A Letter to an Unsung Heroine on Father's Day

The unexpected and appalling news left her helpless with her 3 year-old and 1 year-old sons. At that heartbreaking moment, she had a baby boy...

His abrupt passing left her bearing the responsibility alone to raise her 3 wee kids. She also had to look after her in-laws for her loved one.

She dropped out of school after Form 3. She had no good qualification to get a good job. She had been a full-time housewife taking care of her eldest son when he was alive. She had no choice but to take up the responsibility as a breadwinner.

She was fortunate to be offered a job by her elder brother. Her working place was in other town that was about 20-minute ride from hers. She rode her motorcycle to work. More than 20 years ago, the bitumen road between the two towns was narrow and not in good condition. Riding a motorcycle on that road could be risky because any large vehicle, like lorry, passing her could create wind that made her fall. Every now and then, she was drenched to the skin when it rained cats and dogs on her way back home.

When she reached home roughly at 7 pm, soaked, she had no time to rest. She quickly dried and cleaned herself before she prepared dinner for her 3 kids and her in-laws. Then, she swept and mopped the floor. She would always ensure her house was clean and tidy although the house was not luxurious. After her family finished their dinner, she had to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen. It was a daily routine she never missed after she came back from work.

As the land became darker, the neighbourhood grew silent. Crickets started buzzing and toads croaking. Her kids had gone to bed when she gently inserted a tape (which was rented from a small store in the town) into a video cassette recorder (VCR) player - that was the moment when she could watch her favourite Hong Kong television drama and indulge in her hassle-free world.

At times, she wept quietly in her bedroom at night when her kids were sleeping soundly in the same room. She did not know how long the hardship could last. She could not foresee how her life would pan out. She tried her best to bring up and educate her kids, hoping they could succeed in the future. At the very least, they could earn a living.

30 years have passed. Her kids are now ordinary working adults. They do not disappoint her because they are able to earn a living. She feels blessed and satisfied because her struggle in the past has paid off.

The hardship she went through might not be the worst in the world, but to her kids, she has always been the unsung heroine, whom they adore and respect. Without this marvellous lady, they would not become who they are today.

Happy Father's Day, mum.

Family Photo: The lady is physically short when she stands with her "kids", but she is always an elephantine figure to them. 

A Poor Elephant

Two weeks ago, the news feed on my Facebook was filled with agonizing news about a dead pregnant elephant in the southern state of Kerala, India. The elephant was suspected to be fed an explosive-laden pineapple (was later confirmed as coconut laced with explosive) and its lower jaw was shattered by the explosion.

It was reported that the poor villagers in India, Sri Lanka and elsewhere often used firecracker or explosive-rigged  pineapple - which acted like pressure-activated landmines - to protect their fields and homes from wild animals.

It was heartbreaking to read such news especially when I read that the pachyderm could not eat and drink for days and ended up standing in a river, dunking her trunk and mouth in the water (easing her pain, I believe) for hours, before she slowly weakened and died. 

The poor creature died in agony because India has lost huge swathes of forest to urbanisation in recent decades. The loss of habitats forced animals closer to human settlements and led to the increasing number of encounters. 

The elephant was left with no choice. She lost her home because of humans. She approached the vicinity of human settlement but she was not welcomed. She was unfortunate to have eaten the explosive-stuffed coconut and died.

That was the end of the story of the 15-year-old elephant. She did not hold grudge towards humans although she lost her home. She did not run amok and harm the humans even though she was injured by the rigged fruit. Despite the damage done to her, she chose to silently stand in the river until she drew her last breath...

P/S: When I wrote this blog, I empathized the poor creature by imagining what she had gone through. Tears welled up in my eyes when I imagined she was straying silently in pain after being injured by the explosive.

Sketch of the 15-year-old elephant

Microscopic Being, Massive Destruction

I read with interest a blog, entitled Coronavirus, written by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on Chedet (link to his blog: http://chedet.cc/?p=3078).

He started off by mentioning some great powers of the world have been keen about developing advanced weapons to kill their enemies. Their enemies do the same and come up with better defensive and offensive weapons to fight back. More billions of dollars have to be spent to overcome the defence while inventing and deploying more new weapons.

While the great powers rejoiced to have developed and upgraded their capacities to wipe out their enemies and make this world uninhabitable, an enemy struck. The enemy brought no weapon of any kind but so powerful was the enemy to make the mankind run helter-skelter for refuge in their houses. The royals, Presidents, Generals and strategists were no exception.

The enemy was minute and could only be seen with a microscope, but the damage done to the human race through abrupt but silent invasion was gargantuan! Vast number of deaths has been reported around the world; the global economy has come to a halt in extensive areas and social life has changed dramatically.

None of the weapons can protect the great powers from the invasion. The only defensive weapons are soap, masks, sanitizer, social distancing and staying at home. The humans have become small and vulnerable under that invisible but elephantine enemy. 

That is the novel coronavirus - a microscopic being but is capable to bring massive destruction to the civilization the humans have built.

Sketch of Coronavirus

Picking Up My Habit of Writing in 2020

The last blog I penned stopped in 2011, when I was in my first year of tertiary education. It has been 9 years since then.

2020 has been a tough year to human race around the world, where the Homo sapiens are stricken hard by novel virus outbreak - Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). We are forced to stay at home because of the pandemic. Many of us even work from home. Life has been different and this is a new normal that we are adapting to.

I believe this challenging period might have irked some people, but I take it differently. I personally feel that it is a good time for me to sit back and think of what I can do to enrich myself albeit staying at home. One of the things I do is to pick up my writing habit that has long faded away.

Many people do not know that I used to be a good writer a long way back when I was studying at secondary school. I liked to write compositions and I slowly grew to enjoy writing to express my opinions. When I was at Form 5, I sent my first ever letter - "Make it work" to The Star, an English medium press in Malaysia and it was published! For a teenager growing up in a small town, where English was an alien language, it was a triumph and recognition! Since then, I continued to send my letters to The Star whenever I had ideas to express.

I remember an interesting assignment given by my Form 5 English teacher, Mr. Thamlarason, who requested the class to write a journal in weekly basis. I liked it very much because I would not be restricted by a topic and I could write freely. Another interesting part about it was Mr. Thamlarason would write his comment in the journal as a way of interaction with his students. I vividly remember one of his comments in an article that I wrote was he enjoyed reading my journals because the ideas were mature at my age. My interest in writing grew stronger ever since.

When I pursued my Form 6 at the same secondary school in 2008, I had a chance to be appointed as the chief editor of the very first English newsletter, English Language Newsletter (ESN) published at the school. Apart from being involved in the editorial tasks, it gave me another platform to express my ideas through my own column in the newsletter.

There was a time when I went back to my alma mater to visit my teachers after 1 - 2 years working in Singapore. I met Mr. Thamlarason and I would never forget the last question he asked me when he was about to go home, "are you still writing?" I could feel his disappointment when my answer to his question was negative...

As a matter of fact, writing is a complicated cognitive process. It requires continuous effort to structure the sentence, edit, vet and proofread the writing. If you have the interest, you would appreciate the beauty of writing. Each piece of writing is akin to a new product innovation. I think it is a good time for me to pick up the old habit and polish it up!

Photo 1: My first letter to The Star newspaper 

Photo 2: Cover page of ESN (issue No. 2) 

Photo 3: My column in ESN