Memories of RRF – beyond with scandals..

3.4.10
Memories of RRF – beyond the neighbours’ scandals

Let me continue with my repertoire of thought logorrheic expressions in verbatim of people with whom we generally grew up with. Starting with A block…
A16-14 lived Gobi Attah who speaks in a very unique way emphasizing on the consonants when she speaks! This Gobi Attah character was a bubbly lady who was my parents’ landlady when they rented a room in the house that she lived soon after they were married. I remember going to this house in Lorong Seratus Tahun when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I remember the chequered tiles at the entrance and the stout Chinese pillars at outside. Little did I know that my good friend, Sasi was running around the same street at that time. It is indeed a small world after all! In the mid 70’s hard times hit Gobi Attah and she subsequently moved in to RRF. She had a son (L. Ganeson) who lived in A15-16 who was working in a bank. He had two sons (Gajendra and Sailendra). I remember the elder son had a great liking for food. The working mother used to prepare meals before she went for work. So, one afternoon when the boy returned and saw the 2 lb. of mutton gravy on the table, he actually finished the whole meal which the mother had prepared for the family for lunch and dinner! I guess the spicy mutton gravy was simply too delicious to resist!
Who is Gobi? I first knew of the existence of Gobi l from the family photographs when I was in primary school. We were both dressed in identical striped attire for a birthday party when I was maybe 5 or 6. Gobi @ Ravindra Kumar grew up in town area and finally made it to Penang Free School. He, however fell off the rat race there and stayed on in the last few ranks of classes of the form. He later became a Moslem convert and was charged with drug related offence. I remember that another son of Gobi Attah also fell prey to drugs.
A8-4 lived the cigar smoking old lady! She had a son and a daughter who never got married for a very long time. The daughter worked as a nurse in a clinic in town. I remember she finally got married. And so did his son to his long time sweetheart. Now, this lady is the same person (size 42) who used to get her saree blouses sewn by Amma!
A5-15 was the humble abode of Mr A Veera and his wife, Devi. Both couple just recently passed away in a space of less than a month (oh, how romantic!, like a Dixie birds in the Tamil literatures which depict the Dixie birds to be monogamous and the surviving pair will soon die after the demise of the other). This, however, was not the case when we knew them in the 70’s. Their household was forever in turmoil like how the West Bank is now, no peace! The couple was forever quarreling with accusations hurled by the husband to the wife of infidelity, pairing her with a jobless younger man staying just a floor below them. Nothing seriously happened out of these squabbles and they lived unhappily till their dying days.
A. Veera was a friend of Appa who started working as a peon at about the same time. He never really got any serious promotions till his retirement. (c.f. Appa served 30 over years in the same premises i.e.33, Beach Street, with many promotions).
I remember attending an entourage which was part of A. Veera’s engagement or wedding. The entourage was walking with the bride but had to hold on to the bride to keep her upright as she kept fainting and vomiting! Mmm.. I wonder if these were symptoms of early pregnancy?!*#@.
A4-17 lived a distant relative on father’s side. He had a thick Madurai Veeran type of moustache and was manning a Shell petrol pump and recently passed away.

energizer night run Putrajaya 27.3.2010

29.3.2010
Energizer Night Half Marathon @ March 27, 2010

Intellectual discourse between FG and JS.. FG: I just ran 21km. JS: What did you run from? FG: !@#?..err...from my shadows… JS: Who won? FG: My shadow, of course! Don’t you know that you cannot run away from your shadow? It will always catch up with you!

After the last crampy pathetic Putrajaya Night Half Marathon run, the Energizer run was to be the saving salvage run, to ascertain my ability to run, to correct the wrong that happened in Putrajaya! Equipped with self thought schemes and strategies like how Rocky Balboa trained in the cold weather of Philadelphia against the mighty giant from Russia in Rocky, I trained on the treadmill and the tarry tracks of Bukit Hatamas. This time around the plan was to run at a slower pace. After reaching a peak run of just over 10km, I had to taper down due to insufficient time 2 weeks before the race. The week before the inaugural run, it was essentially real light and easy runs with hardly any significant mileage covered. Luckily I managed to catch a good night sleep on Friday. Saturday afternoon involved replenishment with lots of isotonic drink of 100-plus.
The race started in Cyberjaya at 8pm, with all runners donning headlights. I started the run at a slow pace, without pushing to be at the head of the pack. The fact that there were no markings did not create undue stress and running was made somewhat devoid of stress. The first marker that I saw at 9km and my timing was 52m, ok so far so good, I said to myself. The second part of the race was also relatively smooth sailing. I hit the 16km mark at 1h32m.

