony not only from the pain but also from that grin……OK lets not get into that grin business again else I start rambling on more examples when that grin materialised on his face! Eventually, as the sky got darker, I saw Michael walking toward me. Without saying a word, he picked me up, gently this time, and carried me across his arms just like a baby, back inside the house. He told to sit down on the sofa and not to move. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
He came back shortly with a few green leaves from a tree he plucked outside our house. He folded one into a quarter, brought it up to his lips and spat on it. Then he started to wipe it on parts of my legs which were swollen most. I gaped at him in utter disgust and disbelief. This was the same gentleman who had looked revoltingly when my dad slurped his tea from the saucer with such grace and balance, but had thought nothing of swabbing his gross saliva all over my legs! Although I must admit the pain eased a bit when he did that.
When he was done, I stood up, still without a single word spoken, went to the bathroom and bathed. I had to! I wasn’t going to bed that night with all that saliva drying up on my legs. In the bathtub, I mused over the event of the whole afternoon. What a waste! It all started with me not taking my bath when Bah told me to, and here I was doing exactly just that with vigour, to get rid of Michael’s foul spit!
I must say that after that day, Michael and I became the very best of friends. He would come over or phoned to know how I was doing. Twice, he took just me to visit London where I stayed overnight at his flat after an enjoyable day. We both enjoyed classical music where he had a good collection in pad. I guessed that he respected me for showing grit and courage in adversity, and I too learnt to respect him for his sincerity, kindness and friendship.
So all ended up well and the episode closed on a much brighter note…..except for that grin……grrr!!!!
It’s not the done thing to dig your nose, especially in public. My brother used to have that “disgusting” habit. I gave up telling him this because whenever I did so, he would chase me with one finger up his nose and would wipe that same finger on my face if he ever managed catch me. I don’t have to say how many times he succeeded in doing just that! How he could run so fast with a finger up his nose was still something that amazed me till today. I was glad that he stopped the habit after he was made to see how disgusting it was. Our friends would mimic him each time we saw him doing just that. The four of us would stop doing whatever we were doing, and dug our noses whenever he did. I was apprehensive at first knowing what he was capable of doing to me. But I acquired the courage with strength in numbers. I am proud to have contributed in making him into one of the most respectable and distinguished gentleman in the country today :)
My dad had a young English friend by the name of Michael who visited us each time when he came over from London. One afternoon, mum had poured both of them a cup of piping hot tea, dad’s favourite, stirred with condensed milk. Michael commented that the best way to drink hot tea was to blow on the tea to cool it. Now my dad, not one who would forgo an opportunity to enlighten the uninitiated of our Malay culture, told Michael that he had a much better and more effective way, and proceeded to demonstrate. He lifted his cup from the saucer, poured his tea onto the saucer with such grace, not a single drop spilt because he dragged the bottom of the cup across the edge of the saucer, and with one hand holding on to the cup and the saucer filled with tea delicately balanced with his other, started slurping it. As I was there watching my dad with pride at his expertise, I could see the smile on Michael’s face turned into disgust. Of course my dad thought nothing of it and neither did I as I had seen him doing that many a times especially when he was in a hurry. So this young brain of mine started to analyse what it was that Michael found repugnant. Was it the use of the saucer to drink from or slurping loudly? I deduced that it must have been drinking the tea from the saucer! What a genius I was with that analytical mind of mine. So from that day on, I have never poured my drinks onto a saucer to drink, but I have been known to slurp now and then, particularly when the drink was piping hot!
Michael was quite a disciplinarian. One afternoon, Bah told me to take my bath. As I was watching a TV programme half way, I ignored him. Seeing this, Michael told me to do as what my dad told me to. I didn’t reply but instead gave him one of my infamous look that meant “mind your own business”. How was I to know that Michael was an expert interpreter of facial expressions? Without saying a word, he picked me up bodily and all, carried me out of the house and placed me right in the middle of our backyard. You may ask what was the big deal, right? The big deal was that the whole of our backyard was full of nettle weeds. If any part of exposed skin happens to come in contact with it, it stings like being bitten by insects. That part of your skin would swell, became sore and itched. It was quite a painful experience. At that age, I was always in my short pants and the weeds were so tall that it reached up to my thighs. Michael had no problem as he was wearing long pants.
I was hurting badly, but I didn’t want Michael to have the pleasure of seeing me cry or asking for help. Without further due consideration to the pain I was experiencing, I bravely (although stupidly) walked toward the high fencing at the back of the yard, ignoring the agony as I waded through the nettles. I climbed up the wire fence until such height that I was free from those nasty weeds. Thereon, I slowly edged laterally with the aim of climbing down at the border of our backyard where the nettle field ended. All the while, my back was facing our house. I knew Michael was watching me from inside the house, and I smirked to myself knowing that I had beaten him at his game. Just as I was about to jump down from the fence in triumph and glory, Michael, out of nowhere, grabbed me and plunked me down right to where I was before. I was absolutely furious, but with grit and determination, I did the same thing again. This time I was more watchful, looking around me to make sure he wasn’t around to snatch me again. I succeeded this time, and with a smile head held up high, walked back towards the house, with my legs swollen and the pain unbearable.
