Road Trip 2022 - Part 3 ( Taiping )

 

The sounds of the croaking cockrel woke me up early that morning. The nice hard bed makes the waking up easier amidst the cool and early morning of the day. Santokh and I had a good sleep that night as we shared private jokes before dozing off. Afterall, it had been a long day too but meeting Rajeswaran, Suma, Raj, daughter and Suma’s family made it all worthwhile. After a good bath and cleaning up, we went downstairs and there to meet us was the ever-smiling Suma who had some yam cake ready after her morning exercise with her sisters. We tried to encourage her to join us for the evening meeting with Mr. Indran and Mr. Bernard but her dedication to her school work were indeed applaudable. I guess, there are still good teachers like her around as I have mentioned earlier.

Anyway, Raj took us for breakfast at a nearby Chinese shop where I had curry chicken wan tan mee, half boiled egg toast and 3 types of sandwiches. Santokh had the same meal as me minus the half-boiled eggs toast while Raj had the sandwiches and the half boiled egg toast. It was a good breakfast and it wasn’t expensive at all. It was rightly priced. I really loved it especially when I downed it with a good dose of kopi-o gelas that morning. It started raining when Santokh and I departed Batu Gajah with our sights heading towards Taiping, the rendezvous point for our gathering that night at about 10.00am. Raj had informed that he would be travelling later to Taiping. I drove steadily towards Taiping as we continued our conversation on what had happened thus far. The ride was smooth and the scenic scenes at the small road access and towns were fabulous. I guess, Malaysia still has much more to be discovered as one travel north bound. We finally arrived at our homestay at about 11.30am and there to greet us was our friend, Surasvaran ( I would call him Suresh, anyway ). Here was this tall chap on his bike and he looked the same except for the streaks of grey like all of our friends are. We warmly greeted and hugged each other enthusiastically as it had been far too long we’ve not seen each other. As we got the keys to our homestay, others began to arrive at the homestay. Raj, Gopi and Ragu came within minutes and our usual comradery mode was on immediately. 

By this time, we were informed that Mr. Indran, Mr. Bernard and their wives are in Taiping for lunch with Eddie and Ramesh. We were also told that we would have tea at Ramesh & Indra at their home. So, we headed off to Larut/Matang food court or commonly known as Cashier’s Market for our food. I decided not to eat anything as I was full from breakfast in Batu Gajah. Instead , Santokh encouraged me to get a local specialty namely Gula Putih drink, a concoction of maize, peanuts, evaporated milk and sugar/gula melaka which was refreshing indeed. Super yummy,actually!

From here, we proceeded to the new club to meet up with Mr. & Mrs .Indran, Mr. Bernard and Auntie May ( really sweet ladies ) before proceeding to the homestay. Our ex-lecturers and their wives occupied two rooms while the third room was open to anyone who wants to snooze there. After settling down a bit, Thuruvan came by and I really respect this old friend of ours. Santokh had invited him that morning while we were in Batu Gajah and by afternoon, he was already joining us at the homestay. Truly a gentleman and one that I respected a lot as he is a quiet man but a very respected one with good attitude and very pleasant personality. After our greeting with one another, it was soon off to Ramesh & Indra home for tea time. Indra Ramesh had prepared some fried noodles, kuih muih and fruits for tea. Again, the atmosphere was one like a busy morning market. There was so much buzz, laughter and fun. That’s what a get together is all about. I just want to thank Indra & Ramesh for opening their house for a tea session and for accommodating us. Soon, we headed out back to our homestay for some much needed rest and relaxing time as everyone had travelled far and wide to get here in Taiping. Soon, Puspagaran and Nagaiah arrived at the homestay in the evening. Suresh, Raj and Gopi went to town to get us some dinner as we pooled our resources to pay for the food and our accommodation for the day.

Some of us stayed behind to talk, laugh and even made fun of each other while waiting for dinner to be served. When dinner finally arrived, it was rather late due to extensive and massive jams in town. We ate what was served and the families had a good time too. We talked as we munched and ate our hearts content. We then adjourned to the living room area and started our re-living of memories. It was again full of laughter and much loved felt at heart. I guess, re-living the memories and conversations like this certainly put much joy to our hearts. Even Mr. Indran and Mr. Bernard spared no punches in their jokes and sharing of stories. That night everyone had something to say no matter how quiet you have been in your life. It was so good to see smiling faces and happy faces as we walked down memory lane that night. For me, I reveled in the fact, my friends are alive and they could still remember what they had done in their lives and laughed at themselves. That’s a rare privilege in a world where all these doesn’t matter except success, success, success. These were times we failed and yet we stood up and fight another day. The tenacity to stay strong and to survive was the foremost in our minds. It was revealed that I was the only one transferred to Sabah to start my career as a teacher while Sandran, Iswaran and Puspagaran started their teaching career in Sarawak. The rest were scattered in West Malaysia at various places.

