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 noon at this cemetery. No sire, no ‘one’ acknowledged me! Probably they were quite acquainted with me as the site was also my regular jogging area.
Speculations were rife on events leading to demise the Chetty teacher and spread like wild fire soon afterwards amongst the gossipy and tale mongering Indian housewives of RRF. He had led an exemplary life, a dedicated Tamil school teacher, a responsible father of two children (a boy and a girl – dreamt as ideal to continue our generation), a husband of a average not so ugly wife (even though he was shining bald!), a quite and unassuming man who kept to himself. The High Court of RRF gossipers finally zeroed it down to extramarital affairs (what is life without masala?) and clampdown by loan sharks. The jury is still out and probably dead by now!
This is probably the time when I started hearing the Tamil proverb being mentioned again and yet again about how one’s secrets and shortcomings will all be exposed and scrutinized out in the open after death – lies, sex and videotapes!?! (About vandavalam and thandavalam)
Another house of interest is the Chinese seamstress from whom Amma went on to learn the finer points of lady dress stitching. (Of course you do not have male dress in spite of what they say in Tamil movies. When a guy in the Tamil movie goes to change his attire, he will say, “I’ll go for a dress change!”) She used to come back after class crying complaining that the tailor was racist and ‘kiasu’. She apparently was not going the full mile to teach but holding away the finer points of sewing techniques from her which Amma later had to discover herself by trial and error. It was indeed an eye opener for all of us in our later part of life to discover things for ourselves rather than living on handouts. The sewing lessons that Amma went for also helped her to supplement the Sham’s household income by making her a household name in saree blouse stitching among the Indian ladies of RRF and places beyond.
This skill was instrumental in uplifting the prestige and status of the Sham clan in years to come. All her pawned jewelry was eventually redeemed and it helped to pay most education fees incurred by the children. Of course, this was not done with a gleaming face but with plenty of fretting and cursing, setting a sad tone most of the time when we all grew up. Whenever any payment crops up, which are not in the monthly budget set by the family, a small whirlwind (in the form of nagging) will come by and would eventually settle over a few days. In fact, many a time, I have avoided asking for money from Amma when an extra expenditure is incurred and resorted to using my measly savings from my favourite “Chicky Bank”.
Now, how do I manage to save money? Believe me, it was all legitimate (halal). Besides saving money on bus fare as mentioned earlier, I would also skip spending money at recess and the occasional alms received for Deepavali and the occasional visitors.
Another way Amma generated extra cash is by lending money! (Great! Paupers lending money to paupers!). Isn’t the world strange? We got hit by financial tsunami via debts and we tried to improve our financial status by being creditors. The lesson I learnt was that as long as stupid people walk on planet Earth, there will be people borrowing money. People will promise the moons and the stars when they wish to have your RM but once they have got their coffers fulfilled, the creditors will be ignored and be treated like a tramp or a leper. This I (and my sisters) can say with great conviction because we were sometimes summoned to collect dues (interest money) from the debtors. In present day scenario, we would be called ‘Ah Long’s. Sometimes when we knock on their door, nobody will answer but we can eerily sense movements and activity behind the closed doors! Televisions or radios can be heard too. Sometimes you would pretend to go away just to hide around the corner to nab them when they eventually surfaced from behind locked doors. Some hard core debtors (like Siva Guru –the teacher of Lord Shiva) knew all our tricks and would sneer at us from their flats after dodging all our efforts. I was once summoned to collect money a defiant debtor (Ramu, also happened to be my uncle) on Deepavali eve. He was coolly painting the grill of his gate and shooed me away! He said he had no money to give. I ridiculed him that he must have some money so as to be able to paint his gate! To this he got angry and chased me away, saying I was rude to an older person.
Things that seem so mundane and uninspiring then now bring a sparkle and a smile or two to our sometimes monotonous life which we would one day in turn savour and yearn to re-live!!! That is mankind, never satisfied...
*Casey Kasem used to say this in the American Top 40s those days!
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 noon at this cemetery. No sire, no ‘one’ acknowledged me! Probably they were quite acquainted with me as the site was also my regular jogging area.