 All these was on whilst it was so-called Earth hour, but much to our dismay, all the street lights in Cyberjaya as well as the light from the high rise buildings there were still on throughout the hour. There was not a shred of indication to signify the momentous hour! And I was thinking before the event that when people around Malaysia would switch off their light, I would be depending on ATP, cAMP and the Kreb cycle for energy. Obviously, I was so wrong. It was business as usual at Cyberjaya with some construction work still progressing at full throttle at 9pm on a Saturday night! These are some of the thoughts that were playing in my mind while I continued my journey of running from my shadow. Boy! The last 5km of the run seemed never ending. Just when I thought that I was reaching the finishing line, there was yet another bend and another turn and another kilometre. The end just appeared so elusive. I was just running and running like an Energizer bunny.
One commendable effort by the organizers is that they prepared abundant drink stations at almost every 3 to 4 kilometre equipped with both plain water and Gatorade. At every drink station, I gulped down about 100ml of fluids.
At around 2h20m mark, the finishing line finally manifested and it was it was all over. I was tired but this time around (unlike Putrajaya), I was not panting or having cramps. What a good night sleep can do!
Next stop is NB 15km run on 16th May 2010…

Official result:
ASOKAN SHAMUGANATHAN J9036 (Veteran) No.89/221
2:22:14.95 (Chip time)
2:22:36.13 (Gun time)