That night we slept at about 2.44am after much fellowship and fun. As always, what happens in Taiping stays in Taiping. This is usually what we do in gatherings like this. It is respectful and the right thing to do. Overall, we really had a good time but most important of all, we get to spend time with our beloved lecturers, Mr. Indran and Mr.Bernard who had been inspirational to any of us during our teaching college days. Their passing down and imparting of outdoor skills and knowledge played a vital role in enriching us in our own life walk. Their advices and sound wisdom are an asset to us indeed. So, to Mr. Indran and Mr. Bernard, thank you so much and God bless you both abundantly. No matter how we turned out in our lives, you both made some dents in our lives with that expertise of yours. For me, it helped me to establish and run the Royal Rangers Ministry in my church ( an outdoor Christian ministry with the aim “To Reach, Teach and Keep Children for Christ”.) and the numerous outdoor outings with children and youth spreading the love for outdoor activities, camping, abseiling, flying fox, waterfall climb, river crossing, waterfall hike and caving activities. I could only thank the both of you for the enormous volume of teachings on safety standards, organizing a great outing and enjoying the beautiful nature in our country. I believe those skills and organizational skill helped me to where I am in helping to bring the lessons of nature to the young ones. Thank you so much, sirs. BTW, the little safety line incident with Mr. Indran during the flying fox incident helped me to be really cautious and put emphasis on safety procedure during the outings and activities done with the children. I treasured that memory very much despite my failure that day. It helped me bounced back stronger when I did the same activity with the children/youth during any outing.

 

That early morning, as I slumped on the hard flooring, it was the best place to sleep as it was cold, breezy from the air conditioning and with mates from all over the country ; spread-eagled at some corner, huddled near the TV cabinet and even cocooned near the sofa set. What a lovely sight! Nothing beats that, actually. That’s what gathering meant to me. Fun, obnoxiously loud, larynx given some great exercise while the lungs and liver were overworked with concoction of drinks and stories from the yesteryears. Nothing could beat that feeling and fun. You should try it from time to time with your own group of friends and see the great results of things. For far too long, we are too conceited and too obsessed with the acquirement of wealth and success in our career path kononnya for our future. Have a good mixture of good friends , gather without expectations and believe to have a great time and it will be great. For far too long, we are so self-centred in our own world, wallowing in our own sorrows of situation and forget to live life to the fullest. We say things like these but never ever fulfilling them as we hide behind that pretense of busyness. Go, smell the flowers, take the family to a hideaway, love them and cherished the times out. Stop being bossy or a pain in the ass with the authority invested in you as a father, a husband or even a friend. Take off the covers of your egoistic ways, peel off your dumbness of actions and live life to the fullest because we do not know where or how we are the next day. Someone asked me the other day, “ All your friends are Indians and one Punjabi fella, how do you come to that?” Well, these fellas were my college classmates, accepted me, befriended me - the one and only Chinese guy in the class together with another Chinese girl called Tin Hooi Lee, taught me a lot about friendship and what it meant to survive and had a merry time living life. It didn’t matter if they were Indians, Punjabi, Malays, Sarawakians or even mixed race – Kelab Kembara of MPLP , under the leadership of Mr. Indran and Mr. Bernard ensured that we taught each other about life when others doesn’t even bother about us nor raise a finger to help us in our lives. We chart our own lives to be where we are. Sure, we are different but that spirit of love, respect , honor and attitude meant a lot to us. That’s what it meant to me. I don’t know about you but these mates of mine are truly different yet diverse in attitude, altitude and character. Like I always say, to me, the essence of the heart matters a lot me. I am a sentimental idiot when it comes to memories but these fellas do shape my life in some small simple way despite our voluminous differences in thoughts, works and even deeds - agree to disagree in a good way. No one is perfect in this bloody world but we can make it a little better and bearable if we try our best to be a better & bigger person in life. Not in terms of physical size "big" but in the size of our hearts. Not the dick head,okay? For that, 40mg of zinc will do just fine! For the dick head, I mean!