Speculations were rife on events leading to demise the Chetty teacher and spread like wild fire soon afterwards amongst the gossipy and tale mongering Indian housewives of RRF. He had led an exemplary life, a dedicated Tamil school teacher, a responsible father of two children (a boy and a girl – dreamt as ideal to continue our generation), a husband of a average not so ugly wife (even though he was shining bald!), a quite and unassuming man who kept to himself. The High Court of RRF gossipers finally zeroed it down to extramarital affairs (what is life without masala?) and clampdown by loan sharks. The jury is still out and probably dead by now!
This is probably the time when I started hearing the Tamil proverb being mentioned again and yet again about how one’s secrets and shortcomings will all be exposed and scrutinized out in the open after death – lies, sex and videotapes!?! (About vandavalam and thandavalam)
Another house of interest is the Chinese seamstress from whom Amma went on to learn the finer points of lady dress stitching. (Of course you do not have male dress in spite of what they say in Tamil movies. When a guy in the Tamil movie goes to change his attire, he will say, “I’ll go for a dress change!”) She used to come back after class crying complaining that the tailor was racist and ‘kiasu’. She apparently was not going the full mile to teach but holding away the finer points of sewing techniques from her which Amma later had to discover herself by trial and error. It was indeed an eye opener for all of us in our later part of life to discover things for ourselves rather than living on handouts. The sewing lessons that Amma went for also helped her to supplement the Sham’s household income by making her a household name in saree blouse stitching among the Indian ladies of RRF and places beyond.
This skill was instrumental in uplifting the prestige and status of the Sham clan in years to come. All her pawned jewelry was eventually redeemed and it helped to pay most education fees incurred by the children. Of course, this was not done with a gleaming face but with plenty of fretting and cursing, setting a sad tone most of the time when we all grew up. Whenever any payment crops up, which are not in the monthly budget set by the family, a small whirlwind (in the form of nagging) will come by and would eventually settle over a few days. In fact, many a time, I have avoided asking for money from Amma when an extra expenditure is incurred and resorted to using my measly savings from my favourite “Chicky Bank”.
Now, how do I manage to save money? Believe me, it was all legitimate (halal). Besides saving money on bus fare as mentioned earlier, I would also skip spending money at recess and the occasional alms received for Deepavali and the occasional visitors.
Another way Amma generated extra cash is by lending money! (Great! Paupers lending money to paupers!). Isn’t the world strange? We got hit by financial tsunami via debts and we tried to improve our financial status by being creditors. The lesson I learnt was that as long as stupid people walk on planet Earth, there will be people borrowing money. People will promise the moons and the stars when they wish to have your RM but once they have got their coffers fulfilled, the creditors will be ignored and be treated like a tramp or a leper. This I (and my sisters) can say with great conviction because we were sometimes summoned to collect dues (interest money) from the debtors. In present day scenario, we would be called ‘Ah Long’s. Sometimes when we knock on their door, nobody will answer but we can eerily sense movements and activity behind the closed doors! Televisions or radios can be heard too. Sometimes you would pretend to go away just to hide around the corner to nab them when they eventually surfaced from behind locked doors. Some hard core debtors (like Siva Guru –the teacher of Lord Shiva) knew all our tricks and would sneer at us from their flats after dodging all our efforts. I was once summoned to collect money a defiant debtor (Ramu, also happened to be my uncle) on Deepavali eve. He was coolly painting the grill of his gate and shooed me away! He said he had no money to give. I ridiculed him that he must have some money so as to be able to paint his gate! To this he got angry and chased me away, saying I was rude to an older person.
Things that seem so mundane and uninspiring then now bring a sparkle and a smile or two to our sometimes monotonous life which we would one day in turn savour and yearn to re-live!!! That is mankind, never satisfied...
*Casey Kasem used to say this in the American Top 40s those days!
Anneh,
ReplyDeleteYes i remember Ramu painting his house and refuse to pay his debt. Do you remember that , Deepavali is the worst time of the year where mum will be sewing and we end up doing cookies., slaughtering chicken ( removing the feathers)... and so on. Until now Latha and I still had Deepavali. The music of nagging when bills suddenly crop up still plays on our ears.
Now appa is facing the music ... guess he has more karma than all of us.