Memories of RRF – neighbours and beyond…

25.3.2010

Memories of RRF – neighbours and beyond…

Besides occupants of the 15th floor, there were a few interesting characters who emerged in our childhood. Most of the end units were occupied by personnel of Royal Malaysian Army and the families. Their children were usually brats who behave like monkeys without tails. They would be jumping here and jumping there, destroying public properties (like the lift and defacing the whitewashed wall with graffiti) while the father supposedly protect the sovereignty of the country and her property, i.e. its citizens! Most of them study at SRK Padang Tembak, some of use the military truck to ferry them to other schools and all of them perform dismally at school. Invariably all their names will be “Man” and all their mothers can say is lamely, “Man, janganlah Man!” but Man will just continue doing his thing. The wives will be sleeping of the time or at least appear so when they occasionally come out to sweep their homes which were incidentally near the dustbin chutes. Even minus the rubbish smell, the household had the characteristic belacan (shrimp paste) and petai (twisted cluster beans @ stinky beans) smells. But life went on and on... like Proud Mary going round and round on the Mississippi.
Actually, we never really got acquainted with most of the occupants of the block but a few who left an impression or two.
E14-10 was initially occupied by Anantha and his parents. Actually, we (my siblings and I) never got to know him at all. He was like Remington Steele (the 70’s TV series where everybody has heard of but none have actually seen him in person). He rarely appears at his unit except late nights and leaves in the morning. He follows his parents in the morning to their electrical shop in Chulia Street and spends the afternoon after school. His father was working as a barber, speaking only a smattering of the Malay Language. I remember once he and the carpenter (of E16-14) who was also could not converse in Malay having a conversation in our home. It was like a canine-feline conversation…. “itu messai semua adaaah..” and both the speakers were nodding their heads in unison! I wonder if each of them understood each other.
Anantha was a kind of a braggart, I did not really like him but all the Indian housewives there admired him for his gift of the gap. You know me, I believe that action speaks louder than words and I do not say niceties about people easily. A person who tells the whole world that he is committing suicide will not die and a politician or a holy man who promises his voters or followers the world will not keep his promise. Only still water runs deep!
Some time later, the unit was occupied by Anantha’s brother (Subramaniam), his wife (Kamalaveni, Chinese adopted by Indian) and her parents – an ailing bed-ridden father with betel leave chewing mother. Kamalaveni’s fashionable lady friend (?Kalpana, we called her Seensatti due to her hairstyle!). After marriage, Balan and Kamalaveni had to wait a long time before they had a boy – Siva Kumar who won a brand new car on a dancing competition on Astro!
E14-16 here lived a widowed lady with 2 children. Mdm. Thilaga had an unenviable reputation of being a “fighter cock” and a “carry tale”. People generally avoided crossing her path due to infamous reputation. Just like many ladies in RRF or maybe Penang generally, Thilaga used to come to the house and try to engage Amma in conversation. It was more of derogatory gossip, what happened where, in whose house and they give their 2 cents worth of advice. I do not think that Amma particularly enjoyed these conversations as she would still be engrossed in her sewing with an occasional "oh?' and "aahs?"while the ladies went on yakking and blabbing… Two other ladies who used to the same were H Block Indra and Raja Ammah.
There was a time when I had to teach her ‘not-so-bright” daughter Mathematics. I do not think I managed to teach her much as my explanations never really made it to her thick skull. maybe Iwas a bad teacher rather than she being a bad student! It takes two to tango. These tuition sessions helped me to decide never to be in the teaching profession.
E16-14 lived a carpenter with penchant for making Lion Dance paraphernalia. The carpenter had no furniture in his unit. He only had a fabric lazy chair and drums for the dance. Basically nothing happens in the house. Once a year in Chinese New Year, they all become alive and perform the Lion Dance all around RRF. The carpenter’s boys and their friends/relatives will be playing the musical instruments and the characters in the performances. After CNY, it will be back to their snail paced life.
E16-11A lived the tall mutton chop side burned Mr Paul and his Chinese wife.
E11-1 was the home to Mr & Mrs Manohar. Mr Manohar was an army officer who got transferred to Penang around 1976. I came to know Ramess through the Bhajans group that my sisters and I attended. He was one of the few of them in RRF who could converse in English. Before coming to Penang, he was in Kuala Lumpur. The friendship extended beyond RRF, we kept in touch via mail even after he left for Kuala Lumpur again after 4 or 5 years staying in RRF.
He did not really do well in his studies (SPM) and ventured into spiritualism and meditation. He even spent a good 2 years in the mountains of India in search of the elusive truth. Reality hit back when he returned to Malaysia and he had to take over his ailing father’s daytime vocation of a cab driver. He married a priest’s daughter who was a good 10 years younger than him. I attended his wedding to in Jalan Ipoh Vinayakar Temple. On and off I kept in touch with him. I met him again when I was working at Klang Hospital to examine and follow up his wife’s pregnancy. When I left Government service, his wife continued her follow-up and delivered under my care. Ramess and his family (including the children) were full time vegans. By mid 2005, he was a single man again when his wife allegedly left him and his family for a younger man!
E8-18 was occupied by a distant relative on my father’s side. It is not surprising as he grew up with 15 other siblings! We called her puttu as she was selling puttu in the market.
E7-12 occupants were a childless couple who used to frequent our house. I wonder why people actually liked coming to see us. We never really went out of our way to entertain people. In fact Amma will continue her sewing in spite of visitors and Appa is not much of a conversationalist. I guess people then did not expect much other than friendship or they had too much time! The husband (Mr Subramaniam) was hard of hearing (even with the hearing aid!) and the wife (the Hornet) was a carbon copy of Ms Olive Oyl (of Popeye fame). To me, she looks more like a turkey as she had long ear lobes further accentuated by the dangling earrings that she always wore!
Looking across the balcony we could see D block. After a hard session with the books and Mathematics, people watching, like bird watching, can be therapeutic and relaxing. On the hand, of course…
D16-14 was more of a nuisance. It was occupied by a City Council bus driver who would come back from work without fail every day just to listen to his gramophone record player belt out his favourite Hindi songs at full blast. Lyrics from songs of Bobby, Aag Gale Laag Jaa, Julie, Yaadon Ki Bharat, Aradhana still appears to be reverberating in my mind!
D15-12 was occupied by an Indian family. The couple had 2 kids but will be forever at logger heads. This would sometime happen way past midnight when the wife can be heard to be chasing the husband away from the bed at the top of her voice, much to the embarrassment of those who understood the language!
D17-8 was where many children used to congregate on Saturday evenings for Bhajans. It was occupied by a Mr & Mrs Rayan. Mrs Rayan was barred by her husband to come out of the flat without his accompaniment as she was too good looking in his eyes. Vendors and peddlers in the market place would apparently stop their business just to be mesmerized by her beauty, so the talk around the flats goes! True she was fair and did look a wee bit like Jayalalitha (South Indian movie star in her heydays) but probably 3 or 4 sizes bigger, not that Jayalalitha was small by any means! My sister and I used to run back after the Bhajans so that we would be in time for Six Million Dollar Man!
D4-2 lived a little devilish of a girl with the name Sheela who borrowed my Fairy Tales book and never returned until we literally begged at her door step only to receive a debilitated worn out book.

