I gave it up for music & free electric band...

Just recently, the family of a now-deceased local legend and half of the longest standing Malaysian band Alleycats, Loga, was in the limelight for the wrong reasons. It was discovered after a fiery mishap in their modest rented house that his family members were in dire straits despite Loga's stature in the music scene.

Ahmad Nifsu

He made the same mistake shared by many legends of yesteryear. Like P.Ramlee's numerous strokes of ingenuity which were wholly copyrighted by Shaw Corporation until late, royalty from Alleycat's albums goes straight to the record companies. All there are left with are fond memories and 'terima kaseeeh' from fans.

Many Tamil screen legends were left in a similar predicament. V.K. Ramasamy, who had been in umpteen movies from the 50s all through the 80s, died a poor man depending on friends' goodwill to do the final rites. Then there was legendary Malay singer of the early 60s, R Azmi, who enjoyed singing so much that he would sing at wedding receptions for free and Ahmad Nifsu, the great director of the P. Ramlee era who became a pauper after the closure of Merdeka Studios in Singapore and lived life in a Japanese pillbox fort till his dying days.

We all have a short window of opportunity to consolidate ourselves. Failing to decide and seize this will see us and our dependents spiral down the stairway to heaven as time may bring in more and more baggage with it to deal with. It just gets harder and harder.......