Toddling through life

Now I am a little older, 5 - 7 years old, life still looks big. From the days in Kuala Lumpur, we have now moved to Malacca. My dad got a job in Malacca. Imagine, we moved from one rented property to another in the same area of Tranquerah. We used a black Morris to transport us and all our things. You cannot believe what it was like - children, clothes and beddings in the car while the pots and pans etc were hanging on the outside. The clinging and clanging. I could not remember the heat beating on the car. During those days the car was without air-conditioning.

We moved 4 times in Tranquerah. Houses those days housed many families. The first rented place was in a fishing village. It was rather fascinating as everyone watched out for each other's family and I had the experience of seeing how the fishermen brought in their catch and how they mend their nets. The second rented house was rather eventful as the landlord's family all had some mental challenges but we were not harmed by them. The third house was infested with cockroaches in the kitchen every night. The fourth house was the most interesting as we experienced constant floods and I remembered how my brothers and sisters have to wade out in order to get onto the road to catch a bus to school. I also recollected how snakes creep in while we had our baths. In order for us to go to toilet we would have to walk out very, very far away to the pit toilet compared to the above 3 places where the bucket system was being used. On one occasion I had a rusty nail go through the sole of my foot which I had to yank my foot out. My ma told me to use lime to get rid of the rust. I was no bigger than 5 years old. The pain and soreness was really unbelievable but the lime took care of the tetanus.


Those days were tough times as there were so many mouths to feed and dad was the only breadwinner. There were times when we just ate rice with soy sauce and water. Then one fine day, dad bought a lottery ticket and guess what?? It was enough for us to purchase a house in Bukit Serendit. Life was a lots better for us then. Now our house had a proper modern toilet, how wonderful, Hooray!! Our very own single-storey terrace house. I remembered how we dug up the yellow soil and replaced it with cow dung that we collected from the cow farm by the wheel-barrows as well as the droppings from the cow as they passed by our home after grazing. This is a natural way to fertilize our little garden patch. The yields in the garden were so amazing as the bitter-gourds were as long as an adult hand, guava weighs half a tahil, chrysanthemums were rich palm sized blossoms, etc. It was a garden full with vegetables, flowers and fruit trees as ma and pa had green fingers.

Those were carefree days. I made my own toys and "masak-masak" from tin cans. My mum realized that it was time that I would be going to school. She had to make sure that I would not be left behind and as my parents could not afford to send me to kindergarten, ma made me write ABC on calendar papers even though she was illiterate. This is how great mums and dads are. What would life be without them!!

Lesson 2: Appreciate life for what it brings. Poverty is a temporary state and can be changed when we have a RICH mind.

Life in the beginning

It is said that, a journey begins with the first step. It is so true and my first step in my life journey began on May 3 at 9.00pm at the General Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My amazing parents are Cheam and Lim. Obviously, I did not have a choice of the order of my birth, my gender or the family that I would belong to. I am the eleventh of eleven children. I am thankful that I have been given the chance to live this life at this time and not the good, good, old days. In those times a baby girl would not be so fortunate to experience such liberties.

Have you ever wondered how you landed on planet earth? I did. I was told I was picked up from the dustbin. So funny that it was such a taboo topic. However, today I know better that it was not true and that my parents love me very much.

I cannot recollect the times from ages 0 - 4 years old. What I was told is that my mom was busy with so many of my siblings that I was often taken care of by my brothers and sisters. As we lived nearby a cinema and as my siblings were so wanting to go watch the shows and have the responsibility of taking care of me, they dropped me in the huge monsoon drain. The amazing thing is that I am still alive to tell the tale. Besides this I was told that when I was able to start walking I would use adults shoes as my footwear and refuse to use my own. Another thing is that I love to talk. This is what I can remember of the beginning of my 4 years.

Lesson learnt: Life has to begin from some point.