RIFLE RANGE BOY

Found it floating around the social media, WhatsApp specifically. PULAU Talang Talang sedia untuk berlepas (Pulau Talang Talang is ready to depart),” the voice booms over the public announcement system. This is quickly followed by two short blasts of the ship’s horn. Almost immediately, the entire vessel starts to shudder as its powerful engines below deck effortlessly nudge the submerged propellers to life. Fortunate to get a choice position right next to the metal railing at the upper deck bow, I join the dozens of excited holidaymakers and regular commuters in enjoying the scenic landscape that lay in front of us as the ferry slowly glides towards Pengkalan Raja Tun Uda, our disembarkation point on Penang Island. Apart from enjoying the fresh and invigorating sea breeze blowing in our faces, quite a number of my fellow passengers also start taking selfies and wefies with the imposing city skyline forming an irresistible backdrop. At the same time, the smell of freshly ba...

We are told that the fundamental need of man is simple. All he needs are food, sleep and the chance to procreate. The high water mark of procreation, the ecstasy of climax, must have been added by Nature to lure Man to help in the continuity of his species. With increasing complexity, when Man started living in communities, and social mores began creeping in, their fundamental needs zeroed on food, clothing and protection from the harmful elements of Nature. With further sophistication, when the society progressed, the essential things in life do not remain basic anymore. There used to be a time when food was a necessity, or perhaps obligatory, for one's body to be able to burn enough energy for one to garner sufficient might to provide for his loved ones. With their God-given limbs, the immigrants and the sojourners alike tried to change their fate through sheer hard work and willpower.  Whatever came their way which was nutritious and palatable was consumed fo...

PFS 55 GTG 2018 A meeting of students honouring their dear teachers.  ©FG The excitement was palpably clear. Hints of tinges of moistening of the angle of eyes were there but they tried to suppress it. Laughter was free-flowing, so were the stories of an era so distant yet so near. It was a reminiscence of the memory of a bygone era of Malaysia that we yearn to re-live and re-create. Chatter interspersed with occasional bouts of schoolboy chuckling and heckling was drowning the background piped-in music. A student went, "Gagool (as we referred to one of the fiercest teachers in Form 1; after the character in Henry Huggard Ridley's 'King Solomon's Mines') told me that I stank." The speaker is now a former state football player, who, during school holidays, was forever seen in possession of a soccer ball. It appeared like his main intention of attending school was to play football. He could come to school early, at noon, for the afternoon session, just t...

The partially completed Kek Lok Si temple in Penang in 1905. It holds the dark secret of a melancholic monk with self-inflicted wounds after his tireless endeavours to rebuild the temple was sabotaged and bad-mouthed. In its annals too, woven are the intriguing narrations of the selfless services of a young Dr Wu Lien Teh who nursed him back to health. What is a sacrifice? Is it an overused word with its meaning taken for granted? A suicide bomber is making a sacrifice when he decides to blow himself to smithereens to make a statement or to martyr himself for the good of those who share the same belief as him? Is he not being selfish as his own remunerations that await him in the afterlife? Is he being selfless or selfish when he plunges the red button? Is the symbolism of death on The Cross the ultimate sacrifice for the human race? Is it true altruism when able bodies with the spring of youth ahead of them give up their earthly pleasures to serve God and the downtrodden? Can ...

An MGM presentation. James . Fitzpatrick's Travel Talk The Voice of the Globe. (the 1930s)

The Chulia in Penang Patronage and Place-Making around The Kapitan Kling Mosque 1786-1957 Author- Khoo Salma Nasution With a year like 1786, they knew they could not go wrong. Muslims from South Asia are known to use the numerals 786, a calculation in a traditional numerology system of the Abbasid Caliphate, as a short form for the salutations  b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm. It was that year that the British decided to make 'Pulo Pinang' as their trading post and Tamil Muslims choose to place their future in this land of fortune. The British never 'discovered' Penang as it was already inhabited by fishermen and villagers. Only the British saw their potential for big things. The Tamil Muslim traders and talented sea-faring merchants had earlier established their own trade routes along the Straits of Malacca all the way to North Sumatra and beyond with the help of the monsoon winds. They had marked their presence into the Malacca Sultanate and other Malay ...

Whicker’s World Classic Full Documentary: Penang I Haven't Taken My Own Shoes Off for 45 Years.. .! (1976) One cannot imagine how much Penang has changed in 40 years. When we view this documentary, we can see how much the skyline is obscured by buildings and there is not much of a horizon to see. Alan Whicker gives a rare glimpse of Penang that I had first-hand experience, Penang in 1976, as a teenager trying to make sense of things around me. The documentary looks at the island of Penang, of a third world country, from the rose-tinted lenses of the British man. His main highlight seems to be to show the Thaipusam celebrations, a self-mutilating theatrics of penance and gratitude to the Gods, as described by him.    His first three guests include an ex-civil servant, Cunningham Brown, who decided to stay behind in the comforts of the tropics after Independence. He still has a cushy life as a king, cared for by the natives. A Scottish doctor, Dr Reed Tweedy, cam...

Thanks Malaysian Heritage and History Club and Buruhanudeen Abubakar for sharing. Even though these photos may be look old, I remember seeing these scenarios during my walks from Hutchings School to the City Council in Victoria Street from the early 1970s all through to 1975. Those were the daily sightings in my life as my young eyes ponder and imprinted all those everlasting memories in my grey matter. These laborious people in the pictures may have passed on, setting a foundation for their dependants to have a cushier life than theirs. Well, that must be the foundation of human existence - to do things easier, to go further, to smoothen things, to provide, to survive, to move up a notch in their social strata, to enjoy, to savour life and wither away living in the joyous memory of the past wishing that if only the present and the future could be as uncomplicated as the past. Human Cart for transportation of goods Fruits, anyone? Tailor made underg...