I like to learn new things about my mum. I especially like it when I discover some interesting experiences that I can document. I already know the everyday stuff but very little, if any, of the fun and exciting things that she did and/or enjoyed in her younger days.

To be honest, I cannot associate fun and exciting with my mum. I know why. As my mum’s child, albeit an old one, I have difficulty picturing her as a child and doing things children do. Or as a teenager and doing stuff that lot do. In my eyes, she is my dear old mum. Emphasis on the dear and old. I thought it would be nice to collate some fun stuff she did as a young girl. My mum can sometimes take a little while to get warmed up to questions and ideas. She can be quiet and monosyllabic or animated and brimming with information. Finding the right time and prompting her with examples usually work.

This time, her immediate answer was she did nothing fun growing up. Nothing. Not deterred by the response, I pushed on. I know she enjoys watching movies and Tamil serials. Her all-time favourite non-Tamil movie is Jumanji 1- the original. Coincidentally, it was on Astro last Saturday where I saw a very young Kirsten Dunst speak in Tamil. Strangely amusing.

With that as a lead, I asked my mum if she went to the movies as a child. I kid you not. A light bulb went off. She must have only then remembered that she did indeed – go to the movies and have fun. And, the name of the cinema, as she remembered it, popped out of her mouth. Shanghai Darkies. I hadn’t heard of that name before. My instant internal reaction was how politically incorrect. Then again, it was the1930’s. Before Political Correctness.

Shanghai Darkies, according to my mum, was a smallish cinema in Butterworth. She was not keen on it as only one Tamil movie was screened once a month for just one day. It’s limited seating capacity meant late comers had to stand at the back to watch the movie. No wonder the poor review. 

She was more excited recalling the special trips made to a cinema in Penang with her mum, Tulasi, and her two younger sisters. It was a long hike as the family lived in Butterworth. A lengthy walk, a bus ride, a ferry trip to the island, and another bus journey later was where the cinema was located. Because of the protracted journey, only the afternoon matinee was a viable option. Even then, my mum remembers never watching the end of the 5 or 6 movies she was treated to. Staying to watch the credits meant surely missing the last ferry from Penang to Butterworth. The consequences, inconvenient and scary. My grandmother was careful to get her three young daughters safely home after each jaunt to the cinema. Best movie watched was ‘Haridas.’  This movie was reported to have had an interrupted run for 114 weeks in one cinema in India.

The cinema that my mum frequented in Penang was very likely the Majestic Theatre. It was the first cinema to open in Penang in 1926, and the first to screen sound movies or talkies in the 1930’s. The Majestic Theatre was also known to the local Penangites as the Shanghai Sound Movie Theatre. Or Shanghai Talkies. My mum’s cinema in Butterworth was Shanghai Talkies not Darkies. I had a laugh.

She also enjoyed watching Siamese dancing, performed by a touring troupe of some 10 Thai male dancers. They wore colourful attires and attractive headgears, and staged two shows daily. In the afternoon from 2 to 5 pm and an evening show from 8 to 12 pm. The dancers stayed in a rented accommodation near my mum’s home. Interestingly, the troupe, magically appeared every year. Performed for about a week. Disappeared. And, showed up the next year. Each time, the entrepreneurial in the area drummed up business by setting up stalls and selling glutinous rice and other delicacies to visitors and audiences.

Like the Siamese dance performances, my mum also liked attending Chinese opera skits and plays as a young teenager. Colourful costumes and elaborately made-up actors and singers took to the stage. They danced, sang and acted from early evening into the night. My mum remembers the outings fondly. Particularly the fresh fruits, candied fruits and ice cream sold at the site, which was usually near or within the vicinity of a Chinese temple. 

It was fun chatting with my mum, and gathering information about her past times. What was really fun was while she happily relived memories of the more exciting times of her childhood, I enjoyed the walk down memory lane with her.