RIFLE RANGE BOY

30.4.2010 My early liaison with medical services For an Indian family, the only fields of jobs that strike the correct chord and are worth being called a career are law, engineering and medicine. On the sly, in a family function, they would sneer at people who proudly announce of their kids’ success in any other fields beside these big kahunas. “What pilot? That’s a glorified driver!” they would say, “…and a flight attendant is nothing more than a maid in the sky who would serve your juice.” Those who do not go to a 9 to 5 job or don a tie to work are considered loafers to these people. And teaching is for those who did not quite make it to the three fields above. This perception is slowly changing of course. In this time and age, if one were to look around Kuala Lumpur, it is easier to find an Indian doctor or lawyer than to find a convenience store! And not all of them are minting money, as some has have to stoop so low to make ends meet in this ever competitive dog eat dog world....

28.4.2010 Let there be music… And there was Radio RAAF Butterworth! Just like Aum is the basis of all sounds, music must be the precursor of all forms of speech. Before we learn to speak, we make sounds. Mix it up with the correct musical instruments, and you will have something which is heavenly music is one’s ears. Of course, this is very subjective, just like one of my friends once said, “Music was born in India, grew up in Europe and died in China.” He was obviously referring to clanging cymbals of traditional Chinese opera music. Ignorance is bliss. Just like my mother would not appreciate Led Zeppelin, Queen and Bon Jovi, one man’s music may be another man’s migraine. My sisters and I grew up being exposed mainly to Indian cinema music since childhood. Piped-in music from the ever playing transistor radio forms like a background musical score in our everyday life. Appa would tune in to the Short Wave (SW) transmissions from Radio Malaysia Tamil, and Singapore Radio Tamil...

27.4.2010 Malaysian Indian, Indian Malaysian or Malaysian? Dear Thelma, I am confused. I am at a crossroads. I was born in Malaysia some almost half a century ago in a government hospital to two Malaysian parents whose parents were also born in Malaysia. My parents and grandparents contributed in their own way (albeit their low status in the rung of the social ladder) to put Malaysia on the world map so at least some Americans now know that there is not a void space between Thailand and Singapore; and Himalaya and Malaya is not interchangeable; or Malaya is not a female equivalent of He-Malaya! I started my primary education with Malaysian Language as the medium of instruction even though other countries in the region were keeping up with the Joneses and emphasized on the English Language because our leaders told us that it would unite the people and stop internal squabbling. All my subjects from Standard 1 to Upper Six were taught in Bahasa Malaysia, even though we did not have eno...

22.4.2010 Memories of RRF - Food for thought (Thoughts of food) Even though we were brought up not to emphasise food but rather eat to live (c.f. live to eat), we all had our chance to indulge and savour various delicacies and cuisines. Thanks to Amma’s culinary skills, she learned from Sultan Ammah in Caunter Hall and thanks to Appa for his preoccupation with rich food. In fact, my 2-cents worth of theory of aetiology of the Shams’ fall from grace after the financial tsunami in 1970 is probably due to his undying desire to fulfil his insatiable palatal gratifications. He must have been regularly eating and spending his friends at regular outlets on credit. When the time came for payments, he must have discovered that he had overshot his budget. With burgeoning family expenses due to the expanding family, he would not have been able to pay the outstanding bill. That would start the first signing of the blank I.O.U. Chits with the friendly money lenders. To pay interest on the loans...

Back in the 90s, the legendary Bill Cosby (of the Cosby show and Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert!) hosted and produced a comedy show involving toddlers and pre teen children. I suppose the politically correct word now would be tweens. It was called “Kids say the most darn things” and did well for a couple of seasons. Kids have posed adult-themed (not the X-rated type) questions (like how are babies born) and children would, with a straight face, answer them with some naïve and quirky replies much to the amusement of the studio audience, making the producers laugh all the way to the bank! In reality, as most of us already know, kids say the meanest things as well, especially to their weaker and smaller mates. Let me tell you about my experience when I was growing up. In RRF, there were kids who used to address me as ‘orh kia’ or ‘kling kia’ – black kid or Indian kid in Hockkien dialect. Malaysians then and now assume that, just because they are dumb, not intelligent enough to le...

16th April 2010 Another two bites the dust*…The green green grass of home**… We cannot be living in the past all the time, can we? Every once in a while we must shake ourselves from our slumber, laurels and the shadow of the past and live in the present tense so that the future will so bright that we will have wear shades! Another two bit the dust today, one to greener pastures and another to the after world. The former refers to our family friend who got admitted to Harvard for undergraduate studies while the latter refers to my dear friend’s father in law who succumbed to after a long lonely struggle with cancer.  Dr Goh (third from left) congratulates Ryan while Avinaash, Michael (second from right), Dr Coffman and Tan look on Avinaash Subramaniam is every Indian mother’s dream son except that he does not speak any Indian languages! (Bad words do not count). He excelled academically (13As in 2008 SPM) and had represented his school at national level inter-school d...

