Rant & Raves

Whilst sitting in front of the laptop, I couldn’t help but let my mind wonder back to the years before today. It was a warm summer holiday (Well, it is always summer in Malaysia), and I was wearing shorts and a skimpy singlet because of the warm day, and licking my 10cents ice-cream.

See, I came from a kampung (small town, like a village), and I was living in my father’s factory with my parents and two sisters, and right behind the factory was the jungle that was once my favorite hang-out place, until I was scared to shit by a gigantic serpent. I came face to face with it twice, once in the factory and the second time was in the jungle. It has a body size of a big milo-tin and when it crossed the road, we won’t be able to see the head and tail. It was that huge.

Anyway, back to the story. I was licking my ice-cream and watching my sisters riding the bicycles. See, my second sister, K, is not a very athletic kind of person. She spent the past few years to learn how to swim, and yet she could barely float. And then she spent the past few months trying to learn how to ride a bicycle, and she couldn’t even ride the bike for more than 2 meters without falling. So my eldest sister, B, being a good sister that she was, tried to help K to learn. She was pushing and stabilizing the bike while K was paddling and it was all good, except a few near-misses where K was falling.

Then, K made a right turn, and they both zoomed past me. The problem is that right in front of me, it was a very steep slope, almost 30degree and it was one long slope. B, only 10 at that time, didn’t have the strength to hold on to the bike when the slope being so steep, and K, being a clumsy baby (at 7 at that time) and didn’t know how to hold on the brake, so all I saw was B trying her best to stop the bike from behind, and K was screaming on top of her lung. B screamed, “Press the brake! Brake!!!” and K just went “Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..”

Finally, B couldn’t hold on to it any longer, so she let go of the bike. All hell break loose because now without the physical constrain the bike, it was like a kite in a strong gust. K was screaming while the bike was going extremely fast, downhill, unstoppable, and I was watching in astonishment while I heard K’s scream wailing.

And then, there was a loud Thud coming from the bottom of the slope. B looked at me, and I looked back. We started running toward the bottom and what we saw haunted us for the rest of our life. No, it wasn’t that scary, but it was so funny that it haunted us for many years. K was literally glued to the tanker at the bottom. See, the slope is steep, but at the end of it there was a wide turn and it was all flat ground. But K was too scared and clumsy to take the turn, so she has gone straight and hit on the empty tanker.

K got a few scratches, and she got a bleeding cheek. We were very scared because B and I were sure that father would beat us to death if he knew about it, so we applied some Detol on her face, and ordered her to hide somewhere when dad was home from the factory floor. K forgot about it and watched TV when dad was home, and then, we were beaten for endangering K’s life.

It was a great time. We were so free, innocent, and our worries were about homework, and that’s all. Unlike now, bearing huge social obligations, responsibilities, worries about promotions, about financial status, and protecting ourselves from the preying eyes of our nemesis. Now, at the ripe age of 30, innocent no more, having a few white strand hair, constantly thinking about the business, the social obligations, and worry about tomorrow. The childhood days were just so free, happy and life just went by without worries.

It was the best time in my life. I miss the innocence and freedom. Oh and I miss the kampung boy in me.