just how far back do you remember about yourself ?
the earliest i can recall of some things in my childhood life, but don't know exactly how old i was then ... so, some clipshots ....
- i was the only child (out of 9 of us) to attend kindergarten ... 2 years at that ! ... first year at the anglo chinese school (acs), ipoh ... it was close to home, so my grandad would sometimes walk me there ... we would pass by the taxi stand at the corner of the main bus station .. don't ask me how, but the drivers seemed to know my grandad well ... a driver would give me rm1 & tell me to "belajar baik2 yer .." ... rm1 back in the late 60s was a lot to a 5 year old, okay ... in the evening, my dad would ask me what i did in school that day .... other than the normal playtimes, learning ABCs & 123s, he freaked out when i told him we went to the church to pray .... & somehow i remember this indian boy named ravi who went to the same school ... maybe because my dad always pointed him out to me whenever he passed by our house ... the second year i attended kindergarten at the methodist girls school (mgs), ipoh ... another year of playtimes, the ABCs & 123s ... my dad once again got worried when i told him how we prayed before our teabreak ... we closed our eyes, clapsed our hands, & "dear lord ... " .... hahaha ... so he told me to just not do & say anything whenever the others do the prayers
- then there was a pic of me & 2 of my brothers (mind u, i have 7 of them) standing at the back of my father's renault .. plate number AJ 4032 ... i remembered it was taken right after we got back from johor bharu to ipoh ... no, we did not travel by that car ... we took the train ... i could have been 6 then ... it is the make of the car & the plate number that i'm actually highliting here
- we stayed in the government no-gate bungalow (my father was a penghulu daerah ulu kinta ... yup, anak tok penghulu ni) at the junction of hill street ... so beggars often "dropped" in ... i would be so scared because my mom would always tell me that they have come to "potong kepala"
- i continued my primary school at mgs - my dad hired a "beca" to take me to/fro school everyday ... one of my neighbors then was tan sri haniff (masa tu still inspector) .. his daughter, haniza, went to the same school ... so, one day, she tumpang my beca because her dad couldn't drive her to school ... we became friends until she moved to kl before the end of primary school ... i wonder where she is now ... some of my other school friends whom i remembered but have never met, or known of their whereabouts, until now are sarimah, zainab ari, suraiyah sayutti, ariza ariff, wan azma, tina choo (my best friend - we used to sit together in class - but since we can't stop talking, the class teacher changed our sitting), grace wong, dolly ho ... woh, & many more !!
- my brother (the one exactly above me) & i fought a lot during those primary years ... my mom just couldn't stand our fights ... "macam anjing dengan kucing !" she would normally refer us to ... the only peaceful time she said she'd have was when one of us go to morning school, the other in the afternoon ... but as soon as i stepped off the bus in the evening, he would already be there to tease me ... & the drama began ... one of the reasons why i was so glad to go off to boarding school ... so why only in primary years, u asked ? ... i was so terrified to come home for my first semester break from maktab ... afraid that the fighting would resume ... but to my real surprise, he was really nice ! ... helped me to mail my letters at the post office, tangkap ayam for my dad to semelih so that we can have chicken for lunch, etc ... i asked my mom what happened to him .... my mom just replied, "dia rindu la tuh ... " ... & we are now as close as a brother & sister can be
of coz there were so many other things that happened those years ... but let me leave it up to here for now ... perhaps later along the way whenever i remember something, i can always turn back kan ..
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