Memories of RRF: Memories forever!

Sweet sour feeling - loss of childhood, entrance to adulthood!

Just like any old melodramatic Tamil movie, our dreams, when we were living in RRF was that one day we would all move back to BG and live as one happy family. This dream did materialise in 1982 and unfortunately I did not live long with the family there for a long time. What I did not know was that BG was only a transit point before bigger things in life were set to unfold! A year after moving in, came varsity and tour of duty and so forth...
The home loan repayment finally came to an end by early 80s. Early 80s also mark a giant transformation in my life. In 1981, I was in Lower 6 in school - metamorphosis in hairstyle, co-education and mature self learning with new set of friends and syllabus. At the family level, we managed to trans-locate ourselves from a multi-tiered low cost 36 sq. m.pigeon hole to a landed property with our own space and serenity. It was a triumph of sorts for us in finding back our own Beverly Hills.
All my life we were dying to leave this dungeon of a place that housed us through thick and thin.
It did not occur to me in my wildest dream that when my family was bending over backwards to scoot off from RRF that memories of childhood, growing up to the challenges of life, adolescence, the pranks with cousins, the joys of the seasons, lessons in life and the bonding of siblings will be forever treasured for life and immortalized in blogs.

I was secretly hoping to leave behind the persistent doom and gloomy sombre ambience that laced our daily living buried there together with the graves in the Chinese cemetery, which was an avenue where I sometimes solicited for peace of mind.

I remember that faithful day when it was time to send off the larger bulk of items were to be sent by lorry. Ah Leng, Lat’s best friend was standing in the midst of the crowd seeing things go by with eyes welled up with tears which were rolling down her chubby cheeks. Her sister, Ah Keow, much confused with all the pandemonium, asked her sister. To this she answered, “La...La...Latha, ai ki liow. Mai tui chu liow!” [La...La...Latha is going already. She is not coming back. At that juncture, they both start wailing, just like a funeral scene from a B-grade Hong Kong movie!

Rajnikanth

All these blabbering reminds me of the philosophical lyrics of Rajnikanth in the hit Tamil movie ‘Muthu’ where the Superstar manifests as a sage and delivers his line, adding much to the masala composition of the movie. Quote unquote, “People go to great lengths in pursuit of happiness; some go to temples, shrines, mountains, Kasi, Rameshwaram, Kailash for this. What they do not know is happiness is at the very spot they are, no need to go anywhere, ha...ha...ha...and he walks away.” Or something like that!
*BG, Brown Garden is a middle income suburban neighbourhood in the northeast part of Penang, a tiny island off the western coast of Malaysia. The house was bought in 1964. The area it stood was considered Penang's Siberia then as it was far from town (5 miles away). Now it is right smack in heat of activities- with the Penang Bridge and a university nearby! Needless to say, its value increased by 80-folds!

By George..That's life!

I visited a friend, in his late 60s, who had been afflicted by stroke. In the brief visit that I did, I gathered  certain information regarding his life and times as a man.
There he was sitting with his drooping left side of his face and weakened left upper and lower limbs, it is hard to imagine that he used to used to be an avid sportsman in his heydays playing various games at school and state levels (hockey, cricket, basketball etc.) right up to the age of 30 but he managed to keep himself trim.
After passing out from medical  school in 1976, he started working. Then came marriage and children and the joy and pride till that faithful day on 11th December 1993 when he lost his whole family (wife, children and all) in the Highland Towers tragedy. 

Remaining Highland Towers in 2008

Picking up the pieces one by one, he started life anew, he continued working after support from family and friends. He remarried and has a daughter of 10 years old. Hectic events that happened recently just pushed him over the brim.
Now he seems optimistic and positive on his road to complete recovery. We pray and hope that God will be by his side in this trying times.
His words of wisdom, "We always take our body for granted until one part of the body fails, for us to appreciate it!"

The day music died in Malaysia - 22Feb1992

The Day the Music Died

On February 3, 1959, a small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa killed three American rock and roll musicians: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean, in his song "American Pie".