As soon as I opened the door, Michael was there standing tall, blocking my entrance. He asked whether I had learned my lesson and was willing to apologise. I have always been a person with very few words and suffer no fools. I just glared at him. After about a minute of this mexican standoff, he decided then that I wasn’t about to relent, and the next thing I knew, I was dangling from his shoulder and again ended up right in the middle of recent acquaintance, the dreaded nettle field. I knew that this time, I wasn’t going to win this battle with him. But I was adamant not to concede victory to him. I remained standing there. This was strategically sound as each time I moved, my new found friends would strike with vengeance.
I remained standing there for about more than an hour I guessed because it had started to get dark. Besides not yielding defeat to Michael, I had another sore issue to content with that didn't make my situation any better. It was my brother. Every now and then, he would stick his head out of the window from inside the house and grinned stupidly at me. I know that grin very well after living with him my entire life! It was the same grin wrapping his face every time that I was scolded, or caned by mum for one reason or another. Same grin when I fell and landed in a puddle of mud on the way to school. Yes, that same stupid, sickly and annoying grin when both of us were one day jumping on the bed pretending it was a trampoline. When it came to my turn, after only one jump, the bed broke with a loud cracking sound! I was still crumpled on the broken bed when in came mum into the room with a bewildered look on her face. My face on the other hand, blended nicely like a chameleon against the backdrop of the white bed sheet. My brother somehow, and until today I can’t imagine how he did it, was sitting on his own unbroken bed, reading a book just before mum entered the room! That grin simply meant, “better you than me!”
Sorry for digressing. Where was I? Oh, right, I was standing in the middle of the nettle field in sheer agony not only from the pain but also from that grin……OK lets not get into that grin business again else I start rambling on more examples when that grin materialised on his face! Eventually, as the sky got darker, I saw Michael walking toward me. Without saying a word, he picked me up, gently this time, and carried me across his arms just like a baby, back inside the house. He told to sit down on the sofa and not to move. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
He came back shortly with a few green leaves from a tree he plucked outside our house. He folded one into a quarter, brought it up to his lips and spat on it. Then he started to wipe it on parts of my legs which were swollen most. I gaped at him in utter disgust and disbelief. This was the same gentleman who had looked revoltingly when my dad slurped his tea from the saucer with such grace and balance, but had thought nothing of swabbing his gross saliva all over my legs! Although I must admit the pain eased a bit when he did that.
When he was done, I stood up, still without a single word spoken, went to the bathroom and bathed. I had to! I wasn’t going to bed that night with all that saliva drying up on my legs. In the bathtub, I mused over the event of the whole afternoon. What a waste! It all started with me not taking my bath when Bah told me to, and here I was doing exactly just that with vigour, to get rid of Michael’s foul spit!
I must say that after that day, Michael and I became the very best of friends. He would come over or phoned to know how I was doing. Twice, he took just me to visit London where I stayed overnight at his flat after an enjoyable day. We both enjoyed classical music where he had a good collection in pad. I guessed that he respected me for showing grit and courage in adversity, and I too learnt to respect him for his sincerity, kindness and friendship.
So all ended up well and the episode closed on a much brighter note…..except for that grin……grrr!!!!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Growing Up Part VI
At night in Karachi, Pakistan but did not have time to post this until I was back home.
We stayed in Malacca less than a year. Bah was transferred to the UK, in a village-town called Featherstone, near Wolverhampton.
By this time, Fizah was barely 2 or 3 years old. Mum was expecting again. Bah brought along my late aunt Hafzah, who was Bah’s younger sister. This aunt of mine was slightly sickly She was diabetic actually.
We flew by plane to the UK. Those days the planes were not able to fly non-stop. Our first stop was in Delhi, the second being Jeddah and only then did we arrived at Heathrow, London. It was a lovely autumn day when we touched down. There were no aero bridges in those day, so as we stepped down the plane, smoke seemed to come out with every breadth that I exhaled. I said casually that I was smoking, and mum upon hearing it, clipped my ears.
We were met at the airport by Bah's colleague and we took a train to Wolverhampton where a car brought us right up to Featherstone, where Brinsford College was located. It was one of the college where Malaysian to be teachers were trained. The other was Kirby Teachers Training College.
Our quarters was within the college compound. It was built with soft material walls liked temporary buildings. My brother and I shared a room with Aunty Cha while Fizah slept with Bah and mum.
Both Mail and I were enrolled in a school in the village. It would take us 20 minutes of walking through a farm to get there. As my last class was Standard 2, I was put in the 3rd year. Those days, my English vocabulary was not extensive. I didn’t do much reading then because it wasn’t called for back home.
One day, I was summoned to the Headmaster’s office where we talked. I think the sole purpose of that meeting was to gauge the extent of my vocabulary. He started to ask me a lot of questions like what I did at night, who my friends were etc. He asked me whether I liked cats. When I said yes, he asked whether I knew how a cat purrs. I thought purring was when cat sat and scratches behind their ears with their hind legs, like I’ve seen many a times. As I found it difficult to express my answer, he asked me to show it.
