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| Fred Astaire tap dancing to Putting on to the Ritz |
An unauthorized abridged mini biography of Lincoln Murthi (the man with a mission)
From rags to ri¢he$ (Penny-wise to Ritz*, Shangri-La** and Caviar)
After seven years of marriage, Mrs S. M. Muthu (nee Letchumy Ammal) was getting desperate. She had almost exhausted all avenues of prayers and vows. After three unsuccessful attempts at procuring a son for her cultural needs, she was even toying the idea of adopting a son when it finally happened. On 30th August 1942, a baby boy was born and he was named Samantha Murthi. A nice Tamil name indeed they thought but it also created confusion later when he went to the UK where the English expected a vivacious lady named Samantha but instead their Malaysian candidate was a mustachioed Indian gentleman!
She had many dreams for the young boy but was concerned that her dreams would not materialize as her husband has been showing many unhealthy traits. He found it hard to keep his job, was a spendthrift and a little irresponsible as a father.
These very characteristics are the reason for LM’s education to be frequently disrupted. The frequent changing of jobs and houses had left a toll on his studies. Frequent and hurried transfer left no time for collection of school certificates resulting loss of a year of studies by the time he was twelve. There was an incident when she was told by her friend that LM was seen manning a porridge stall (ordered by LM’s father to stock up his (father’s) pocket money!) A major logger head would ensue and his mother would plead to a school teacher to take LM in. This type of setbacks in LM’s life were far too numerous to be enumerated. These landed him in many schools (usually private schools due to lack of documentation of his studies) which are unheard of and nonexistent now, e.g. Guru Nanak School in Ipoh as well Lutheran School!
At 12 years old he was placed in Std 4 class due to the above reason and made it to Std 6 the following year by Double Promotion. Before entering Form 1 there was another disruption in his studies and LM had missed entering secondary school. This is the time when he walked into a school Headmaster’s office (again private school) to enroll himself into Form 1. After listening to his sob story, the Headmaster (a Caucasian) told him, “Boy, poverty is not a qualification!” and placed in one of his classrooms. He was hoping to be placed in Form 1C but halfway through the day did he realize to his utter shock that he actually was in Form 2A! The first thing that went through his mind when he realized this was the amount of school fees that he would be saving, not whether he could sail through Form 2 without the proper foundation! In spite of dissuasions of his old schoolmates (who were in Form 1C), he stayed on in Form 2 and performed well in his studies. He was aiming the clinch the second last place in class (to convince himself that he was better than at least one student in his class) but he got the fifth place instead. He told himself that he was more than qualified to stay on. He went on to Form 3.
A day before his Form 3 (LCE) examinations, his boat started rocking again. He had high fever and was diagnosed to have chicken pox and was advised hospitalization. He requested for the school authorities to allow him to sit for the papers but his request was vehemently denied. His Headmaster told him, “Son, no one can help you now, except if the Director of Schools gives you special permission.” So this 15 year old disgruntled boy (LM) marched in to the Director’s office and pleads his case. Fast forward, the next day while he was hospitalized, Education officers brought his examination papers for him to sit in the luxury of the hospital bed. So were reporters from the local daily and the same Headmaster (who denied his earlier request) posing gleefully to newspaper photographers!
He passed and went on to Form 4 with pride. They say lighting never strikes twice and the banana tree does not fruit twice (in Malay). Well, LM knows it is not true. In 1959, Madam Letchumi Ammal succumbed to breast cancer after a brief battle with the disease. LM had lost not only a mother but a pillar of hope that played a pivotal role within her means to ensure that her son whom was a gift from the Gods after many trials and tribulations would one day somehow be free from the clutching shackles of poverty and misery.
After the mandatory ceremonies of the death, LM’s father summoned all the 5 young children (including 2 adopted) to get them to start working. LM, of course, refused and stated his wish to continue studying as he had bigger things set on his mind. LM was told to resource his own ways to finance his school fees while his father literally went around the country side and married a lady named Lily in Cameron Highlands a year later. And his daughters of marriageable age were left high and dry at the mercy of relatives for caretaking (spread all around the country).
