Sunday, October 28, 2012

Sungai (the River)

Our kampung is located near the Terengganu river. There are two towns on the opposite "ends" of the river, Kuala Berang is upstream and Kuala Terengganu, the state capital is on its estuary. I wish to claim that my kampung lies half-way between the two towns!


In my last posting, I talk about mandi. We clean ourselves using the community well. Other than that, my life was attached to the river. Schools were one-session back then and tuition classes were unheard at that time. After school, I had to attend quranic reciting "classes" first at a "guru quran"'s house not far from my house.


As soon as the session ends, my friends (cousins included) head for the river. In the beginning, I didn't know how to swim so my roaming territory was limited to the edges of the riverbank where, during low-tide, the water were about waist-deep. There were no swimming lessons too at that time.


I started learning to swim by holding "nyior komeng" - matured coconuts that has little content inside - to my chest and paddling my two legs. When there was no "nyior komeng" around, I tied our sarong to our waist and use its bottom to tie it into a knot between our knees. Then we beat the water, an act that pushed enough air into the sarong. Once there was enough air within the sarung, hey presto we were afloat and we could just float like swans (we were in seating position) by paddling our hands or we could swim (in horizontal position) by using our hands now as our back was really afloat by then.


Later on, I was able to swim...and we play "to" (read "toll" with silent "ls") in the water. We spents hours in the water and in the evening just before sunset, I could be assured of a few pinches or ear-twisting treatment courtesy of my mother. We could not find excuses because our eyes were red from being too long in the water.


During the monsoon season, we couldn't be in the river as it was too dangerous to play in the swollen and raging flood water. We still play in the flood water in flooded padi-fields by making rafts from banana trunks. two or three banana trunks were attached together and we went rafting around the inundated fields all day long - the monsoon season coincides with the long school holidays.


One incident I cannot forget was how I almost got drowned in the river. It happened one afternoon at a pangkalan near my future (now) wife's house. At that time, I still could not swim so I played in the shallow part near the bank. All of a sudden, I was pushed by small waves caused by a passing passenger boat into the deeper part...I was gulping waters and tried to jump by pushing my feet off the river bed. I was thinking I would die by then because no one was aware of my predicament with the shouting and merry-making. As sudden as the waves that pushed me outwards, my body was suddenly pushed back to the shallow water with my nose just above water. I felt weak and slowly made my way onto the bank, took may sarong and walked home. My throat was in pain from the water that got into my mouth and my efforts of spitting it out.


We - my friends and I - were in the water just like duck and fish. Unfortunately, nowadays, I dare not take a dip into the river as the water is no longer pristine. I am now become afraid of crocodiles - strange that we never gave thought to their presence during our younger days despite a few sightings of them back then - and the murky waters due to sand-mining operations.


My children were born in Kuala Lumpur and even though there are swimming pools and lessons none of them can swim.

Television

Electricity came to our little kampong only in 1978 the year I was in Lower Six at a premier secondary school in Kuala Terengganu.  Before that year, our kampong folk uses pelita, small kerosene-fired lamp for lighting purposes.  And radio, other than torchlights, was the only electrical gadget we use.  Our kampong folk knew the existence of television before 1978.  There were two shops in our kampong that have a television set each. The sets were powered by portable generators run on petrol.  And we had to go to the shops for our movies etc.

In 1976, my father bought a small television set, a Japanese brand called Setron. It was powered by 14V car battery.  Charging the battery costs one Ringgit and it lasts for a week.  Our house was the first 'private' house in our kampong that has a tv set.  With the tv set our daily life changes somewhat. Nights were no longer quiet and idyll.  We have visitors almost every night and the last of them usually left our house well after midnight.

There were two shows that made our small kampong house full to the brim. First the series called Combat starring Vic Morrow and Rick Jason. It was shown on Wednesdays at 7 pm.  That was our dinner and prayer time.  About half-an-hour before the series started, we have about 20-25 people congregating in our living room waiting for the series to be shown.  Imagine having a crowd in your house at that 'private' times.  My step-mother had the tough tasks of cleaning the house after the guests left.  Many kampong folk at that time still do not wear slippers or shoes and the floor of our living room usually full of dirts, dried cow-dung and rubbish after the show.

The second time in a week that our house was full of guests were on Friday nights when there were cerita Melayu (Malay movies) on tv.  While on Wednesday evenings the crowd were most boys the Friday night crowds comprise mostly women, families and children.

Imagine your house having about 70 people seating and watching tv in the living room.  It was a bit fun initially having people around but later it took some toll on our life and privacy.

Thinking about it now, I think it was fun too having a tv set - however small - in your living room, and people crowding in your home at least twice-a-week.  Men chatted, women gossiped, boys flirted in my living room hahahaha