So I squatted with both hand resting in front of me on the floor. Then I tried to scratch my ear with my right foot. Naturally, I couldn’t actually do it, but as he was just looking at me without saying a word, I had to keep trying. As I was doing this, in came one of my classmate, a girl. Seeing me squatting on the floor, she stopped in her track, with a look of absolute astonishment. I stopped what I was doing feeling totally embarrassed, but was relieved when the Headmaster told me to sit back on the chair. He turned to the girl and asked her the same question. She immediately made a purring sound. My face reddened thinking not only how stupid I was but also how stupid I had looked in that position. I dreaded going back to class as I was very sure that my classmate would tell the whole class what she saw me doing.
The Headmaster gave me a couple of books and told me to read. As soon as I finished reading them, after returning them, he gave me more. I promised myself after that incident that I would never ever again be humiliated for not understanding simple English. I took up reading aggressively and with passion. My passion for reading has never diminished until today. My brother too started reading then and similarly like me, enjoys reading a lot.
There was another Malay family at the college, Mr. Badar, who had 2 boys and a girl. We became very close friends. As they were already there a year before, they the ones to show us the ropes. There were other English children as well there. It became like West Side Storey, 2 gangs of different races. We didn’t fight, but we were competitive, trying to out-do them in every way we can, in games, sports etc. Nevertheless we did get along fine together and in fact were good friends. Actually, I started learning the piano from one of their mother.
My brother started taking up the violin lessons taught by the music lecturer at the college. As I too wanted to learn to play the violin, Bah enrolled me as well. I was then learning both the violin and piano at the same time. After a year, the highlight of both our musical career was to play in the college orchestra. We played our violins in that 60 strong orchestra.
Practices were intimidating to me as any slight mistake made, the whole orchestra was stopped and we had to start from the beginning. I was the main culprit most of the time. With a lot of practices and determination, the day of our debut was finally at hand. Dressed smartly in a 3-piece suit, we all played flawlessly to a large and appreciative audience. I was sure that Bah was proud of us and he kept on taking pictures of us.
Being in the UK for 2 years was a wonderful and enriching experience. But I shall say more about it the next time.
We stayed in Malacca less than a year. Bah was transferred to the UK, in a village-town called Featherstone, near Wolverhampton.
By this time, Fizah was barely 2 or 3 years old. Mum was expecting again. Bah brought along my late aunt Hafzah, who was Bah’s younger sister. This aunt of mine was slightly sickly She was diabetic actually.
We flew by plane to the UK. Those days the planes were not able to fly non-stop. Our first stop was in Delhi, the second being Jeddah and only then did we arrived at Heathrow, London. It was a lovely autumn day when we touched down. There were no aero bridges in those day, so as we stepped down the plane, smoke seemed to come out with every breadth that I exhaled. I said casually that I was smoking, and mum upon hearing it, clipped my ears.
We were met at the airport by Bah's colleague and we took a train to Wolverhampton where a car brought us right up to Featherstone, where Brinsford College was located. It was one of the college where Malaysian to be teachers were trained. The other was Kirby Teachers Training College.
Our quarters was within the college compound. It was built with soft material walls liked temporary buildings. My brother and I shared a room with Aunty Cha while Fizah slept with Bah and mum.
Both Mail and I were enrolled in a school in the village. It would take us 20 minutes of walking through a farm to get there. As my last class was Standard 2, I was put in the 3rd year. Those days, my English vocabulary was not extensive. I didn’t do much reading then because it wasn’t called for back home.
One day, I was summoned to the Headmaster’s office where we talked. I think the sole purpose of that meeting was to gauge the extent of my vocabulary. He started to ask me a lot of questions like what I did at night, who my friends were etc. He asked me whether I liked cats. When I said yes, he asked whether I knew how a cat purrs. I thought purring was when cat sat and scratches behind their ears with their hind legs, like I’ve seen many a times. As I found it difficult to express my answer, he asked me to show it.
So I squatted with both hand resting in front of me on the floor. Then I tried to scratch my ear with my right foot. Naturally, I couldn’t actually do it, but as he was just looking at me without saying a word, I had to keep trying. As I was doing this, in came one of my classmate, a girl. Seeing me squatting on the floor, she stopped in her track, with a look of absolute astonishment. I stopped what I was doing feeling totally embarrassed, but was relieved when the Headmaster told me to sit back on the chair. He turned to the girl and asked her the same question. She immediately made a purring sound. My face reddened thinking not only how stupid I was but also how stupid I had looked in that position. I dreaded going back to class as I was very sure that my classmate would tell the whole class what she saw me doing.
The Headmaster gave me a couple of books and told me to read. As soon as I finished reading them, after returning them, he gave me more. I promised myself after that incident that I would never ever again be humiliated for not understanding simple English. I took up reading aggressively and with passion. My passion for reading has never diminished until today. My brother too started reading then and similarly like me, enjoys reading a lot.
There was another Malay family at the college, Mr. Badar, who had 2 boys and a girl. We became very close friends. As they were already there a year before, they the ones to show us the ropes. There were other English children as well there. It became like West Side Storey, 2 gangs of different races. We didn’t fight, but we were competitive, trying to out-do them in every way we can, in games, sports etc. Nevertheless we did get along fine together and in fact were good friends. Actually, I started learning the piano from one of their mother.