The day that music died - remembering Sudirman

Loh Chan Hong
Sep 16, 10
12:00pm

As we celebrate Malaysia Day as a symbol of "freedom and fraternity", it is worth recalling that nearly two decades before the slogan 1Malaysia was coined, one national icon had already been crusading for a nation free from prejudices.

The late Sudirman Arshad, showered then with accolades such as "Malaysia's singing ambassador", our "No 1 entertainer" and even our very own Michael Jackson, championed unity up to his very last public concert just before his untimely death in 1992.

"This song is especially for all Malaysians regardless of race and religion, and one of its messages is we must live united as one family, on God's earth, without differentiating race, colour, status or ancestry," Sudirman told his audience on the night of March 9, 1991.

He then launched into a Tamil classic complete with a Tamil heroine picked from the audience, to the delight of the huge crowd gathered at the concert venue in Malacca.

He said the concert was special for him as his career was literally made in the historic town when he first won the Bintang RTM contest held at a Chinese school there.

The concert, released on VCD last year, saw a hugely popular Sudirman at the height of his career, constantly coaxing solidarity and acceptance from his audience, who were a typical cross-section of Malaysian society of all ages and races.

"Tonight, I'd like you all to treat everyone as your family, boleh tak?" he said at one point, asking everyone to shake hands or salam the people around them.

1-Stunning Malaysian

Genuine patriotism was at the heart of Sudirman's final concert, where early on he appeared dressed in a glittering Jalur Gemilangoutfit and surrounded by flag bearers.

Delivering his trademark Merdeka Day songs, he said, "For every nation in the world, independence represents a rebirth; without independence, who are we?"

"Independence of our motherland is our heritage, but true independence is self-independence from laziness and backwardness," he warned.

"Let us make this true independence an attitude that will become our national heritage," said Sudirman as he launched into his famous 'Tegakkan Bendera Kita' and '31 Ogos'.

Sudirman was born on May 25, 1954 in Temerloh, Pahang, and studied law at Universiti Malaya. He made his recording debut in 1977 and has released 15 albums over the next two decades.

The flamboyant artiste famously beat regional greats Anita Sarawak, Leslie Cheung and Kuh Ledesma, among others, when he won 'Best Performer' at the Asia Music Awards 1989 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Feb 22, 1992 was the day that music died for Malaysia, when Sudirman at 37 passed away in Kuala Lumpur.

Perhaps that was also the day that a piece of 1Malaysia died.

Lagenda Budak Setan

A star is born amongst our family circle! At least that is how we perceive it. After waiting for many months with bated breath, thanks to our friendly DVD peddlers at Econsave, we finally laid hands on the latest local flick that hit the cinemas -Lagenda Budak Setan.
My brother in law landed a small albeit an important role in the movie at the tail end of the show. He played the role of a doctor who was the bearer of bad news. He acted well in his role - a role that he performed well in his daily life- a doctor! Personally, I thought he did his part convincingly well, it was not half as bad! He delivered his lines (but with voice overs) pretty well - not the standard standing still and rattling off the lines with no emotions as we are quite often used to in most local movies. You can a glimpse of his performance in the following snippet @ 6:45 mark. The lip sychronising seem to have been done pretty well.

@ 6:45 mark! (Dr Lal)
In addition to his debut performance, his home was also a star of sorts as it was used as a shooting location as one of the actresses' home in the movie. See below at around #8:00 mark!

@ 8:00 mark (Home)
Overall, the movie was an above average melodramatic fare. Anyway it grossed more than 50 times in budget! One plus point was its cinematography - we could not believe that such picturesque sceneries could be captured here in Malaysia! The director of the movie was one Sharad Sharan (a buddy of my brother-in-law) and the post production work (editing, mixing, etcetera) was done in Bollywood.
That is it. Another masala to spice up our lives - another happening, another milestone, another event and another day to add sparkle to our illustrious journey of life!

Your next stop...TWILIGHT ZONE!