14.4.2010 Too late for Happy New Year?* And a happy new year... But 2010 started 4 months ago! The Gregorian calendar, yes, but for many cultures and civilizations it starts in mid April. For the Zoroastrians and those of the Bahai faith, it starts on the March equinox. The Telugus commence the New Year a month after this date as well. The Christian Churches decided long ago that the single most important event in their religion (i.e. The Resurrection) will be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox as Easter Sunday depending whether the church follows the Gregorian or Julian calendar. The Malayalees, Sindhis and Sikhs celebrate their respective New Years (Vishu, Cheti Chand and Vaisakhi) around now. Not to forget the Red Shirts in Thailand who called it truce to honour their Songkhran and at least the Singalese and Jaffnese celebrate something together on the same day. The Laotians, Cambodians, Myanmarese and the Dais of Yunnan cele...

12.4.2010 Memories of RRF – and the hits keep on coming*… Continuing with our juicy gossip, let us look at Block C. This block was occupied much later than Block E and was much cleaner; thanks to the absence of the Royal Malaysia Army’s monkey children. We did not have many contacts with occupants here, except for the Chinese tailor at the ground floor and a Chetty teacher who later committed suicide many years later. Oh, yes! I guess I forgot mentioning about the various people who chose RRF to free themselves from the constricting tentacles of life on earth and jump off the balcony! In fact, these suicides were common occurrences in Blocks A and B. Block E had also played host to these events. The Shams have all witnessed the gruesome aftermath of the jump but not once in our entire life did we visualize any form of apparition or ghost to haunt us in spite of having a Chinese cemetery nearby. In fact, just out of curiosity, I had once sat under a shady tree studying at height of noo...

9.4.2010 Coincidences – Are they really? Or another force... Just a few days ago I was watching a documentary on Independence of Vietnam, Ho Chih Min and the Vietnam War. 4 hours later, I was talking to my dear friend, Sasi, who told me that he had just returned from Ho Chih Min City! Here I was doing my own things and suddenly the word ‘Ho Chih Min’ get in the way twice in a row on the same day. Is that a coincidence or what? A few years ago, I browsed a thin easy-to-read book on coincidences. Some of the facts that the author highlighted were beyond the imagination of an average man. To actually think out things and somehow correlate all the events were indeed recommendable. I reckon this how people come up with conspiracy theories. The famous example of coincidence is the one comparing events surrounding the lives of Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy. The other example is the number ‘8’ and events involving John Lennon. When I was working in Labour Wards, my colleagues and I had...

7.4.2010 Memories of RRF – more neighbours… Continuing our worthless gossip of matters surrounding RRF, we will continue with Block B. Talking about RRF and its surroundings, RRF is basically situated at the foothill of the main range of hill which forms the spine of Penang island (or Pooloo Pinang as it was named in 1786 by a maverick conniving seaman by the name of Francis Light who literally hoodwinked the Sultan of Kedah by promising to protect Quedah from the Siamese attack which the knighted one did not uphold). Of course the History books do not tell this because it His (the Victor’s) story! On most days, one can catch a good glimpse of Penang Hill from RRF. B16-3 was the home to Mr & Mrs Velu. They were formerly occupants of a room in our house in Brown Garden before the 70s. I remember Mrs Velu ( Puthu Atthei as we called her) was very fond of us, the children. We enjoyed her stories, mostly fables told in a very dramatic way in a smiling manner. She also took care of us...

3.4.10 Memories of RRF – beyond the neighbours’ scandals Let me continue with my repertoire of thought logorrheic expressions in verbatim of people with whom we generally grew up with. Starting with A block… A16-14 lived Gobi Attah who speaks in a very unique way emphasizing on the consonants when she speaks! This Gobi Attah character was a bubbly lady who was my parents’ landlady when they rented a room in the house that she lived soon after they were married. I remember going to this house in Lorong Seratus Tahun when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I remember the chequered tiles at the entrance and the stout Chinese pillars at outside. Little did I know that my good friend, Sasi was running around the same street at that time. It is indeed a small world after all! In the mid 70’s hard times hit Gobi Attah and she subsequently moved in to RRF. She had a son (L. Ganeson) who lived in A15-16 who was working in a bank. He had two sons (Gajendra and Sailendra). I remember the elder son h...