RIFLE RANGE BOY

Diary (Tamil; 2022) Director: Innasi Pandiyan The story is based on an urban legend that arose in Beijing in November 1995. A local bus, no 375, left its station late one night to a remote destination. An old lady and a young man were travelling on it. Three people in traditional garb waved it down as the bus moved on. When the old lady saw these people, she started a quarrel with the young man she had come up with. She accused him of stealing her purse. Startled, the man fought back. They were both forced to get down by the bus conductor to sort it out at the local police station. Once they were off the bus, the old lady apologised to the young man for creating a ruckus. She told him the three characters who boarded the bus had no feet, so she thought they were ghosts. She just wanted to get away from them. They both went to tell the police about their experiences, but their story was laughed off. The next day, it was reported that the bus never reached its destination, and two days l...

Of course this was way before my time. My memory of this area is the stinky market, Lim Seng Seng Bus (which served Ayer Itam area), The Yellow Bus (which ploughed Gelugor and beyond to Balik Pulau -No. 66) and Hin Company which combed the beach district of Tanjung Bungah and beyond. Sri Negara (till Bagan Jermal area) and MPPP bus (No.2) had a stop there. After watching Deepavali movie, we had to run around for LSS bus 91A which plied Jln Boundary. Sometimes, we took the No. 91, walked to RRF from Kampung Bharu market. The run down Rex theatre. My sister and I watched the first English movie together - 'Earthquake' in sense surround sounds. I also have fond memories of watching the mind boggling action adventure packed from beginning to end with no time to recover in the Indiana Jones first of the trilogy (Raiders of the Lost Ark) here with PFS buddies. And my best film of all time 'Back to the Future 1' when I was in USM. The Victoria street MPPP bus term...

Electric tram on Weld Quay, circa 1910 Growing up in RRF, buses were the most important, of not the only form of transportation. In fact, for the middle class and the downtrodden part of the society, public transport play a crucial if not romanticized part of their everyday lives as evident from the numerous movies based on journeys! In our minds (the RRF dwellers), getting away from the clutches on the curse of dependence on buses as the sole form of movement is a way of escaping poverty. That would explain why we (my siblings and I) have not traveled in bus for years! Buses in Malaysia (especially Penang) carry a very long history predating Independence in tandem with the advancement in railroads. Despite the accusations hurled at the colonial master for squandering wealth from the land of its conquests, they did establish a sound transportation system. In Penang, they experimented with many state of the art (then) gadgets...