Children of the 70s must have been exposed to various interesting TV shows. Undoubtedly, 'Twilight Zone' (TZ) must have captured  the imaginations of many young minds of that era with their bizarre twisted story lines. I remember staring at the 16-inch black and white TV in the dark nights of RRF 

with the volume way down low as Appa would have slept by then.

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone. —Rod Serling
[Opening credit for the First Season]:(FYI the credits varied from Seasons 1 to 4)]

Rod Serling

I doubt if anyone would ever despise this show. A couple of years ago, I decided to have a little self indulgence and decided to purchase a collection of many episodes from all 5 seasons. It has been a real mesmerizing experience re-living the yesteryears. Rod Serling who would introduce the show with a smoking cigarette between his fingers, expectedly had heart problems at the age of 50 but sadly succumbed to complications of open heart surgery!  

Even before re-watching this black and white series this time around, I vividly remember watching an episode of TZ in the comfort of RRF titled 'The eye of the beholder'. The story and the scenes imprinted vividly on my mind because the camera only revealed the faces of the actors almost at the very end of the show. 

It starts with a whining lady whose face is heavily bandaged (pic). She is complaining to a nurse (whose only her back is shown to us) about her predicament of having undergone 10 previous unsuccessful surgeries to make her face not so scary. Her face had been so unsightly that it frightened children in public and she had become a social recluse. She yearns for the success of her last Government sanctioned operation so that she can be accepted into society. If that corrective surgery were to fail, she would be quarantined in a village at the edge of the country where she will be placed amongst people with her type of deformity.

Eye of the beholder

An interesting feature that you regularly see in these shows of the 60s is how nurses and doctors of that bygone era smoke at the nurses' counter and sometimes offer a stick to a patient. Smoking was a sign of affluence and was politically correct then to do so. The day finally arrived for the bandage to be removed. Alas, a pretty captivating blonde lady's face is revealed under the covers. The doctor sighs, "Oh, we failed again!"

Only then are we shown the faces of all the actors - the faces are all deformed, canine-baboon like and plain ugly! Our heroine sees her face in the mirror, shrieks in horror and runs from her room in 'disappointment'. Along the corridor we see images of their leader on TV who appears unsightly and horribly frightening by earthlings' standards, like the rest. She is pacified by a hunky 'normal looking' orderly who persuades her to follow him to the sanctioned village for the handicapped where he stays. He tells her about an old saying which says 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'! And the closing credits....

As in all TZ stories, there is always a take home message. It is interesting to note how we are constantly bombarded with images of aesthetically pleasing models that the world defines as beautiful. A beautiful girl has to be thin, tall, fair skinned (not the typical ebony hued oily haired) with Caucasianoid features. This, to most people is accepted as norm and would go at great length, risking their lives, pain, money to this end. They dye their mane or crowning glory, bleach their skins, undergo painstaking limb lengthening and plastic surgeries to attain their definition of a perfection which coincidentally varies from time to time!
Another episode that I had to luxury of watching recently is what I thought is a very thought provoking episode. The title of the episode just escapes my memory bank. Anyway, the story goes something like this....

The story starts on a quiet summer afternoon in a suburban housing area. Everybody is happy - waving at each other, washing their cars, children playing, people cycling, some walking delightfully - all hallmark of a peaceful neighbourhood. This serenity is somewhat disturbed when one by one the utilities gets cut, the water, the electricity then followed by the telephone line. Everyone in the neighbourhood is hit, except for one particular house whose occupant likes to keep to himself. Many speculations are hurled. Some suggesting that the occupants may be Communists' spies and basically up to no good. One thing lead to another and the town is totally convinced of their ill-intent. The town then decides to march to this house to clarify matters. Just then,  something else happens and the suspicion turns on to others in the neighbourhood and before long the whole peacefully tranquil suburbia turn into a disaster zone with looting and in-fighting.

At this scene, the camera rolls back.... And what do we (the audience) see? We see one Martian explaining to his superior how easy it was to defeat the Earthlings, by just planting a seed of doubt and suspicion and the whole civilization will crumble and fall!
How come they do not have shows like that anymore?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y

Memories of RRF: The farmer and the donkey!

