With a sigh ( Pt 15 ) - Fateful month of May

In Pakcik Reminisces series (Pt 7 ) on 15^th May 2009 I began as follows:

“13^th May comes and goes every year. But 40 years ago one 13^th May came and is gone forever, leaving and indelible memory of an event – the fateful 13^th May 1969 and the few days that followed.”

     

                             

The unbelievable sight of the main road of KL ___________________________________________________         

Today is another 13^th  May, 44 years following that of 1969. I was a young executive who had to be on the road with a special permit to go about the deserted city under curfew.  I had a duty to perform. It was scary and today I draw a sigh as I reminisce.

Having experienced the general feeling immediately after the tragedy of May 1969 general election, I cannot help sensing a minor similarity between the atmosphere then and that after the recent election. No, I am not referring to the tragic consequences but in the general feeling of many people as reflected in the mass media in May 1969 and what has been expressed during the last one week – fear and hope.

                                                The report

Majelis Gerakan Negara ( National Operations Council)

Two great politicians of our country, the late Tun Abdul Razak and the late Datuk Muhamad Asri Muda, heading two opposing parties, saw it fit to lay a new foundation for this country for a cohesive and more harmonious and progressive future. It was not just for the Malays but for all living in this blessed land.

Alas, if only we can rekindle that spirit of unity all over again, I can carry on reminiscing with a sigh in every month of May, that all is not being wasted. After all, the cake has grown big enough for every one to share and enjoy. 

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You are the judge

Come to my part of the world to witness how they battle tooth and nail, for what?  

                 

                     (Regret, pictures cannot be enlarged)

                  

                              Approach to Jalan Batu Rakit Pantai

                         

                                

                               Coming into the road along the beach

                               

From the sea crawls the turtle

We are watching you from up abovee

Under our shadow we assure you of your future

 

 

We have submarine

                                             

Ha, ha, we have a secret vehicle to deliver jet plane!

You don’t think we have a more fearsome fighter plane, do you?

And we have super rider

Not to mention our stuntmanl!

You are really forcing us to use our big gun

==================================

What a shame. While they are squabbling  we have come to cast our vote peacefully

                              

                  And some of us are tired of waiting. It is so hot out there

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And let me tell you all, my friends

The Judgment Day is sure to come.

Your worth will surely be weighed.

Be sure all that glitters is not gold

 Let it not be as they say "Menang jadi arang, kalah jadi abu".

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

 



End of the Tunnel ( Pt 21 ) – Proton and Electron

Sixteen years ago a skinny little boy, living in a wooden house in an undeveloped area called Bukit Bucu, joined Almanar wiith a group of Form One children. Unlike other boys he was not one who made Pakcik shout for silence, nor was Nazran one of those kids whose behaviour in class had any reasons to be reprimanded by Pakcik. Over the following years our relationship could only move closer. 

Five years later I found the two of us sitting in Nuri (Pakcik’s home) to discuss what university courses he should consider. I still remember he was the very first person I suggested a course related to geology, and he pursue along that route, giving me a hope that one day, working for an exploration company, he would be mapping the sea bed off the coast of Terengganu studying earth samples for black gold.

No, how often in life one reaches ‘two roads diverged in a wood’ ( from Robert Frost’s poem ). At one point of his early working life Nazran took a path less travelled by – an employment related to atomic energy. Well, he now knows more than Pakcik on this subject but I know I can liken him to a lonely proton of an atom only to be neutralised by an electron. There he found his match.

Events moved very fast and before I knew it  Pakcik and Makcik found ourselves sitting at a table with two ladies who happened to be colleagues of the wedding couple.

Once a lonely proton and a lonely electron, finally neutralised in harmoniously beautiful blue

Makcik with bride and her two colleagues

  

Our congratulations go to this lovely couple. Perhaps, before long Nazran will not be alone visiting us but as a couple walking hand-in-hand with a baby to support as well.

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Book to keep, not read (Pt 1) - Norman Hunter

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Norman Hunter and his brain storm

Norman Hunter's The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawn

The cover picture looks humorously funny. The man is Norman Hunter's absent-minded professor. Way back in 1977 ( was it really 35 years ago now ?) I stumbled on two of Hunter's books in a London store; two as far as I have so far discovered in my junk library, but, hopefully, I could find more.

Look at the first two paragraphs of the book, introducing this great Prof - please lick on the picture to enlarge it a shade more. (Alas, I wish I could ask this great professor some of the techniques in blogging, and make the writing larger !)

It is hard to wipe off the grins on my face revisiting this book.

