Memories of Malaysia-Part 4

We pick up the threads in 1974.

We are now in small time Klang, and are still adjusting to the small town amenities.
The area is not quite cosmopolitan but predominantly Indian, mostly Tamil and Malayalam speaking neighbors.
Ashwini goes to a new school now, and I drop her sometimes on way to work, and that makes her feel very important. She makes new friends, but being small town, even the children have their little idiosyncrasies. Chinese children do not mix too well with others. Ashwini being the perennial extrovert makes friends any way.
Klang markets are different too, more number of small shops.
To feed our [correction- mine] supermarket instincts, we still go to Petaling Jaya [PJ in short] every week to buy our provisions, and meet our friends.

The Klang area was not without its attractions of course. The port, the sea, the beaches were closer.[ More important, the crabs place was closer]. Countryside was closer. We had more drives here on weekends. We saw in detail the oil palm and rubber plantations around here. The workers picking the palm fruit bunches. Workers tapping rubber in early morning mist. Workers carrying tapped rubber in pats hung on their backs
Work took me to the rubber factories and palm oil mills, since we supplied equipment to these, and every visit thrilled me, since it took me to the green countryside.
We saw small Malay villages, with their beautiful houses, very clean and kept very neat, many of them raised on stilts and with the farm equipment or fishing equipment stored below. The scenery was very much like our Konkan villages, lots of fruit, bananas, jack fruit, Mangosteen, star fruit, Lychee, Rambutan. We came to know the countryside much better while in Klang. We attended a picturesque Malay wedding in a village nearby, with groom and the bride in their sparkling ceremonial sarong kabayas, and embroidered Bajus. The complete ceremony is also rather different form the Nikka elsewhere, some features common with Hindu wedding, like using wheat[ instead of rice] as a symbol of fertility. Wedding feast of Beef Rendang, Ayam Goreng, and Nasi lemak.
Memorable.

In between, we greeted two new arrivals in our group-- Sujata alias Nona born to Anuradha and Ashok Gokhale, and Chitra to Dr Sudha and Atul Gurjar.
Sudha was working in District hospital, Klang and was our neighbor to boot.

Quite a few major events happened while in Klang. I got some bonus and my buying itch took over. We bought a new car, A Chrysler Avenger. Like most of my purchases this too was impulsive. [On more thoughts I should have bought a Ford Escort]
Any way with the new white car, Ashwini was excited. We went for even more drives.

We went for a fairly long trip to the east coast of Malaysia.
The three of us and our new friend Khedkar's two children, Shishir-older than Ashwini, and Samir-Ashwini's age, went out to Kuantan- 250 km away, with beaches. Then to the Rantau Abang beaches in Trenganu to watch the famous giant turtles, then to Kuala Trenganu and back. Here we stayed at a place called Awang's bungalows, where wooden huts are built right on the beaches. We just loved this place and went there again and again. The sea was very blue and the beaches long and clean. It took just about 100 steps from our hut to the sea.
Here for first time I photographed the sunset pictures on beaches, which later became an obsession with me. The riot of colors with the background of gray, brown, and black clouds has just got to be seen. The sun also sets very quickly, but the riotof colors keeps changing every minute and I have spent many frames on sunsets in Malaysia.

We had our first glimpse of the giant turtles one night. When the staff spot a turtle coming in from the sea to lay eggs, they give us a shout and off we run with torches. The one we saw was easily 5 feet long and about 3 feet at the hump, a huge one. The turtles look tired and a little disturbed with the crowd around them. But they work patiently digging a ditch behind them and laying a large quantity of eggs, each about the size of a squash ball. The eggs are protected by law and are then hatched in a controlled atmosphere and the baby turtles then released to the sea. Thesee are deep sea leather back turtles, hence they need a beach where they can reach the depths quickly without walking or wading too long. The beaches here are short and the sea bed gets deep immediately. Rather dangerous for swimming though. We had to keep a careful watch over children while in sea. The water was just lovely and the children would not come out unless lunch was announced. Awang's had a small but typical Malay kitchen and the food very tasty. With all that exercise the food went down very well. with some beer of course.

This was August 1974.
Dream week altogether!