Like the Americans say, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going! Desperate times demand desperate measures. LM dug deep into his bag of entrepreneurship to device various ways to scrap that extra cash to finance his education. He used to buy boxes of matches from Penang Island (a tax free port then) after his classes and sell it off on the Mainland. It sounds simple but it had its moments of suspense as it was illegal. He was almost stopped at a check-point but hawkeyed LM managed to throw the merchandise off to sea just in the nick of time. Ironing clothes was another way to pay his $15 school fees. It is about this time his acquaintance with Mr Jaganathan blossomed. Mr J took it upon himself to ensure LM’s smooth sail into the ocean of education, in spite of the half a score of his own children to handle.
The elusive light at the end of the tunnel came when he finished his ‘O’ levels (MCE) and secured a place in the Teachers’ Training College. Most ordinary people would be contented with his achievement thus far and then to rest on their laurels, but LM was not the ordinary run of the mill. He had other agendas on his mind. Perhaps the thought of how his distant cousins used to heckle at his childhood poverty and the ridicules when he used to admire their clothes was playing again and again in his mind like a broken record and he was not going to stop as yet.
As a teacher, I sometimes wonder what kind of a teacher he would have been. LM was studying for his ‘A levels’ after he graduated from the college. All his students’ exercise books would go missing as he would be using them to scribble his notes. When the students ask for their respective books, he would reply, “Oh, your book! Your book was handpicked by the Education officer to be used as model to other students.” That would satisfy most students. This must be the mark of a lawyer in the making!
And life went on with its usual frills and spills…
LM made it to University Malaya and graduated with B.A. (Hons) in 1970, the first in his family to do and was a mould for generations to follow. In those days, the convocation was televised on the national TV (not live telecast, but delayed). Amma was keen this see this feat. Unfortunately, our fall from grace had rendered us without a television. We had to scout around for a television but when we finally got to locate a television set at a Mr Tara Singh’s unit, the ceremony was over and we had missed LM’s momentous moment of receiving his scroll.
Matrimony came next to an equally understanding and glove-in-hand ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ kind of partner in the form of Ms Pathmajothy @ Gowry.
Being the disciplinarian that he is, he must have fit well with the Royal Malaysian Armed Forces, serving Port Dickson and Garrison Camp in Kuching. Again, the RMAF must have been his stepping stone to grasp the sacrosanct pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I had the honour and priviliage of spending some time with LM after finishing my SPM. Amma’s noble intention of sending me there was to learn a thing or two from LM and hopefully a peel or two of his superior qualities would rub off on to me. (It is not for me to judge if it did).
He did his minimal mandatory work with the RMAF, got promoted to the rank of Major and he signed up for the External Law Degree at Lincoln’s Inn in London. He started dodging his work and was concentrating on his Law studies which needed a lot of self study. He told his superiors that he was doing some research on military law. One fine day, he was asked by them to show the progress of his work. I remember that faithful Thursday evening when he came home and asked me to rewrite some text from a book in verbatim for scrutiny by the bosses the following day. I started writing the script at 6.30pm and continued writing all through the night and managed to pass it to him at 7.30am when he comedown for breakfast- much to his amazement on my perseverance (that is RRF training!).
As part of his Law training requirement, he had to attend its highly traditional college dinners. That started his frequent Aeroflot flights to London (via Moskow) and the shock of the English of meeting a mustachioed ‘Samantha’! Of course he sailed through his examinations just like all the ocean voyages that he had cruised through albeit its choppy waters and sometimes storms to endure all his life.
His elusive pot of gold is finally here. LM is now a successful lawyer who has carved a name for himself in his field of expertise and is much sought after while sending shivers down the spine of his opponents.
Madam Letchumi Ammal must be looking down at her son from Heaven and must be nodding approvingly to his achievements, his Shangri La…
* Putting on the Ritz –Taco (1980). One hit wonder, originally written in 1929. Fred Astaire is famous for his tap dancing to this tune. “Putting on the Ritz," means to dress very fashionably (1930s’ slang). Interestingly, in its original song it was mocking the black Harlem dwellers who would spend every dime for a wonderful time parading at Lenox Avenue (later changed to politically correct Park Avenue, a white enclave!). Sounds to me like 'lepakking with their designer jean sipping Starbucks Coffee (deja vu?). The song was featured with the original lyrics in the 1939 film, 'Idiot Delight' where it was performed by Clark Gable!
** Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel, ‘Lost Horizon’ by British author James Hilton.
#Who is Lincoln Murthi? Apparently, Samantha Murthi had great admiration for Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of USA. He used to pen letters to the newspapers with that pseudonym as selected letters were paid handsomely!
She had many dreams for the young boy but was concerned that her dreams would not materialize as her husband has been showing many unhealthy traits. He found it hard to keep his job, was a spendthrift and a little irresponsible as a father.
These very characteristics are the reason for LM’s education to be frequently disrupted. The frequent changing of jobs and houses had left a toll on his studies. Frequent and hurried transfer left no time for collection of school certificates resulting loss of a year of studies by the time he was twelve. There was an incident when she was told by her friend that LM was seen manning a porridge stall (ordered by LM’s father to stock up his (father’s) pocket money!) A major logger head would ensue and his mother would plead to a school teacher to take LM in. This type of setbacks in LM’s life were far too numerous to be enumerated. These landed him in many schools (usually private schools due to lack of documentation of his studies) which are unheard of and nonexistent now, e.g. Guru Nanak School in Ipoh as well Lutheran School!
At 12 years old he was placed in Std 4 class due to the above reason and made it to Std 6 the following year by Double Promotion. Before entering Form 1 there was another disruption in his studies and LM had missed entering secondary school. This is the time when he walked into a school Headmaster’s office (again private school) to enroll himself into Form 1. After listening to his sob story, the Headmaster (a Caucasian) told him, “Boy, poverty is not a qualification!” and placed in one of his classrooms. He was hoping to be placed in Form 1C but halfway through the day did he realize to his utter shock that he actually was in Form 2A! The first thing that went through his mind when he realized this was the amount of school fees that he would be saving, not whether he could sail through Form 2 without the proper foundation! In spite of dissuasions of his old schoolmates (who were in Form 1C), he stayed on in Form 2 and performed well in his studies. He was aiming the clinch the second last place in class (to convince himself that he was better than at least one student in his class) but he got the fifth place instead. He told himself that he was more than qualified to stay on. He went on to Form 3.
A day before his Form 3 (LCE) examinations, his boat started rocking again. He had high fever and was diagnosed to have chicken pox and was advised hospitalization. He requested for the school authorities to allow him to sit for the papers but his request was vehemently denied. His Headmaster told him, “Son, no one can help you now, except if the Director of Schools gives you special permission.” So this 15 year old disgruntled boy (LM) marched in to the Director’s office and pleads his case. Fast forward, the next day while he was hospitalized, Education officers brought his examination papers for him to sit in the luxury of the hospital bed. So were reporters from the local daily and the same Headmaster (who denied his earlier request) posing gleefully to newspaper photographers!
He passed and went on to Form 4 with pride. They say lighting never strikes twice and the banana tree does not fruit twice (in Malay). Well, LM knows it is not true. In 1959, Madam Letchumi Ammal succumbed to breast cancer after a brief battle with the disease. LM had lost not only a mother but a pillar of hope that played a pivotal role within her means to ensure that her son whom was a gift from the Gods after many trials and tribulations would one day somehow be free from the clutching shackles of poverty and misery.
After the mandatory ceremonies of the death, LM’s father summoned all the 5 young children (including 2 adopted) to get them to start working. LM, of course, refused and stated his wish to continue studying as he had bigger things set on his mind. LM was told to resource his own ways to finance his school fees while his father literally went around the country side and married a lady named Lily in Cameron Highlands a year later. And his daughters of marriageable age were left high and dry at the mercy of relatives for caretaking (spread all around the country).
Like the Americans say, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going! Desperate times demand desperate measures. LM dug deep into his bag of entrepreneurship to device various ways to scrap that extra cash to finance his education. He used to buy boxes of matches from Penang Island (a tax free port then) after his classes and sell it off on the Mainland. It sounds simple but it had its moments of suspense as it was illegal. He was almost stopped at a check-point but hawkeyed LM managed to throw the merchandise off to sea just in the nick of time. Ironing clothes was another way to pay his $15 school fees. It is about this time his acquaintance with Mr Jaganathan blossomed. Mr J took it upon himself to ensure LM’s smooth sail into the ocean of education, in spite of the half a score of his own children to handle.
