Birthday

Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age -Booth Tarkington
 

With mixed feelings today I said good bye

A small discussion area at the entrance of  the office

Today I have mixed feelings about stopping my engagement with this organization which I’ve been involved with for 17 years as an independent researcher.  I really like what I do for the organization. I like being engaged in something, I like doing research and I enjoy sharing my knowledge.  On the other hand after 17 years a kind of fatigue has set in. Maybe I should start something fresh or maybe I should just leave the working world behind, not do anything at all and just disappear quietly into my old age?   

As usual I have a bite at the canteen on the 5th
floor before proceeding upstairs to conduct
my briefng

The 5th floor canteen

Waiting for the feeder bus to take the MRT to the city

The 48 floor building that houses the office
which is on the 29th floor

I have grown attached even to this efficient
machine at the office which printed all my papers

To friendship

When we left Parit Buntar for Petaling Jaya in 1962 my father's friend came all the way from Parit Buntar by train to give us this clock as a house warming present. When father passed away 4 years ago I took it over as a memory of him, of Parit Buntar and his close friend who not only gave us this clock but ,according to mother, also helped our family whenever he thought we needed help.

Good memories also bring tears to our eyes.

Only a life lived for others is worth living

Today I remember Mother and her selfless devotion to her family, demonstrated daily in so many ways. 

There was one year when Father got quite ill. I was still in primary school. He had quite bad diabetes and had to go to the Ipoh General Hospital regularly, about 2 hours drive away from Parit Buntar (a small town where we used to stay) to get his regular insulin jabs. Then my Mother learnt from an old Thai lady about a small wild plant which could cure diabetes.

Mother used to walk out of town to the fringes of the jungle to harvest the plant at least once a week, most of the time bringing her children with her. She painstakingly plucked and washed the leaves, pounded the leaves into a paste and cooked the paste with a whole big piece of meat on low heat for several hours. When it was done, she would take out the meat and serve the paste to my father. But each time, 2 hours before she served my father the paste she would take 2 tablespoons herself.

Actually, she was never sure whether the wild plants she harvested were the right ones and she was afraid that Father may be poisoned and die. What if you die? I asked her. Her answer was" it is better for me (rather than father) to die because I do not earn money. Your Father has to live to earn money to bring you all up". Even though I was still small and could not fully appreciate her selflessness, I had never forgotten what she said. Also my father was actually cured with the paste.

Only a life lived for others is worth living - Albert Einstein

One of those things which gives value to survival

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” 
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Thoroughly enjoyed the company of my secondary school classmates today.

After years apart

The good part about old friends, after years apart chasing our own dreams and living our own lives, is that we still have so many fond memories in common.

 

Let the Past be 過去就過去了

過去就過去了！

兩個人在一起是緣份；

不在一起也是緣份！

好的緣分給我們幸福的滋養；

壞的緣分給我們智慧的成長！

我們隨緣聚散，微笑向前，永遠美美的！～雨揚

31 August 1957, 57 years ago

In January 1956, Tunku  Abdul Rahman led a mission to London to negotiate for Malayan independence, in the end securing self-government for Malaya and the promise of independence by August 1957.  Tunku Abdul Rahman became independent Malaya’s first Prime Minister (a post he would retain when the Federation of Malaysia, which consolidated the countries of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak under one umbrella, was formed in 1963). At midnight on August 30, he stood at the flagpole in Merdeka Square, in Kuala Lumpur, when the Union Jack was lowered for the last time and the new Federation of Malaya flag was raised.

Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, the Father of Independence.

We remember Albert

In 1999 when I moved into a new neighbourhood, Albert simply walked up to me and said "Hello, my name is Albert, which unit are you from?".  Then he continued, "Are you going home?  May we visit you?". This simple gesture on his part signalled the start of my close friendship with Albert, his wife and friends of Albert.

He was perceptive, artistic, humurous, caring, an irreplaceable friend.  He was always the life of the party while his wife Ivy had always been the quiet one, preferring to let her husband hog the limelight. His demise three years ago due to leukemia left his wife devastated and left a huge hole in our circle of close friends. Last night I was with Ivy again, although not under the best of circumstances, it was her mum's funeral.   We sat together for a while, quietly remisniscing the past.  Albert dominated our conversation.  Then I realized, while Ivy was anecdoting about Albert, all the while, she was smiling.  I think she had got over her sadness and her smiles now are smiles of contentment about happy memories of the past. 

"A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) US poet & essayist.

When time passes we can neither see nor touch it

Sis Wan Lan and I had just finished the translation of Father's short story "Ten Years of Life by the River Side" published by Nanyang Press Singapore in 1956, in a book entitled "Romance in Malaya". The story he wrote was a true brief story of his life from 1940 to 1956. During that period his work took him to Termerloh (by the Pahang River), Parit (by the Perak River), Sabak Bernam (by the Bernam River) and Parit Buntar (by the Krian River). 

These were the ending paragraphs:

"Ten years of life by the river side had passed by very quickly. Although I had not achieved much, I have no regrets. I know that when time passes we can neither see nor touch it. No amount of strength can stop it and no amount of good or nutritious food or facial creams can conceal our wrinkles. 
Time treats everyone equally. Whether in the villages or in the cities life changes with time. In fact every minute, everything is changing and will forever be in the changing process. 

After a few years where would my life float to? Who can tell me in advance?"