Then came the crowning news that Sujata was expecting her second baby!
This was January 1975. As a background note, there was a bit of a drama when Ashwini was born. As a result of a blood test during pregnancy, Sujata was found to have RH -ve. As a result there was great tension as to what blood group the baby will be born with. Fortunately every thing was fine then.
Finally in Malaysia when we mentioned this to Sudha, she doubted the original blood test and sure enough in a new test carried out at Klang, Sujata was found to have the common RH+ve blood. A faulty blood test had caused us untold anxiety over the years.
Any way now there was no pressure, only a pleasurable wait. We mulled over whether we should get any one from India over to help out. We found it not practical and perhaps too expensive, and Sujata opposed all plans to get relatives to help out. We then looked out for and got a full time live-in maid, just two months before the due date. Still there was a lot of work at home, and the concept of paternity leave was unheard of in those days. Ashwini had to be made ready early in the morning for school. I was spending on an average 10 hours in the day in office; hence be of limited help. It was hard work for Sujata. Hats off to her that she managed all that.
She kept excellent health throughout and was very active.

In July 1975, I suddenly developed stomach pains in lower abdomen, and when they showed no signs of receding, Sudha advised that we go the hospital, and it was diagnosed as a swollen appendix. It was decided to operate on soon, but because the Anesthetist [Sudha] was our neighbor, I was told that I could rest home the previous evening and come only in the morning. This was my first major surgery.
After the initial preparations, Sudha showed no mercy and quickly injected the drug in my finger webs, and I was out cold.
I woke up to some one saying, '' Sudheer Ootha'', '' jage vha''.
Afterwards I told Sudha that this must be the only occasion of a patient in this hospital being woken up in Marathi.
After I was taken to the room, time came for my toilet visit. I fully expected to see a bedpan or some such thing. Instead the nurse told me, curtly I thought at that time, 'There is the toilet and there you go. I was being asked to walk within 6 hours of the surgery. Apparently that was the new theory of faster healing. Although slow and painful, I managed. My progress was very good and I came home on the 4th day
Ashwini was terrified in the beginning, since she had not see me down like this before, but recovered her wits later.

Now my troubles over, we waited for the big day. That arrived in October. On the 9th Sujata started feeling a bit uneasy, and in the evening in fact we took her to the hospital, but the doctors said it was too early, and we were sent back. After we went to bed, at about 3 in the morning the pains started, and this was the real thing. So leaving Ashwini sleeping with the neighbors watching, we went to the hospital. In the labour room, I was told it would be at least 3 more hours. I came back, made Ashwini ready and went to the hospital at a little after 7.
I was greeted by the nurse with shouts of '' Congratulations, it's a boy!''
Well, Ashwini and I were overjoyed. We were allowed in at about 8 and there he was, Abhi! Born at 0725 hrs on Oct 10th at District Hospital, Klang.
Rather frail, very fair and with blue eyes. Sujata, in spite of all her talk of any child being fine, secretly wanted a boy, and she was very happy.
The baby's weight was a concern, although not premature, he weighed less than 5 lbs.
Doctors decided to put him in the incubator till he gained weight.
On the second day the doctors decided to discharge Sujata. ' What about the baby?’ we asked. ' Oh that's alright, he will stay here for a few more days'
We were stunned as this was totally unexpected. Sujata was pleading with them to let her stay, but they were adamant that they had no rooms. They assured total care and asked us not to worry. Sudha too backed them up.
Finally most reluctantly we came back. Sujata could not sleep at all during the night and at first light we were back at the hospital. Actually the baby gained weight fast enough and was discharged after two nights being alone.

Before then we had to decide the name of the baby. In Malaysia or in many other countries you need to declare the name of the baby there itself to get a birth certificate. We had a shortlist ready and he was named Abhijeet.
By then telegrams had been sent to Bhadravati, Bangalore, and Aurangabad. Return telegrams were coming. Our friends in Malaysia were a great help. Gokhales who were completing their stay in Malaysia postponed their flight to be with us and so did Ushatai Hukeri who stayed with us specially to help us out.
Home was altogether different now. Abhi's routine took precedence over everything.
He was generally a much quieter baby compared to Ashwini. But he slept little at night, so there were many sleepless nights.
Ashwini just loved Abhi and was alawys hovering around him and had to be coaxed to go to school.The home was a happy sight because were having a baby around the house after 6 years. The maid stayed for about a month after Abhi was born, and one fine day she just disappeared, went back to her village, we were told later.