My brother started taking up the violin lessons taught by the music lecturer at the college. As I too wanted to learn to play the violin, Bah enrolled me as well. I was then learning both the violin and piano at the same time. After a year, the highlight of both our musical career was to play in the college orchestra. We played our violins in that 60 strong orchestra.
Practices were intimidating to me as any slight mistake made, the whole orchestra was stopped and we had to start from the beginning. I was the main culprit most of the time. With a lot of practices and determination, the day of our debut was finally at hand. Dressed smartly in a 3-piece suit, we all played flawlessly to a large and appreciative audience. I was sure that Bah was proud of us and he kept on taking pictures of us.
Being in the UK for 2 years was a wonderful and enriching experience. But I shall say more about it the next time.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Growing Up Part V
One more night in Mumbai then I’m off to Karachi.
I started schooling at Ngee Heng Primary where my brother was already there a year earlier. My cousin Noh was also schooling there but he was already in Standard 6, last year of primary school. After only a year there, our family had to move to Malacca. Only this time, my Tok Bee and my aunts had to remain behind where a house was rented for them in Wadi Hassan.
They stayed in a small quarter with a living room, kitchen and a bedroom only. I didn't understand then why they couldn't come with us to Malacca, but I guessed it was because my aunts had to finish their schooling there. Comparatively, it was a notch lower than where we were before because the latrines were back to the bucket type and worsed still, you had to walk a distance to get there. Furthermore, it was a shared and common one for the people living around there.
Before Bah found a house for us in Malacca, we stayed in rented a room temporarily in a village house. It was a cultural shock for me because there were no running water. All the water that you would need, you have to get from a well. The well was in the bathroom, and it was deep and the water cold. I hated having to bath because the water was so cold no matter what time of day. There is a bucket tied to a rope. All you have to do is throw the bucket down the well, let it sink, and then you haul it up with the rope. Viola...you now have a bucket full clean icy cold water. I was always afraid that I might throw the bucket and rope together, then I would really be in trouble.
Apparently, unknown to us, we found out that the landlord (an elderly lady), was rumoured to be keeping a “polong”. This is an evil spirit that would do to all her bidding. Mum was especially frightened. So all of us kept to our best behaviour so as not to make the landlady displeased with us in any way, lest she did something to us with he "polong"…..
To all our relief, we eventually moved to a house near the town. It was nice and big for the 5 of us then.
New school meant new friends. Moving from one school to another can be such an emotional experience to someone as young as I was then. Losing old friends that you thought might never be met again, and joining a new class where each and everyone was a total stranger, can be quite daunting. Nonetheless, with time, you tend forget to miss the friends you had left when you now have new ones.
In Malacca, Bah usually travelled a lot visiting his students at schools around the state. During those times, we normally huddled together in the evening listening to our radio. Those days the radio was our main form of entertainment. Some times, there was a radio drama about ghosts. After that, all of us slept together in one room.
While we were in Malacca we had news that my grandfather, Tok Ali passed away. It was a sad news as it meant that I now only had grandmothers. (We never met our other grandfather as he passed away when my mum was still very young). We drove back in time before the burial. It was there that I noticed the large number of uncles, aunts and cousins. A lot of them I barely knew. Back home in Malacca, Bah would sit in his chair and just sat staring into space. At times, I noticed tears running down his cheeks. It made me sad to see him like that. I too started missing my late grandfather.
During one of Bah’s work away from home, our former landlady came and visited at the house. I knew mum was apprehensive but I think all of us kept our cool and pretence of acting normally without showing any signs of fear. She actually stayed quite a long while and when she eventually left, we felt relieved although still frightened. That same night, as I was lying in bed, I kept seeing flashing shadows moving quickly along the walls. I was too terrified to shout or move. Mum came into the room to check on us and saw me starring at the wall. She kept on saying something to me but I couldn’t hear nor understand what she was saying. Suddenly there was a loud knock at the front door. That made everyone jumped out of our skins. It also managed to wake me up from my stupor.
Nobody wanted to see who was at the door as it was the middle of the night. The knocking continued and we thought we heard Bah’s voice calling out to mum. Still we didn’t open the door because Bah was supposed to come home only tomorrow. The knocking stopped as suddenly as it started. We then heard footsteps coming closer to the openned window of my room where all of us were huddled together, shivering with fear. Suddenly, we saw Bah’s face sticking in from the window and we all screamed! Bah’s confused face was evident and asked why we were not opening the door for him. He said he came home as he had finished his work early. We ran to the door to open it. All of us were clinging to him and it made him confused. When mum told him who came earlier that day and what happened earlier to me just before he came home, he just smiled and said everything is ok. That's was Bah's way, always keeping a cool head.
My brother and I were enrolled in "madrasah" (a religious school), which we had to attend each afternoon after normal school. Our class consisted of students of varying age. I was the youngest and the oldest was maybe about sixteen. When classes were over, we had to wait for Bah to pick us up. Where we waited was a well. Now that we didn't have to use well water anymore, it nevertheless managed to capture my curiosity. One time, as I was looking down the well seeing my reflection, the "songkok" (headgear) that I was wearing felt down the well. I was too slow to catch it and saw it splashed in the water. It didn't sink but floated. One of the older classmate saw what happened. He had a quick look into the well, picked up the bucket with rope tied to it, threw it down, had another look before hauling up the bucket. Out came the bucket full of water but more importantly my songkok too. I thanked my classmate and tried to dry my songkok. Bah came and as soon as we got into the car, the first thing he asked was why I wasn't wearing my songkok. Before I could answer, my brother told him what happened. Bah told us to be careful around wells. I should lucky that the songkok fell instead of me! I was just dreading what mum was going to do to me when we got home.....
