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!