Incidentally, this maid, hardly 16 years of age, Shanthi, was quite smart although hailing from a small rubber estate. She knew a fair amount of English, liked to answer the phone with the greeting of '' Good evening, Tambe's residence''. This led to our friends pulling my leg if we have employed a butler or something. She watched me in the evenings when I had drink and with little encouragement would have assumed the duties of a bartender too. She liked to play with Ashwini and Abhi. She taught Ashwini to ride her first bicycle. She liked to cook. In short all things except those which she was hired for, namely cleaning the bessels and washing clothes. Anyway she was there when we needed her most.

Abhi was growing up. Sujata liked to go to the nearby Ganesh temple with Abhi.
Abhi got a lot of stares from the others, firstly because of his startling blue eyes, secondly because of his comparatively large ears sticking out. That gave him the look of a mini Ganesha according to a fellow visitor to the temple, so there was a crowd of onlookers one day around him.
Even in later days when Abhi was going around in his pram, he got stares from passerbys because of the color of his eyes. The Malaysians from small towns are curious and frank people. So, when Sujata took him out by herself, the question asked to her was '' Is the father Orang Puteh? [Malay word for Westerner]''. And when I took him out by myself, the question was if the mother was a westerner. They just could not believe that a fair child with blue eyes could be all-Indian.

Around that time, level of small crimes in the neighbourhhod had increased and the Government started a scheme of vigilante volunteers in each locality. This was known as '' Rukun Tetanga''. Teams of two had to petrol the area in shifts of 6 hours. We were armed with a stout stick and there was a common tent for rest and refreshment. It turned out to be a very boring experience. No criminals came anywhere close, and all that happened was we were barked at continuously by various dogs all night. Each person had duty once a week. I remember going round our house more often to see if Abhi is asleep. This scheme lasted about 6 months and the Government was well pleased with reduction of crimes. This was a good way to know the neighbours though.

This was also the time that the second Prime Minister of the country Tun Abdul Razak died. We saw all details of the state funeral on TV, and the intricacies of succession. That was quite an education for us. Hussein Onn became the next Prime Minister. He looked a bit like Hindi actor Motilal, so that became our code word for him.

The year was 1976 and this time the change of house became necessary not because of the 2 year itch, but out of necessity. Ashwini had now joined the proper school, the Garden International School in KL. The school was some 38 km from our house. One of the teachers living in Klang agreed to take Ashwini with her. She left the house at 0615! You can imagine the struggles of getting Ashwini out of the bed and get her ready at that unearthly hour. This went on for a couple of months and the strain started telling on every one. The only way we took was to move back to PJ, from where busses take children to school at a more manageable hour.

So, out went the call to the ubiquitous Mrs. Low, the house agent.
She did find a house, but we were rather disappointed that it was not on par with our earlier two houses in PJ. We did not have much time to search and had to take it quickly. This was in Section 9, a hilly area of PJ, but close to the Park and all shops, and near to all my super markets. So Ashwini left the house for school at a much more comfortable time of 0730 and every one was happy.
This was May 1976


Abhi's progress was fast. He started teething, but most of these landmarks went off without much fuss. I had a Yashica FX-1 camera then, and numerous pictures of Abhi were shot. This was [and still is] a bone of contention with Ashwini, that we never took so many pictures of her. Abhi's blue eyes were a prominent feature of the pictures. Now his weight and energy levels were quite normal. He took his first steps just when he was 11 months. He enjoyed the trips to the park too.
We had a Idly dosa shop close by, so that made evry one happy too.
I must talk about a very famous shop in KL. This was known popularly as No. 32.
This was nothing but a mess run for the staff of various Tamil moneylender setups around that area of KL. And No 32, Lorong Amapng, was the address of the mess. The amenities were basic. Wooden benches in two long rows facing each other with small stools. Food served on banana leaves. Not even a wash basin, only a tap with a trough to wash hands. The servers with lungi and bare chested. The place was actually the rear of a old fashioned '' Savakar Pedhi'', if you know what I mean.
But the Idly was out of this world. Even now I would put it as amongst the three best Idlys anywhere. The dosa was there but they served the soft variety which was a staple for the locals to eat with Veg curry or meat curry etc. We preferred the crisp variety and after some adjustments we got that dosa. This shop was ridiculously cheap too. In early days we made so many trips there, but that subsided as the days went by. Still once a month was a must.

In 1976 Bhau's new house was ready in Aurangabad. So we planned a visit.
Sujata and children going first and I followed after a month or so. In those days the cheapest fare was available on Czech Airways, so that was the flight they took.
Although we had a good holiday in 1974, this was the first one since Abhi was born so every one on both sides was excited.
Nov. 1976, it was more than 5 years since we first came to Malaysia.