I am sorry if you, like the Prof, cannot find your reading glasses to enlarge the writing

If I can remember, unlike the absent-minded Prof, I will post a picture of Professor Branestawn's Dictionary some time in future.  Branestawn is the professor's way of writing 'brain storm', the cause of his absent-mindedness.

I wonder how many of my visitors have read the humours of Norman Hunter



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They get what they deserve

Did I get it right that around 17,000 children managed to get straight A’s in the recent SPM examination?  Is it really as simple as that, and that a world record as well, perhaps?

That being the scenario I have every reason to be depressed because when I was of that age I did not achieve that distinction, nor did any of my three children at their respective ages. If that is not enough, I have not yet seen one of my grandchildren able to ‘break that record’, or should I say ‘create a record’. Well, isn’t there a saying that goes - ‘like grandfather like father like grandson’?

No, we have not done that badly, though.

_______________________ 

The first call Pakcik received that day was from that girl I wrote about on 30.10.12, click “Do we have a winner?”

Just do it with a smile

“Pakcik, I’ve got straight A’s,” came her soft voice over the phone. Later she turned up at our house to show her examination result slip, and to discuss her likely courses. What an irony it is when good results create a problem of choice. I never had that when what I desparately needed was just one chance.

A few others turned up to express, “Thank you Pakcik.” That was reward enough, the one I have been enjoying over the last many years.

Yes, the 8, 7, 6, 5 and the rset of A's are all there.

There is nothing to complain about

So what if we get a couple of A's less?

So, another year has passed and more children are taking a big step into the increasingly more challenging world. We can look back and smile at how we managed our days. It is now their turns.

__________________________  

Whilst I am gratified to see more ex-Almanar pupils successfully getting through their SPM examination, and more completing their further studies,

I cannot help thinking of the despair in the few unfortunate families when the inevitable happens. My postings on 23^rd April 2012 and 16^th Nov 2013 ( End of tunnel series Pt 17 and Pt 20 ) give short accounts of the demise of two of Pakcik’s ‘children’ when all seemed to signal a brighter future for the families.

Luqman - 34

That is from the concluding verse of Surah Luqman which I understand to mean, “And no one knows what tomorrow has in store. And no one knows what land he is to die. Verily HE has full knowledge of everything.”

 I think of that to bring home my limitations in life – a sobering thought. But we strive hard, nonetheless, as a prerequisite. And I advise all my 'children' to bear this in mind.

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Fly high, my boy

Syami, the boy I featured in the End of the tunnel ( Pt 15 ) on

21^st Feb 2012, called on us yesterday to say goodbye. Today

he is leaving home on his longest journey ever. In a couple of days he will be in Germany practicing and enriching whatever German language he has learned in Kuala Lumpur.

With a final glance at Almanar he left; and I knew what he felt about the years he and his group frequented that lowly looking building. He has had excellent academic records  so far. He will one day, insya Allah, graduate in mechanical engineering, and I am certain he will not forget his root. I am optimistic that Almanar has given him, like to many others, the value of gratitude and humility.

Syami

Fly high , my boy, and come back to be of service.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.



Pakcik reminisces ( Pt 30 ) – My two cousins

A recent sad event took Pakcik way, way back in time. Let for a start talk about three cousins, all boys, who were born within months of each other in three different parts of Malaya over 70 years ago. One was born in Teluk Anson ( now Teluk Intan ), one in Kuala Kangsar and Pakcik and the oldest of three, in K Trengganu ( now K Terengganu).

Many would not believe how far apart these places were; K Trengganu in particularly Today I can drive my old jalopy all the way from K Terengganu to those two places within hours. On the other hand, 56 years ago Pakcik’s first road trip to Kuala Lumpur, much nearer than Teluk Intan and K Kangsar, took two whole days, having to cross seven rivers by ferry and putting up one night in a lodging house in Temerloh. I described this in my ‘Pakcik reminisces (Pt 11)’ on 9th Sept 2010 – click here.

My late father made many trips to Teluk Anson and K Kangsar about the time those three cousins were born. A sure route to reach those two places was on board a slow wooden sailing vessel (the wind-powered ‘perahu besar’ - the big boat ). The vessel would crawl southwards along the coast down to Endau, Mersing and Johor Baru from where he would take a train up north or another boat journey to Teluk Anson, from there to K Kangsar. Each of his business trips would take weeks.

So, during those years the three cousins were born at considerable distances apart. It was that distance which justified my old Trengganu family to venture to Perak and set up small batek-making centres in those towns, and there they settled down.

