Another new year – 2025

January 6, 2025.Reading time 6 minutes.

It’s the new year. Good health. Much love and happiness. Many successes. Glad tidings, and all that. The new year comes around like clockwork, and yet it kind of springs up on us. Even after a long 365 days – 52 weeks, 12 months. Fireworks. Parties. Blaring horns. Midnight traffic jams. The new year has […]

Nostalgic Penang

December 30, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Penang evokes nostalgia, memories and emotions. I remember travelling with my parents and siblings from Alor Setar on single lane roads. Past kampung houses, paddy fields, Sungai Petani, Pantai Merdeka, and arriving at the ferry terminal in Butterworth. The excitement and sometimes discomfort of waiting in long queues under the sun to get on the […]

Earlier Christmas

December 23, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Christmas came early this year. As early as Deepavali, which was on the 31st of October. Yes, that early. Christmas decorations were put up in parallel, whilst Deepavali was still being celebrated, and far from over. I kid you not. Shopping malls like ‘Avenue K’ could not and did not wait for Deepavali to be […]

Space Hopper

December 2, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

She had me at the opening paragraph. ‘The loss of my mother is like missing a tooth: an absence I can feel at all times, but one I can hide as long I keep my mouth shut. And, so I rarely talk about her.’ Helen Fisher’s Space Hopper resonated with me. The book is about […]

Almost a year on

November 25, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Almost a year has passed. Last Saturday was brother number 1’s ‘Thevasam.’ The first anniversary prayers, to observe his passing, based on the Indian almanac. I remember clearly – Tuesday, December 5, 2023. Sister number 3 and I had visited him in his home. As we were about to leave, despite the pain and discomfort […]

Keeping in touch

November 11, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I met up with seven school mates a fortnight ago. One of them lives in England, and it was her ‘Balik Kampung,’ the reason for the get together. Our collective home town/kampung is Alor Setar, Kedah. We went to the same primary and secondary school until form five – St. Nicholas Convent (as did sisters’ […]

Deepavali 2024

November 4, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Last Thursday was Deepavali 2024. The first without my mum and brother number 1. There’s a photo of the two of them smiling whilst sitting on my mum’s blue sofa, taken last Deepavali. Each with an oxygen cannula attached for easier breathing. I never thought or didn’t let myself think that it would/could be my […]

Still in England

October 21, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I didn’t know what a trolleybus was. A tram yes, but not a trolleybus. The Trolleybus Weekend was brother-in-law number 3’s suggestion, an avid steam engine enthusiast. A good suggestion, it was. More so as it was conveniently held in Carlton Corville, a town south of Great Yarmouth – the seaside resort where my mum-in-law, […]

England

October 7, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

England has always been and still is a special place/destination for me. Weirdly, when I was growing up in Alor Setar, I used to either dream or imagine about sycamore trees in England. Yes, weird. Why? Because I didn’t know what a sycamore tree was or looked like. And, I didn’t know what England was […]

Silent generation

September 9, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

My mum was 28 years old when she had me. A generation apart, based roughly on a 20-year time interval. She and I were from different generations, and we were different. But not so dissimilar that we didn’t see eye to eye and/or were embroiled in constant arguments. No, not at all. She was […]