I started schooling at Ngee Heng Primary where my brother was already there a year earlier. My cousin Noh was also schooling there but he was already in Standard 6, last year of primary school. After only a year there, our family had to move to Malacca. Only this time, my Tok Bee and my aunts had to remain behind where a house was rented for them in Wadi Hassan.
They stayed in a small quarter with a living room, kitchen and a bedroom only. I didn't understand then why they couldn't come with us to Malacca, but I guessed it was because my aunts had to finish their schooling there. Comparatively, it was a notch lower than where we were before because the latrines were back to the bucket type and worsed still, you had to walk a distance to get there. Furthermore, it was a shared and common one for the people living around there.
Before Bah found a house for us in Malacca, we stayed in rented a room temporarily in a village house. It was a cultural shock for me because there were no running water. All the water that you would need, you have to get from a well. The well was in the bathroom, and it was deep and the water cold. I hated having to bath because the water was so cold no matter what time of day. There is a bucket tied to a rope. All you have to do is throw the bucket down the well, let it sink, and then you haul it up with the rope. Viola...you now have a bucket full clean icy cold water. I was always afraid that I might throw the bucket and rope together, then I would really be in trouble.
Apparently, unknown to us, we found out that the landlord (an elderly lady), was rumoured to be keeping a “polong”. This is an evil spirit that would do to all her bidding. Mum was especially frightened. So all of us kept to our best behaviour so as not to make the landlady displeased with us in any way, lest she did something to us with he "polong"…..
To all our relief, we eventually moved to a house near the town. It was nice and big for the 5 of us then.
New school meant new friends. Moving from one school to another can be such an emotional experience to someone as young as I was then. Losing old friends that you thought might never be met again, and joining a new class where each and everyone was a total stranger, can be quite daunting. Nonetheless, with time, you tend forget to miss the friends you had left when you now have new ones.
In Malacca, Bah usually travelled a lot visiting his students at schools around the state. During those times, we normally huddled together in the evening listening to our radio. Those days the radio was our main form of entertainment. Some times, there was a radio drama about ghosts. After that, all of us slept together in one room.
While we were in Malacca we had news that my grandfather, Tok Ali passed away. It was a sad news as it meant that I now only had grandmothers. (We never met our other grandfather as he passed away when my mum was still very young). We drove back in time before the burial. It was there that I noticed the large number of uncles, aunts and cousins. A lot of them I barely knew. Back home in Malacca, Bah would sit in his chair and just sat staring into space. At times, I noticed tears running down his cheeks. It made me sad to see him like that. I too started missing my late grandfather.
During one of Bah’s work away from home, our former landlady came and visited at the house. I knew mum was apprehensive but I think all of us kept our cool and pretence of acting normally without showing any signs of fear. She actually stayed quite a long while and when she eventually left, we felt relieved although still frightened. That same night, as I was lying in bed, I kept seeing flashing shadows moving quickly along the walls. I was too terrified to shout or move. Mum came into the room to check on us and saw me starring at the wall. She kept on saying something to me but I couldn’t hear nor understand what she was saying. Suddenly there was a loud knock at the front door. That made everyone jumped out of our skins. It also managed to wake me up from my stupor.
Nobody wanted to see who was at the door as it was the middle of the night. The knocking continued and we thought we heard Bah’s voice calling out to mum. Still we didn’t open the door because Bah was supposed to come home only tomorrow. The knocking stopped as suddenly as it started. We then heard footsteps coming closer to the openned window of my room where all of us were huddled together, shivering with fear. Suddenly, we saw Bah’s face sticking in from the window and we all screamed! Bah’s confused face was evident and asked why we were not opening the door for him. He said he came home as he had finished his work early. We ran to the door to open it. All of us were clinging to him and it made him confused. When mum told him who came earlier that day and what happened earlier to me just before he came home, he just smiled and said everything is ok. That's was Bah's way, always keeping a cool head.
My brother and I were enrolled in "madrasah" (a religious school), which we had to attend each afternoon after normal school. Our class consisted of students of varying age. I was the youngest and the oldest was maybe about sixteen. When classes were over, we had to wait for Bah to pick us up. Where we waited was a well. Now that we didn't have to use well water anymore, it nevertheless managed to capture my curiosity. One time, as I was looking down the well seeing my reflection, the "songkok" (headgear) that I was wearing felt down the well. I was too slow to catch it and saw it splashed in the water. It didn't sink but floated. One of the older classmate saw what happened. He had a quick look into the well, picked up the bucket with rope tied to it, threw it down, had another look before hauling up the bucket. Out came the bucket full of water but more importantly my songkok too. I thanked my classmate and tried to dry my songkok. Bah came and as soon as we got into the car, the first thing he asked was why I wasn't wearing my songkok. Before I could answer, my brother told him what happened. Bah told us to be careful around wells. I should lucky that the songkok fell instead of me! I was just dreading what mum was going to do to me when we got home.....