As the land communication improved the small batik-making centres became less important, coming to a close around mid 1900’s. On the positive side, the shorter and easier journey by road helped to bring the isolated family members closer again. My Teluk Anson cousin was sent to K Terengganu for his early schooling. But the wooden houses by the river-side in Teluk Anson and Kuala Kangsar are now mere memories.

 _________________________

a) From K Kangsar

Zamri is my cousin from K Kangsar. He went to Clifford School in K Kangsar and then to Anderson in Ipoh. His career began as a teacher but that was a brief one before he had to make a choice to work with Telekom Malaysia or Lands and Survey Department. With Telekom he would have to work in K Lumpur. Lands and Survey had an office in Taiping. All his three successful children are working in Klang Valley, but my poor cousin would not get his mother’s blessing to go to KL, a place considered too far from home in Kuala Kangsar. Taiping was not near but was certainly not as far. That was the sense of distance then.

So Lands and Survey it was where this cousin worked for. Twenty years later, in 1981, an experienced person, he was seconded to a team involved in a joint project between Thailand and Malaysia to improve identification and demarcation of South Thailand-Kelantan border. The job required him and team to spend on alternate basis, one whole month working in the deep jungle, living in make-shift tents followed by one month back at their base camp.

Travel in and out of the jungle was by helicopters which were used to carry to sites heavy loads of cement, stone, sand and two-metre long concrete boundary posts. After about twenty trips by helicopter, my cousin Zamri, now in his mid forty came to face with a situation that we would shudder to think of – a helicopter crash.

On the fateful day Zamri and three others boarded a Nuri helicopter which was taking its normal heavy load to another site. Imagine the gigantic jungle trees with large umbrella tops and rough terrains and ravines below. The machine with two experienced pilots and an assistant began to take off, ascending and maneuvering its way through the gaps between the tall trees. Disaster struck when a branch caught the blades of its tail rotor. Immediately the machine went into an uncontrollable spin and crashed in a ravine. One friend was crushed to death by the heavy load carried by the machine , two others injured and Zamri himself was pinned down and unconscious.

“I was momentarily awake when a voice called my name and asked me to move away quickly from the burning helicopter,” related Zamri to Pakcik of the only instance he was vaguely conscious.

“Of course I could not move at all. Then I lost consciousness again” he continued.

When he regained consciousness several hours later he was lying in the General Hospital in Kota Bharu. He had a severe spine injury which prevented him from being transported to KL for treatment. Pakcik can still remember how we all in the family prayed that he would pull through. Of course he did .

It was a case of ‘pantang mati sebelum ajal’

The fateful incident hit the headline no doubt.

Today, Alhamdulillah, he is as well as he could be, only needing a walking stick for support, his permanent feature. He and wife can still enjoy shuttling between Kuala Kangsar, his home, and Klang Valley where his three children and grand-children are.

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b) From Teluk Intan .

That brings Pakcik to the other cousin who started life in Teluk Anson, and because of whom I am reminiscing. Apart from his stay in K Trengganu during his early days in school, we became very close when as a bachelor I was posted in Teluk Anson (now Teluk Intan) for six months; and he was then a young teacher. Having nothing to do in that sleepy town I spent much of my time with him and the family. It was then I learnt to enjoy the large fresh water prawns (udang galah) caught by his father from the big Perak River running behind their wooden house.

During his school days Abdul Aziz was exceptionally active in sports. Possessing a heavy frame he took up rugby very seriously. As a pupil of form 4 and 5 he achieved the distinction of being a player in the Malayan (before independence) rugby team. It was a feat considering the participation of heavily built European players prior to Independence. Somehow I cannot help feeling that the heavy falls and tumbles he received during his young days took their tolls in his later years when his health began to fail and had to undergo frequent medical treatments. I made it a point to ring him at regular intervals apart from our meetings at family weddings.

About three months ago, when I visied him in Teluk Intan, he expressed to me his desire to pay his ‘last’ visit to K Terengganu. Last week, however, I received the sad news of his demise in hospital. Later I learnt from his wife and a younger brother that he again mentioned of a ‘must’ trip to K Terengganu when he was out of hospital.

No, his meeting with the Creator took precedence.

And I will live to remember him with a prayer. _______________________________________

The following all-in-the-family picture was taken last year at a wedding of a family member held in Masjid Wilayah, Kuala Lumpur.  Four of us sitting on the right in the picture were cousins.

R to L - 4 Cousins -  Zamri (K Kangsar), Hussein (KT),arwah A Aziz (T Intan)  sitting  on  Pakcik's left

 

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