D13-8 lived a Chinese girl who attended the same kindie school as Sheila by the name Ruby. She never really learnt Sheila's real name. She used to call Sheila "Gila" and the worse thing was she used to lung her name from across the block from Blocks D to E!

DG-4 was like the house in the nursery rhyme about the lady who lived in a shoe. So many children lived here and they walked in and out of the house at their whims and fancies as they had opened up the bars at the balcony for easier access.

Addentum:

D4-22 housed the family of Mr & Mrs Sundram. Mr Sundram was constantly borrowing money from people and used to overindulge in alcoholic beverages. He was also employed with the bank like father. The family actually did not see any living daylight until Mr Sundram succumbed to heart attack at the age of 54 years. With his gratuity monies and after his eldest daughter was employed as a bank employee in her father place the family actually prospred. Coincidentally, she was our tuition teacher for a few months before she got a job.

Memories of RRF – neighbours

23.3.2010

Memories of RRF – neighbours

E15-11 was situated behind the lift near the electrical meter board. The frontage was not overlooking into the open space like other units but was kind of dark and was a place where children would gather and play their games like “S”, photos, cops and robbers, chiabak etc. etc. All of us have bitter and sweet memories with the lift. At one time or another, we all had the bad experience of being trapped in the lift, no big deal actually, only if you are in a hurry. Actually the lifts were used and abused again by its occupants. In the later years, I even took my mini bicycle up the lift for safety reasons. If only it was not German made, it would have given up long ago. The day to day running of the lift was done by Council appointed handicapped individuals who were supposed to be manning the lift by being inside the lift but they seemed to find joy by playing the fool among each other, talking like they know everything and basically doing nothing! Beh Beh was the longest serving attendant there. He had difficulty articulating due to some spasticity with his neck muscle and tongue. Hamzah was another character but he did not look so handicapped. Desmond joined later; he had a small underdeveloped contracted left upper limb.

Sometimes all the lifts would go on strike or there could be a power failure, we would have to climb down all 15 flights of stairs on foot and many a time I had to bring my bicycle down in this manner. Talking about the lifts, my sisters and I will never forget the old Chinese with a walking stick and gross tremors on her hands who would reprimand children who are rough with the buttons on the lift. She would say in her characteristic voice shaking all over, “SSSudahlah… satu kali cukuplah, banyak kali rosaklahhh…”

E15-11A was occupied by a single mother who worked as a seamstress to support her two young children – Ah Leng and Ah Keow. My sister, Lats, and all of us learned most of our conversational Hockkein from them. Ah Leng used to worship Lats and followed her all around. Lats would bully her and made her do all her dirty job. Quite often, both Ah Leng and Ah Keow would be in for a beating when their mother was in a bad mood.

Amma was also a keen tailor herself by dire necessity to make ends meet. She learned the finer points of sewing from Tamil Bell Club and also from a Chinese lady in Block C Ground floor. Both Sheila and Lats have had their Deepavali dresses done by Amma much to their disappointment. I had one set of pajamas sewn by her which I wore for a long time until everybody got turned off by it. When Mama come to RRF and wanted to take a family photograph with his spanking new camera, he chased me away to slip into something more appealing than the trishaw man’s attire as he addressed the pajamas!