Growing Up Part IV
Another night in Mumbai.
Back to 77 Jalan Storey, at the front there was a beautiful rock garden with a swing. Nearly all of us spent late afternoon there.
During our stay there, Bah had to go to Hawaii, where he was posted for a few months at the university. During that time mum started to learn to drive. By the way, Bah had changed his car to a “Hillman". Gone was my favourite indicator. One of Bah’s students, Ayob by name, was mum's driving instructor. She normally goes off for a couple of hours every alternate day for her lessons. My brother and I always checked the car for scratches after her lessons. Although we couldn’t find any, but it used to rile mum up when we did this.
My time in the early fifties, had no such thing as kindergartens. As Bah had many good friends in the education department, he managed to enrolled me in a normal school one year before I was supposed too. As the norm, being in a school environment the first day was daunting, but I got by that day ok except for one thing. While waiting for Bah to pick me up, I had the urge to pee, but I didn’t know where the toilet was. Naturally, I just peed in my pants! Mum found out when she took my school uniform. It was embarrassing especially when my brother made a big deal out of it.
It was at this house that a new addition to the family came about. Fizah was born on the morning of Eidil Fitri. Everyone was very happy that we now have another baby sister. Bah also mentioned that the 3 of us actually were borne on significant dates of the Muslim calendar, my brother on 1st Muharam, I on Maulud Nabi and Fizah on Eidil Fitri.
I remembered a number of incidents in that house, none were pleasant to say. One evening, I saw mum and Bah were getting ready to go out. So I went up to mum at her dressing table where she was combing her hair and asked where they were going. They were getting ready to go to a wedding dinner. Of course, I felt like wanting to go too, but they said no. I started whining wanting to go. Somehow mum lost her temper and hit me on the head with her brush that she was combing with. It was one of those types that had metal spikes sticking to it like porcupines. Although it didn't hurt, I was stunned. Then I saw the look of horror on mum’s face. She looked at her brush and I too saw that at least 4 of those spikes were missing. Feeling my head where I was hit, I felt the missing spike there stuck in my head! Mum started to cry that brought Bah came over to have a look. After checking my head he casually told me to get dress as I am going with them.
Now I was quite confused. We were going to a wedding dinner and me with metal spikes sticking out of my hair. During dinner at the wedding, I noticed the guests sitting opposite us stole glances at me oddly. I think they were too polite to ask Bah why I had metal spikes sticking out of may head. Bah & mum didn't offer any explanation too. I just kept up my head up trying to reduce the sight of the spikes. After dinner was over, we left and Bah brought me to the hospital where my Uncle Kadir was already waiting. Uncle Kadir is a serious man, and he just looked at me and started pulling the spikes one by one. Then he gave me a jab, which I presumed was a tetanus shot. I kept a brave and courageous front, not whining or even crying all that time. In actual fact, I was terrified that mum would hit me on the head again!
Another time, the whole family went for an outing to Kota Tinggi waterfalls. In those days, to get to the waterfalls, we had to walk a distance along stone and pebble paths. Being too excited, I accidently tripped and felled onto the pebble path right on my chin. It bled quite badly enough that Bah applied a bandage from chin to my head. He did this so tightly that I could not open my mouth. I think I looked really weird then, but nevertheless thereafter, all of us merrily continued our progress to the waterfalls. We spent the whole afternoon there with everyone swimming, climbing and eating, having a great time. Poor me just kept sitting watching everyone else having fun. I was afraid the water would increase the pain to my injured chin. Besides that pain, I was also suffering form acute hunger pain. This was because of the bandage! I couldn't open my mouth because of the bandage. Bah offerred to remove it so that I could eat, but I was afraid it might start bleeding again. All in all, it was really a disastrous outing for me. We all walked back to the car later that evening. On the way back, Bah stopped at the polyclinic where I had to have 6 stitches, as well as another tetanus shot. Today, if you looked carefully, you can still see the scare under my chin.
I learnt from these 2 incidences that Bah was always cool and never one prone to panic. More importantly, I learnt that he would not let anything, like spikes on my head or torn chin, to postpone or cancel his planned activities. So growing up with him can be so wonderful if he had anything planned, provided you are not involved in any untoward incidences like I did. This would not be the last time though, but I will tell you about them in later episodes.....
Back to 77 Jalan Storey, at the front there was a beautiful rock garden with a swing. Nearly all of us spent late afternoon there.
During our stay there, Bah had to go to Hawaii, where he was posted for a few months at the university. During that time mum started to learn to drive. By the way, Bah had changed his car to a “Hillman". Gone was my favourite indicator. One of Bah’s students, Ayob by name, was mum's driving instructor. She normally goes off for a couple of hours every alternate day for her lessons. My brother and I always checked the car for scratches after her lessons. Although we couldn’t find any, but it used to rile mum up when we did this.
My time in the early fifties, had no such thing as kindergartens. As Bah had many good friends in the education department, he managed to enrolled me in a normal school one year before I was supposed too. As the norm, being in a school environment the first day was daunting, but I got by that day ok except for one thing. While waiting for Bah to pick me up, I had the urge to pee, but I didn’t know where the toilet was. Naturally, I just peed in my pants! Mum found out when she took my school uniform. It was embarrassing especially when my brother made a big deal out of it.
