RIFLE RANGE BOY

Indra Shan as I know can be equated to Mother Theresa of Malaysia or to Florence Nightingale. I came to know Auntie Indra when I got married to her nephew in the year 1990. During my first encounter with her, I remember how much she spoke about her charity work and her job with the church. She can be remembered as a lady with a big heart. Understandably, she must have had many sacrifices in order to have served many helpless and homeless individuals who have been forgotten by the society. She has always been there for others and empathises with the poor and the mentally disturbed and tries within her means for them to be back on their feet. She is a woman with big dreams. Just like Martin Luther King Jr. who had dream come true 50 years after his demise, she has inspired her children, nephew and nieces realise their respective dreams to become professionals and successful in their respective lives. Her dream to build the Mercy Home has also materialised, much to the appre...

Eulogy written for Pastor Indra Shan's Memorial book Pastor Indra Shan not only shares the first name with the lady who was an iconic figure of the 20th century and the former prime minister of the biggest democracy in the world - Indira Gandhi but her dynamism and ability to lead any organisation out of the doldrums. My earliest encounter with my aunt (Pastor Indra), as far back as my grey matter can bring me, was when I spent a good one whole month during the year-end school holidays in December 1970. We (my sisters and I) were awed by the appearance of her bungalow in Malacca. It was furnished with exquisite furniture, carpets, and the accessories that went with it. I particularly remember a large aquarium in the living room with a fish named 'Oscar'! To complement this entire bourgeois ambience was an orchid garden and a walk-in bird cage with parakeets, sparrows and parrots. My parents told us to emulate our cousins, who were rattling off in impeccable English a...

16.3.2010 Indra Shan and RRF Every time the Shans and the Shans meet up, we will invariably be talking about our escapades in RRF. Just to set the family right – Indra and Rada (@Seetha) are daughters of SM Muthu whose father used to be a man of some standing in his heyday. He used to be a proud owner of a 3-storey mansion in Queens Street , Penang . As is the case with most Indians in Malaysia , we can only talk about our glory days. There is nothing much more for us to show, our ancestors have either drank or feasted our wealth to the ground. SM Muthu, in his single generation tattered his family wealth only to work as a worker in a printing press and later driver-cum-gardener in his silver years with his trophy wife. SM Muthu had 4 kids (Saroja, Indra, Radamani followed by Murthi) and 2 adopted kids (Sambu and Susila). The people those days were quite charitable. Adoption was a occurrence then. According to stories from my mother and Mama, SM Muthu was not an exemplary fath...