The elusive light at the end of the tunnel came when he finished his ‘O’ levels (MCE) and secured a place in the Teachers’ Training College. Most ordinary people would be contented with his achievement thus far and then to rest on their laurels, but LM was not the ordinary run of the mill. He had other agendas on his mind. Perhaps the thought of how his distant cousins used to heckle at his childhood poverty and the ridicules when he used to admire their clothes was playing again and again in his mind like a broken record and he was not going to stop as yet.
As a teacher, I sometimes wonder what kind of a teacher he would have been. LM was studying for his ‘A levels’ after he graduated from the college. All his students’ exercise books would go missing as he would be using them to scribble his notes. When the students ask for their respective books, he would reply, “Oh, your book! Your book was handpicked by the Education officer to be used as model to other students.” That would satisfy most students. This must be the mark of a lawyer in the making!
And life went on with its usual frills and spills…
LM made it to University Malaya and graduated with B.A. (Hons) in 1970, the first in his family to do and was a mould for generations to follow. In those days, the convocation was televised on the national TV (not live telecast, but delayed). Amma was keen this see this feat. Unfortunately, our fall from grace had rendered us without a television. We had to scout around for a television but when we finally got to locate a television set at a Mr Tara Singh’s unit, the ceremony was over and we had missed LM’s momentous moment of receiving his scroll.
Matrimony came next to an equally understanding and glove-in-hand ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ kind of partner in the form of Ms Pathmajothy @ Gowry.
Being the disciplinarian that he is, he must have fit well with the Royal Malaysian Armed Forces, serving Port Dickson and Garrison Camp in Kuching. Again, the RMAF must have been his stepping stone to grasp the sacrosanct pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I had the honour and priviliage of spending some time with LM after finishing my SPM. Amma’s noble intention of sending me there was to learn a thing or two from LM and hopefully a peel or two of his superior qualities would rub off on to me. (It is not for me to judge if it did).
He did his minimal mandatory work with the RMAF, got promoted to the rank of Major and he signed up for the External Law Degree at Lincoln’s Inn in London. He started dodging his work and was concentrating on his Law studies which needed a lot of self study. He told his superiors that he was doing some research on military law. One fine day, he was asked by them to show the progress of his work. I remember that faithful Thursday evening when he came home and asked me to rewrite some text from a book in verbatim for scrutiny by the bosses the following day. I started writing the script at 6.30pm and continued writing all through the night and managed to pass it to him at 7.30am when he comedown for breakfast- much to his amazement on my perseverance (that is RRF training!).
As part of his Law training requirement, he had to attend its highly traditional college dinners. That started his frequent Aeroflot flights to London (via Moskow) and the shock of the English of meeting a mustachioed ‘Samantha’! Of course he sailed through his examinations just like all the ocean voyages that he had cruised through albeit its choppy waters and sometimes storms to endure all his life.
His elusive pot of gold is finally here. LM is now a successful lawyer who has carved a name for himself in his field of expertise and is much sought after while sending shivers down the spine of his opponents.
Madam Letchumi Ammal must be looking down at her son from Heaven and must be nodding approvingly to his achievements, his Shangri La…
* Putting on the Ritz –Taco (1980). One hit wonder, originally written in 1929. Fred Astaire is famous for his tap dancing to this tune. “Putting on the Ritz," means to dress very fashionably (1930s’ slang). Interestingly, in its original song it was mocking the black Harlem dwellers who would spend every dime for a wonderful time parading at Lenox Avenue (later changed to politically correct Park Avenue, a white enclave!). Sounds to me like 'lepakking with their designer jean sipping Starbucks Coffee (deja vu?). The song was featured with the original lyrics in the 1939 film, 'Idiot Delight' where it was performed by Clark Gable!
** Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel, ‘Lost Horizon’ by British author James Hilton.
#Who is Lincoln Murthi? Apparently, Samantha Murthi had great admiration for Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of USA. He used to pen letters to the newspapers with that pseudonym as selected letters were paid handsomely!