It was at this house that a new addition to the family came about. Fizah was born on the morning of Eidil Fitri. Everyone was very happy that we now have another baby sister. Bah also mentioned that the 3 of us actually were borne on significant dates of the Muslim calendar, my brother on 1st Muharam, I on Maulud Nabi and Fizah on Eidil Fitri.
I remembered a number of incidents in that house, none were pleasant to say. One evening, I saw mum and Bah were getting ready to go out. So I went up to mum at her dressing table where she was combing her hair and asked where they were going. They were getting ready to go to a wedding dinner. Of course, I felt like wanting to go too, but they said no. I started whining wanting to go. Somehow mum lost her temper and hit me on the head with her brush that she was combing with. It was one of those types that had metal spikes sticking to it like porcupines. Although it didn't hurt, I was stunned. Then I saw the look of horror on mum’s face. She looked at her brush and I too saw that at least 4 of those spikes were missing. Feeling my head where I was hit, I felt the missing spike there stuck in my head! Mum started to cry that brought Bah came over to have a look. After checking my head he casually told me to get dress as I am going with them.
Now I was quite confused. We were going to a wedding dinner and me with metal spikes sticking out of my hair. During dinner at the wedding, I noticed the guests sitting opposite us stole glances at me oddly. I think they were too polite to ask Bah why I had metal spikes sticking out of may head. Bah & mum didn't offer any explanation too. I just kept up my head up trying to reduce the sight of the spikes. After dinner was over, we left and Bah brought me to the hospital where my Uncle Kadir was already waiting. Uncle Kadir is a serious man, and he just looked at me and started pulling the spikes one by one. Then he gave me a jab, which I presumed was a tetanus shot. I kept a brave and courageous front, not whining or even crying all that time. In actual fact, I was terrified that mum would hit me on the head again!
Another time, the whole family went for an outing to Kota Tinggi waterfalls. In those days, to get to the waterfalls, we had to walk a distance along stone and pebble paths. Being too excited, I accidently tripped and felled onto the pebble path right on my chin. It bled quite badly enough that Bah applied a bandage from chin to my head. He did this so tightly that I could not open my mouth. I think I looked really weird then, but nevertheless thereafter, all of us merrily continued our progress to the waterfalls. We spent the whole afternoon there with everyone swimming, climbing and eating, having a great time. Poor me just kept sitting watching everyone else having fun. I was afraid the water would increase the pain to my injured chin. Besides that pain, I was also suffering form acute hunger pain. This was because of the bandage! I couldn't open my mouth because of the bandage. Bah offerred to remove it so that I could eat, but I was afraid it might start bleeding again. All in all, it was really a disastrous outing for me. We all walked back to the car later that evening. On the way back, Bah stopped at the polyclinic where I had to have 6 stitches, as well as another tetanus shot. Today, if you looked carefully, you can still see the scare under my chin.
I learnt from these 2 incidences that Bah was always cool and never one prone to panic. More importantly, I learnt that he would not let anything, like spikes on my head or torn chin, to postpone or cancel his planned activities. So growing up with him can be so wonderful if he had anything planned, provided you are not involved in any untoward incidences like I did. This would not be the last time though, but I will tell you about them in later episodes.....
Growing Up Part III
Sorry. It’s been more than a month now since I last posted. Anyway, I'm writing this in middle of the night in Mumbai.
Now where was I? Our family moved to a large government bungalow, where my late grandma and aunts moved in with us as well. I still remembered the address as 77 Jalan Storey, because years later, when TV was available, there was an American detective series call 77 Sunset Strip. Today that house is now part of a highway. I had many good memories of that place, although that was the last time we stayed together as a large family.
The house was very much larger than the one before, with long corridors running along both sides of the house. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that big, but as a 5 year old, it seemed huge to me. The compound was surrounded with big trees and one of those trees grew “buah susu”, I don’t actually know other names it goes by. But this tree was infested with tiny ants. The only person who would ever climb it was Subramaniam. He stayed at a small quarter to the back of our house with his family. Each time when he climbed back down, I could see his body was full of ants crawling all over and even running about his face. It used to freak me out then because he would pretend wanting to hug me!
At night if you were to look out, it was quite scary because of the huge trees around it. Right across the road was a rubber estate, not anymore today. So letting your imagination run….. Now whenever I was being punished by my aunt, she would carry me to the end of the corridor at night in the dark and left me there. It always freaked me out because it was dark with creepy shadows dancing along the walls made by moving branches of trees under moonlight. The only reason that I didn’t pee in my pants was because my brother would run up to get me. It was one of those times that we would have some form of understanding. Perhaps he was expecting me to do the same if he were ever in that situation.
We had a “grand” radio then in house. It is a radio as large as a cabinet with two large speakers at its sides and a record player. It was a very technologically advanced set for that period. You can actually stacked 45rpm vinyle records on top of the other on the shaft. Then one would automatically slide down onto the turntable, and the needle would swing on to it to play. The wonder of technology! Why do I remember this? Quite some time back (this was perhaps maybe 10 years ago) my colleagues and I were in a hotel lounge where the music playing were oldies. An instrumental song came up next, and my colleague turned to me and asked whether I know the number. I answered without hesitation that it was “Apache” by the Shadows. He looked at me in such a funny way that I asked what’s wrong. He said “Ahmad, you must be very old!! That song was either late 50's or early 60's.