Just the other day, Sheila just reminded me of all the long hours that she had to endure with mother’s sewing contracts and all the abuses that were hailed at her in spite of her keen workmanship in midst of her studies. I was sometimes roped in to stitch the buttons on shirts and blouses. We all spent many hours doing these before every Deepavali and Thaipusam. Of course it was not all gloom and dull, we had our own set of jokes, like the bosomy lady with bust size 42 and the blouse with putrefying smell of body odour which was with us for a long time and remained unclaimed!

E15-15 was occupied by a Chinese family who was running an illegal 4D syndicate. I remember putting some bets for Appa, usually for $1 or $2 for numbers like 8886, 1511, 7122, 2874 and others. The head of the family used to hide his counterfoils on top of the electrical meter board. In fact, I remember a time when his house was raided. He stopped his business temporarily, but it was business, as usual, a couple of months later. Things have not changed much since those days with illegal activities and Ah Longs.

E15-17 reminds me of the old Cantonese lady screaming her lungs off to her granddaughter, “Ah Lengggg……..sek fun!!! Tah leya!”

E15-9 was occupied by a group of weirdoes, Mr N (who thinks that it is his God-sent right to have a mistress, so says the wife), his forever crying wife with an equally pathetic crying face (a full bloom flower will wither instantaneously on sight!), his domineering mother (with evil written all over her face – like in Cliff Richards song, Devil Woman), his retarded brother E and his 2 kids. They did not talk to us for a very time until one fine day the wife was in for a major bashing. The feud was stopped by all neighbours of the 15^th floor. It was Ah Hock’s father (of E15-8) who called my parents to intervene as we were fellow Indians.

Over the years, Mrs N continued to talk to Amma over the kitchen window much to her chagrin. She will come all bruised, and she kept staying with the family hoping that one day the husband will repent. I wonder how she is now.

E15-8 always brings a tear or two to my eyes! It was occupied by Ah Hock and his parents. At the height of family financial crisis when the funds were way low, we actually had to sell our National table fan to our Ah Hock’s father for $15 to buy rice and tin of sardines to cook a meal! It sounds far fetch like a scene from a depressing Tamil movie like “Tholabaram” but it is true as much as the sun sets in the west! Talking about “Tholabaram”, I remember watching it in the theatre with the family (minus Appa) – when financial situation improved, of course, with Raja Ammah @ Rukumani). The theme of the tear jerker was close to all our hearts. It depicted how a wealthy girl married a poor worker due to her adverse family situation and how her life spiraled down the slimy ladder of poverty and she finally unsuccessfully poisoned the whole family (herself and her kids; she became a widow). Her best friend from college was her defence attorney. The song “Kattrunile” by KJ Yesudass carries a deep meaning and always brings back fond and not so pleasant memories of RRF, Ah Hock and the fall from grace.

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

9.3.2010

The wheels on the bus go round and round, just like the circle of life! Only the wheels get bigger…

Quote from Wikipedia…
Penang boasted an efficient public transport network right up to the 1970s. Electric trams, trolleybuses and double-deckers used to ply the streets of Penang.
The public bus service in Penang was the first one started by the British in Malaya back in the 30’s with the introduction of tram service and GTMT bus service. It also served me well in my childhood all the way to early adulthood until I managed to own my first car, a second hand Nissan 120Y in 1989.

