Memories of Malaysia- Part 3

We pick up the thread in mid 1972.
Ashwini was now nearly 3 year old. The family had kind of settled into a routine.

We now explored the countryside in more detail.
We went mostly on day picnics.
One of the common ones was Templer Park, about 30 KM away.
On the North- South highway [When people see today's 8 lane N-S expressway, they would have laughed at the 4 lane ' Highway' at that time], the park itself was really lot of forest with a waterfall in the center. Very pretty and good splashing about in the water. Lot of trekking in the forest too.
The most important attraction was the Chinese restaurant at the entrance, and the understanding was that at the end of the picnic around 1 PM or so, lunch would be at that place accompanied by a lot of beer. The most popular beer those days was Anchor or Tiger beer.
The meal was simple enough, with so many vegetarians, it was Mee [Noodles] of two kinds, some sauté vegetables and chicken. Heavenly! The beer was best enjoyed in the afternoon heat of Malaysia.
We also visited Fraser Hills quite regularly.
Developed by the British, it was not very high altitude or large, but very nice to visit since it was only about 2 hours drive. It too had a nice waterfall, with a pool at the bottom for swimming. All families spent many a Sundays at this resort. It had a nice golf course too, but none of us were golfers yet.
Talking of children, there were at least 5 children in the age group 3-6, so they enjoyed these outings most. Apart from Ashwini, there was Aparna [Ashok- Anuradhha's daughter], Kavita Ramalingam, two more Gokhale children [These were the children of another Gokhale from Kirloskarwadi], Anju Hukeri [who died much later in India in a tragic accident], and Mahesh Pethe.
The families, who formed the group apart from these names, included Pradhan Kaka, [More on him later, since there is much to write about him],the oldest Marathi resident in those parts, and Madhav Rao.
We often went to the beaches, mostly on the west coast, such as the Morib beach, south of Port Klang.
This was a novel experience for all children, almost all of whom had no exposure to the sea before. Swim suits, floating rings, beach toys were bought.
The elders when they were not drinking beer, also enjoyed some splashing in the sea.
A little more to the south was the Port Dickson beach. This one was much more organised, with good eating-places on the beach, and nearby.

We also went specifically to eat crabs by the seaside at Port Klang. There was a famous restaurant on the jetty, which served basically only crabs. The menu was very short. There was a soup of some kind, and then crabs either steamed or fried in a special sauce, and some rice or noodles. The crabs were sold by weight. The headwaiter would take one look at those assembled and declare, '' 2 kg fried, 1 kg steamed, la''. [Two things to be remembered here. We found during our stay that in a good Chinese restaurant the headwaiter estimates how much to order and advices accordingly. We always went by their advice. Second is the ubiquitous'' la’’, which came at the end on almost all sentences, uttered by Malaysians.]
I have never eaten crabs like the Port Klang ones anywhere else. Memorable meals.

I was settling down in my job too. I learnt some words in Tamil, since most of our workers spoke Tamil. And Malay with others. We started taking some lessons in Malay language in our office. We had a Govt requirement that all workers must be Malaysians, except we Expatriates whose work permits had to be approved at regular intervals. In addition the work force had to reflect the racial break up of the population.
In 1971, the population break up in Malaysia was something like this:
Malays-- 50%
Chinese-- 40%
Indians-- 10%

The Govt was really keen on the 50 % for Malays, and was not really bothered who made up the rest. We had to submit monthly statements that we were meeting the quota requirements. Later on the Prime Minister was to introduce the well-known '' New Economic Policy’’, which was to change the entire face of the country.

We were observers of the social life of these three races and the interactions between them. The Government was extremely sensitive to racial issues, since just before our arrival, in 1969 there were serious racial clashes between Malays and Chinese. This had resulted in very restrictive laws, and press censorship.
The Govt was committed to improving the financial position of the indigenous Malays [bhumiputras], and took all steps similar to our reservations, not only in Educational institutions, but also in Govt jobs and contracts. Although this resulted in large-scale resentment in the Chinese community, they could not really prevent the change. The Indian community was never in business, but mostly in clerical jobs in Govt offices, apart from the large base of plantation workers. The second generation Indians had better education and turned professionals such as doctors, engineers, lawyers.

Malays as a people were very friendly and nice. Very soft spoken and polite. We have visited their homes in villages and they are very hospitable. Simple folk and they were mainly farmers and fishermen, and later in Government service. The only rich were their Royalty.
All that changed with the New Economic Policy and soon we had several new Malay rich people.

Chinese on the other hand arrived in Malaysia about 300 years ago, and by their very nature of being shrewd business people established small businesses, which became very big in the 1970s. The entire trade was in the hands of the Chinese. They chafed that they did not have any political power. Their radical Party won the state elections in KL in 1969 and that is how the riots started.
The coalition Govt then [and now] comprises of several parties, representing all races, and was led by the dominant Malay party UMNO. The Prime Minister was always from UMNO.
Chinese as a people there fore were hard-boiled, and did not make friends easily, except for business reasons.
Indians were living in poverty. The only satisfaction some of them had was that the children had good education and they turned out to be good professionals respected by the society.

Talking of education there was just one university in the whole country those days, which became three by 1979. You can imagine how difficult it was to find a seat in the University. The education standard in the University was very good, thanks mainly to the large expatriate teaching staff.
We started playing badminton in the courts of University courtesy Ramalingams.
Very enjoyable games too. There used to be mass baby-sitting at one house, taking turns so that other ladies could play. Badminton is almost a national sport In Malaysia. Several courts which the public could hire.
While playing in the University, on many occasions we saw famous players on the next courts, those who represented Malaysia in Thomas cup.
Seeing all major badminton tournaments in the huge indoor stadium was a great privilege and big events for us.

Back on the home front, Ashwini had now taken a fancy to the car models. Standing at the house gate, she used to watch the stream of traffic and learnt to recognize most models. Being just about 3 years age, she could not pronounce some of the names, but she was very accurate most of the times. A couple of years later she just lost interest in cars.
Sujata had started making some other friends as well apart form the office families. She also started taking swimming classes.
Buying weekly groceries became a hobby of mine, so long as it was supermarkets. That hobby still continues. Also a small interest in the kitchen, for eggs breakfast, tea coffee etc. Nothing major, I think the Alpha male hangover was still there.

With family needs increasing, I was looking forward to a raise in salary, which was not forth coming. At the end of two years a raise did come about, but not what we expected. So Sujata impressed upon me that we needed to save on expenses and one way was to find a smaller house.
By now my colleague Atul Gurjar had taken a smaller house in the rather distant [but close to the factory] town of Klang. So by end of 1973 we resumed our favorite pastime of looking for a house. We found one in Klang in a row of newly built two-story houses semi detached. The house was quite good, but having no garden to speak of, they were considered not as good as independent bungalows, which we had lived in so far.
We shifted by beginning of 1974. Now there was a new school for Ashwini.
New neighbors, rather crowded and predominantly Indian neighbor hood, no big parks nearby, no super markets. It was to be a new life for us.

Our experiences after 1974 will be covered in the next installment.