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!!!!
Friday, February 17, 2006
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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