How I would know was simple. I had my aunts with me who were teenagers then. They had bought and played those records by The Shadows, Cliff Richards, and Elvis Presley and so on. Those artists were the IN thing those days (hey, late 50s to early sixties ok!). Even today, if you want me to belt out Its Now Or Never, or The Young Ones, I could do that, no problem at all.
At the back of the house there were 3 rooms. These were sub-let to Bah’s students. One was Syed, another Ismail and the last was Sharum. Syed as a joker, very articulate and easy going. It was from him that my brother and started learning to read the Quran.
Ismail was quiet and artistic. In his room were many different types of instruments. Guitar, bongo, accordion, flutes etc. Yes, he was a musician. Sharum was studious. He ended up as the political secretary to Hussein Onn the former Prime Minister.
The students of the college where Bah was Principal, wanted to put up a drama to be staged to the public. It was called”Si Bongkok Tanjung Puteri” a true legend in South Johore. Syed was the main actor. They had their rehearsals at the house almost every alternate night until the show was staged. The show was a tremendous success. Attending the premier, I knew exactly who would die and when etc. It was great!!
Sometime later I attended another stage show staged by a girl's school. I remembered that show because during the fighting scenes when someone was stabbed with the "kris", I actually thought that it was real! I had nightmares thereafter for quite some time. Reason being that the show staged by Bah’s students, I knew that it was just play acting, because they get up every time after getting “killed.” The other show, I didn’t know that it was a play acting…imagination of a 5 year old!
Now where was I? Our family moved to a large government bungalow, where my late grandma and aunts moved in with us as well. I still remembered the address as 77 Jalan Storey, because years later, when TV was available, there was an American detective series call 77 Sunset Strip. Today that house is now part of a highway. I had many good memories of that place, although that was the last time we stayed together as a large family.
The house was very much larger than the one before, with long corridors running along both sides of the house. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that big, but as a 5 year old, it seemed huge to me. The compound was surrounded with big trees and one of those trees grew “buah susu”, I don’t actually know other names it goes by. But this tree was infested with tiny ants. The only person who would ever climb it was Subramaniam. He stayed at a small quarter to the back of our house with his family. Each time when he climbed back down, I could see his body was full of ants crawling all over and even running about his face. It used to freak me out then because he would pretend wanting to hug me!
At night if you were to look out, it was quite scary because of the huge trees around it. Right across the road was a rubber estate, not anymore today. So letting your imagination run….. Now whenever I was being punished by my aunt, she would carry me to the end of the corridor at night in the dark and left me there. It always freaked me out because it was dark with creepy shadows dancing along the walls made by moving branches of trees under moonlight. The only reason that I didn’t pee in my pants was because my brother would run up to get me. It was one of those times that we would have some form of understanding. Perhaps he was expecting me to do the same if he were ever in that situation.
We had a “grand” radio then in house. It is a radio as large as a cabinet with two large speakers at its sides and a record player. It was a very technologically advanced set for that period. You can actually stacked 45rpm vinyle records on top of the other on the shaft. Then one would automatically slide down onto the turntable, and the needle would swing on to it to play. The wonder of technology! Why do I remember this? Quite some time back (this was perhaps maybe 10 years ago) my colleagues and I were in a hotel lounge where the music playing were oldies. An instrumental song came up next, and my colleague turned to me and asked whether I know the number. I answered without hesitation that it was “Apache” by the Shadows. He looked at me in such a funny way that I asked what’s wrong. He said “Ahmad, you must be very old!! That song was either late 50's or early 60's.
How I would know was simple. I had my aunts with me who were teenagers then. They had bought and played those records by The Shadows, Cliff Richards, and Elvis Presley and so on. Those artists were the IN thing those days (hey, late 50s to early sixties ok!). Even today, if you want me to belt out Its Now Or Never, or The Young Ones, I could do that, no problem at all.
At the back of the house there were 3 rooms. These were sub-let to Bah’s students. One was Syed, another Ismail and the last was Sharum. Syed as a joker, very articulate and easy going. It was from him that my brother and started learning to read the Quran.
Ismail was quiet and artistic. In his room were many different types of instruments. Guitar, bongo, accordion, flutes etc. Yes, he was a musician. Sharum was studious. He ended up as the political secretary to Hussein Onn the former Prime Minister.
The students of the college where Bah was Principal, wanted to put up a drama to be staged to the public. It was called”Si Bongkok Tanjung Puteri” a true legend in South Johore. Syed was the main actor. They had their rehearsals at the house almost every alternate night until the show was staged. The show was a tremendous success. Attending the premier, I knew exactly who would die and when etc. It was great!!
Sometime later I attended another stage show staged by a girl's school. I remembered that show because during the fighting scenes when someone was stabbed with the "kris", I actually thought that it was real! I had nightmares thereafter for quite some time. Reason being that the show staged by Bah’s students, I knew that it was just play acting, because they get up every time after getting “killed.” The other show, I didn’t know that it was a play acting…imagination of a 5 year old!
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