Friday, December 18, 2009

The day he commited suicide


It is still in my memory of lipis. It has been there all this while, I think because of the impact it had on myself.

This had happened more than 40 years ago. For the younger generation, you may may not able to imagine and grasp the situation. Lipis then, was unlike what it is today. The narrow windy road from Kuala Lumpur ended here. There was no road built yet to padang tengku, non to kelantan. The clifford school was still using the old preindepedant buildings except for the hostel. I cannot remember for sure, in what year I was in, but I remember it as my early years in Lipis.

It was early in the morning, probably around 7. The whole hostel, was in commotion, and people were shouting........ ada orang mati..........ada orang mati. We were panic. Fearing the worst, that one of the students may pass away. Voices were asking.........where?...Where is it.

One of the students was pointing to a figure hanging from a branch. He was calmly hanging there with a stool fallen next to his feet. The feet was only barely about a foot from the ground. A few minutes later the police arrived. The crowd gathered around. We were still wondering who he was and why he had chosen such a fate. From the appearance, he was chinese, in his middle age. No immediate family appeared.


To be continued

Monday, December 14, 2009

Trapping the Mousedeer 10years


My memories of lipis is still fresh. Life was simple. There was no tv, no computer, no internet, and not even newspaper. During school holidays, there not much really to do. It is funny, when I still think I had a wonderful childhood. And I still remember, when I was 10 years old, I was brave enough to track the jungle. We were used to it. There no fear, never thought of the tigers, snakes or jaguar.

This school holiday was no different. Most of the time I was out, doing whatever activities, mostly closely related to nature. I cannot remember this time, whether I went alone or with my brother or sister. I have one sis who was more adventurous than most boys. Though a girl, she would follow me in all the boys activities. So one day, I was out to make a trap, we called it perangkap, for the mousedeer............ or kancil. If you have you seen it, it is quiet small, may be smallest of the deer family. You are not suppose to do this nowadays, as our favorite kancil is one of the protected species. You may end up in court. But those days were different. The green jungle was still in abundant.
We leave the normally around 9 am. We only need to bring a parang, (machete), The rest of our needs will be obtained from the jungle. My friends were surprised when I shown them how easy to get fresh drinking water from the creepers, (we call is akar kayu). All you have to do it find it, cut it into manageable length and the water will pour out from it. It sound easy, but please don’t to it, you may be poisoned if you choose to cut the wrong type of tree.

to be continued...........