Nostalgia

Driving through the narrow road to the village where I was born is in fact a journey down memory lane. I did a nostalgic journey to Kampung Siam, my birth place a few days ago to pay tribute to the passing of my cousin who spent her whole life there.
Kampung Siam was where I spent my childhood and part of my teenhood years, growing up together with my cousins and neighbouring kids. We passed our free times playing marbles, tops, kotak-kotak (empty cigerette boxes), chongkak, jengket and at times secretly went swimming in nearby mining pools.
Pipe water was non-existent in the kampung then, so we use well water which turned very muddy after heavy rainfall for washing and bathing. Our drinking water, my brother took it from the roadside public pipe located in the Bedong town.
Latrine was the hole type, where after months of using it, the brimful stool almost touched your buttock. The smell was terrible, disgusting!.
The wooden house we lived in, built in the sixties was spacious and airy due to its many windows. Me, my grandmother, brother and two elder sisters lived in that house and were later joined by our cousins. With so many mouths to feed, I wondered how my grandmother and my brother at that time managed to make ends meet. Foods were always enough for everyone to eat.
The kampung once beautiful, looks ugly now. The drains once well maintained are now clogged with rubbish, the water remains stagnant and dirty. No new houses being built, some of the old houses are vacant and left to rot.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WIFE, CELEBRATED ON THE 22nd FEBRUARY