This one goes out to CC and all those who are undecided about certain things in life and decide to ass around with other peoples' probably less than 2-sens' senseless worth of bray (advice)! Also to those who are upset with certain comments of other individuals. My words of wisdom - whenever you feel down, think of this cute donkey and smile!


Growing up in a lower middle class family in the pre-Merdeka era must have been a good time for children to be exposed to story telling from their elders. Entertainment as we can imagine must have been scarce. When putting rice on the dinner is a daily struggle, everything else is secondary. Television was not existent - TV Malaysia came into existence in 1963. You have to be born with a silver spoon to have unlimited access to story books.
My sisters and I, born in early Generation-X (1961-1981, by definition), did enjoy a little bit of comfort by our parents' standards in the form of easier access to story books, newspapers and TV . The Penang State library was a favourite haunt for me, besides the class and school library. I use to read Enid Blyton books, mainly. The State library used to be situated in the Supreme Court building but was later relocated to Dewan Sri Pinang. Besides story books, I used to get my cravings for the imaginary world via TV and story telling. Some prominent storytellers were Periya Atteh (with her crocodile who wanted to eat a monkey's liver story), Susila (Amma's adopted sister) and Rajes-Parames and gang with their pati-pati and the children who ate durian and were later assigned to take care of her food and money stories!
Of all the stories we were exposed to, many of Aesop's fables stuck on to the mind like glue. And amongst all his fables, the one that stands out like a sore thumb is the story of the farmer and his donkey. It goes something like this....
Long long ago, the was a time when a land was hit by bad times. Famine and misery was the order of the day. The yield of the land that year was dismal and farmers had it real bad. So, this old farmer decided to sell his last worldly possession, a donkey, at the market place to feed his family.
The next day, he and his young son set foot to the market place. The farmer led the donkey by a leash and the son was following behind. Before long came a stranger who commented, "Are you stupid or what? You have a donkey and you don't ride on it!" The farmer asked the son to ride the donkey and they continued the journey.
Then came another stranger who chided, "What a stupid boy you are, your old father is all drained out and you are riding the ass gallantly!" So, the farmer obliged and both he and his son mounted the donkey!
Then came another wise guy who was an old acquaintance. After finding the reason for the trip, the Einstein proposed that (in order not make the animal appear weary and drained out when it reaches tits destination to be sold) they tie their priced possession by its feet and carry it on a pole to the market! And they did just that with much difficulty of a struggling donkey. 
Just before reaching the market place they had to maneuver through a narrow bridge. Of course the struggling animal fell into the river and died. The  farmer and his son went home wet, hungry, penniless and melancholic!
The lesson is self explanatory - use your brains, do not follow blindly and above all common sense should prevail! Sometimes what you are doing could be just the right thing to do.

Eid mubarak ho!

Since some Muslims I know celebrate Aidilfitri for a month since they fasted for a month, I think it is not too late to write on this celebration. As most Malaysians, I also celebrated Aidilfitri with two of my Muslim friends.
The first was a colleague of my mine whom I have known since 1989. He was a Malayalee Hindu guy who embraced Islam when he married his Malay varsity sweetheart in early 90s. They are happily married with 3 boys. I finally visited them this year in their spanking new RM 4million villa in PJ. The guests of various ethnic groups were happily digging into the rich spread of food - freshly fried koay teow, satay, curry mee, rojak, cakes etc. As you can see, the spread was multi-ethnic in nature, not Malay!

Laila Johari

At night, it was dinner at Mohamad Manmohan Abdullah's home. We (the family) particularly enjoy celebrating Raya at Manmohan and Laila's mansion in Damansara. We feel so much love and warmth in their abode. As usual we were the last to leave (around midnight) as the relatives who hardly knew us (they only meet us once a year) went on joking and laughing with us as if they had known us all their lives! Manmohan's siblings (10 in all) and friends without fail, will all have a good time and spread the joy to everyone around annually during Raya.
Manmohan Singh and Lalila Johari grew up together in Rawang. After a short stint on TV, the couple is now successful in insurance business.