A few days into Standard 1 in 1970, I was left by Appa at the kacang putih seller’s stall in Prangin Road Bus Station for me to board the Yellow Bus No. 77 to go back to Brown Gardens. It was a long journey taking almost 45 minutes via Customs Village. Taman Tun Sardon and its adjacent development was nonexistent then and the bus had to go around Green Lane via Yeap Chor Ee Road to come to Brown Gardens through Sungei Gelugor. Later on Bus No 11 was started by City Council but it stopped at the Aquarium. I do not think I used that bus to come back from school.
After the financial tsunami, I was taking the bus again from RRF to school with bus Nos. 1-JB, 10 or SC6. As the population in RRF tripled and quadrupled (circa 1974), alighting a bus to school became increasingly difficult. That explains why I used to be perpetually late for school in Std 5. I, however, had a very understanding teacher in a bespectacled ever smiling kind hearted Mr Cheah Yeong Chee. He had never scolded me for being late even when I once
landed in his class after recess! That explains why I got 5th position in Std 5 examinations.
The City Council buses that serviced the RRF usually made a U-turn at Boundary Road. In order to secure a place in the buses, some passengers will board the bus before it may the U-turn and pay an extra fare (5 cents for school children, later it was 10 cents). I, of course, rather push, shove and wriggle myself through the crowd and get a place on the bus than waste 5 cents! Sheila who later started taking the bus when Lats started going to school, paid the extra fare to get to school on time.

I was given monthly bus season tickets (which used to cost $2) which entitled me a trip to and from school once a day. Occasionally I had to attend extracurricular activities in school some afternoons. I would use the season ticket when the bus conductor sometimes does not punch the card if he is busy. On other days, I will have to fork out (or rather mother) our own money. The interesting story here is the fact that school children’s bus fare from RRF to Jetty is 15 cents. The fare from RRF to Lorong Kulit (which is midway) and from Lorong Kulit to Jetty is 5 cents each. Do not ask me how I found this out! Therefore, to save on 5 cents from the bus money that Amma gave, I used to get down at Lorong Kulit, take another bus (to avoid the embarrassment of being identified) to Jetty. Boy, things I used to do to save 5 cents! All these saved monies used to go into my lucky plastic chick piggy bank. And without my knowledge, my sisters (I suspect) would occasionally dig into it to indulge in their favourite tidbits, like dried figs and dried plums. I used to call these delicacies “Chinaman’s nasal droppings”!

An embarrassing moment occurred once when I was in Form 2 whilst struggling to get on a bus. I used to love to carry an old luggage type of suitcase bag to school against the advice of Amma. It was in a depilatory condition and the latches did not work very well but I insisted on using it on sentimental reasons. In midst of the struggling near Han Chiang School, the latches gave way and all the contents of bag was strewn all over the road much to amusement of others and embarrassment on my part. While all this was going on, guess who was on the same bus witnessing the whole fiasco? Who else but my sister Sheila! She had a field day blackmailing me to relate the whole incident to Amma. Well, I later obtained a secret weapon to counter her blackmail. She had dropped a soft drink bottle (Fanta^®) on the concrete floor of the living room whilst posing as singer holding the bottle as a microphone! And she was singing, “Fanta Fanta minuman keriangan…” and pop went the bottle. By the way we used to have soft drink bottles (usually half a dozen) stacked in the refrigerator for years just in case some important guest turns up at our doorstep. Nobody really visited us except for MKS, Raja Ammah, H Block Indra, Mama, A8-4 old lady, Dass (who was shy of his ebony coloured wife), old lady from E14-10 (who was a flasher in her own way), the Bee with a hearing impaired husband (E7-12) – ah? ahhh!. And machinery of life went on churning at full speed…

Pearls of wisdom:

One who does not remember where he came from will not reach where he is going to! It is easy for others to say that he who has reached his destination had forgotten his past but only he will know the pain of thorns and stones that bled him enroute his destination.

Love is blue and Duke street

8.3.2010
Love is blue…

The instrumental rendition of the song “Love is Blue” by the Paul Mauriat Orchestra always sends shivers down my spine, not of the chilling type but one of nostalgia! It reminds me of the carefree and stress free days in 70’s when I was playing around the compounds of Dewan Sri Pinang and the City Council car park area of No. 2, Duke Street. It also in a way brings me the thoughts of the financial tsunami that hit the Sham family.
In the early months of 1970 when I was in Std 1 at Hutchings School, I used to spend a lot of time at my paternal great grandmother’s house in the City Council quarters of 2, Duke Street adjacent to Dewan Sri Pinang. In fact that was the address used for me to gain entrance to Hutchings School with the hope one day I would go to Penang Free School. This, my mother did after failing to register me at St Xavier’s Institution. History has not changed much, now we are using the same tactic (clinic address) to get our kids to SM Taman Connaught. I remember playing hide and seek as well as cops and robbers amongst the cars in the car park there. We used to collect crimson red beads which dropped off the large angsana trees there and we created our own games from it. I used to see trishaw riders and vagabonds who used to doze to the sedating seaside breeze that was found there. Life was almost at a standstill and quiet.
The living quarters was shared with another family – Wahab, Habibu, Rashid, Khatijah (mentally challenged) and Maimunah. There used to be a tall dark gentleman who used to stop by at their house daily for a tall glass of neem leave juice to control his diabetes. He gulped the whole concoction at one go!

Attah’s (we called her) specialty was fried Chencharu fish stuffed and tied with spicy grated coconut. She used to love food generally, in spite of ill general health (diabetes, hypertension, obesity and asthma among others), especially vadai! I remember her pounding her betel leaves and lime in a metal canister as she was almost toothless and spitting in a coconut shell which she used as a receptacles for oral refuse! She had bad eczema. She lived with her moody hearing impaired son who was happy staying single after separating from his wife only a few months of marriage. Attah’s husband was housed with his daughter, my paternal grandmother.
I remember watching the Chingay procession which was held in conjunction with the Pesta Pulau Pinang. Those days the Pesta Pulau Pinang was an annual affair and was held around the Esplanade. Bank Negara was later built nearby. They even placed sandbags once along the roads to hold their street F1 Grand Prix. In its heydays, Penang was on the world map as one of the venues for a F1 meet!
And the taukwa rendang and pasembor from Esplanade with its unique thick and rich gravy is simply out of this world.
Just like Fred Savage enjoying his childhood in “The Wonder Years”, I was playing without a care in the world to the music of “Love is Blue” playing somewhere in the background.
Deep in the quarters of City Council, the adults were having fierce discussions about financial crisis, debts, missing jewelry and bankruptcy!
And the Beatles have gone separate ways. Blame it on Yoko.

Are you OK, Annie? Who knows? I am still standing…yeah,yeah,yeah!

6.3.2010

Are you OK, Annie¹? Do know why²? I am still standing…yeah,yeah,yeah!³

In the course of our conversation, I casually asked my accountant about his health. To this he replied, “Oh, I did my medicals and the doctors told me that my results were fantastic. The doctors were so happy with the result and told me that my results were better than the cardiologists’.” That’s P, my accountant, the ever optimistic chap who looks at the world from a very positive outlook. You ask him about his son who was studying in Ukraine, he would say the lecturers were so impressed with his performance and so are the Consultants he is working for now as a house officer. And his daughter is so happily married in the cold mountains of Germany!

Well good for him, P, if only everyone in this world is as contented as him, the world would be a better place and it starts with the man in the mirror⁴.

On one hand, I feel happy for him for his good results as it gives him a sense of satiety to enjoy his happy life as he is. On the other hand, it gives him a false sense of security. That started me thinking, one of my friend’s sister was diagnosed by a professor in UHKL to have a lethal form of lymphoma back in the 80’s. Her prognosis was grave and her days were numbered, so she was told. As the Americans say, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going, she went on various traditional medical treatment modalities – Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese and Indian. The testimony of her endeavour is that she is still standing and has outlived the professor by a good 10years so far. So, has Prof Balasegaram, the first liver surgeon who was diagnosed to have Chronic Renal Failure in the 1980’s who is still going strong yoday at the age of 80 also outliving the physician who gave him the bad news!

Nobody knows how healthy or sick a person is! An able body can just collapse just like that after a brain aneurysm. Nobody can say that he is healthy. Every living day is a gift from the Almighty and all of us are living on borrowed time. We should be glad that we can actually get up in the morning and continue with life. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be⁵…Obladi Oblada! Life goes on bra…⁶

References:

1. Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal

2. Norah Jones: Don’t know why

3. Elton John: I’m still standing

4. Michael Jackson: Man in the mirror

5. Doris Day: Que sera sera

6. Beatles: Obladi Oblada