Chapter 19 The Sugar Cane Thieves

Naughty,naughty that was the word.You name it ,and you can be sure that Fabian had a hand in it,yeah those were the good old days.I bet Tom Sawyer compared to Fabian had a lot of catching up to do.Right?

He and Bruce were a formidable pair,he fought and Bruce will be around to assist him,those were the days Fabian never knew the word defeat for there was no way he could ever lose..Fabian the shorter of the two was always the pick by bullies for a fight but to fight Fabian one had to face Bruce also,that was for sure.

Fabian will always be at the home of Bruce after school.Many a time had lunch there at the invitation of Bruce's mother.Wah,come to think back,Bruce's mother was a "Nyonya"from Kuala Kangsar and she was a marvelous cook.Her fantastic curry were always finger licking good.Just to think of it brings back nostalgia.

Both always do things together.One day they both agreed to steal sugar cane,yellow,juicy and very sweet canes from neighbor at the back of Fabian's land.They planned to strike at nightfall.

So that evening they met and went straight to that neighborhood.It was about 7.30 p.m. and slowly getting dark.They sneaked close to where the canes were planted some five chains from the house.The residents of that household were resting at the back of their house,chatting away.There three of them,two men and a woman.

Bruce and Fabian waited for a while before they struck.When the time came they slowly crept near to the sugar cane.There were five or six canes on that spot.Bruce had the pen knife and was cutting away slowly ,while another hand held on to the cane.Fabian was also at that spot keeping watch over the movements of the residents.

When the cane was fully cut Bruce held the cane aloft with both hands,and slowly allow the cane to come down flat to the ground,without making any noise.But things did not go as smooth as supposed to be,one of the resident suddenly noticed the cane moving down.

"Hey,brother -the sugar cane was moving down,I saw it".
The others looked at the spot of the sugar cane,then they shouted,"Ada orang curi tabu".(Someone stealing sugar cane).

When Bruce and Fabian heard the shouts they both leaped up without hesitation and began to run,with Bruce still holding on the cane and dragging it along as they ran for their lives.

Well.they escaped and the occupants of that house never gave chased..They stopped and panted after a short run laughing heartily over the matter.When all were quiet down,they enjoyed their sugar cane.There was no joy in stealing actually,but the fun and the excitement they endured was indeed an incredible experienced.

As of today after fifty over years,Bruce still bragged out to his children of that exploit being the "Sugar cane thieves".

Chapter 18 THe "Machang" Tree.

The days of laying out lazily under the Machang (a Malaysia Mango) tree also had beautifully memories for Fabian.Come mango season every year while they were still kids,Fabian and the Chong Brothers will always be under that Machang tree waiting for the ripe fruits to fall.

That tree was in the compound of the Chong's government quarter,a wooden bungalow.It bears fruits without fail every year.Fabian will always be around that tree most season.The ripe mangoes were really sweet and succulent, especially when eating them fresh and direct from the tree.

All of them will gather without after school or the whole day there in case of holidays.Singing and playing.Many a time lying on a tree several feet away enjoying the shade with gentle breeze blowing.
Should friends passed by they all will shout at them,"Hi".And if girls passed by they will whistle at them.One day,Fabian pretty cousin cycled passed and Fabian wished her.Friends nearby especially Bruce will say,"Wah you got pretty girl friend,huh?"

"NO,no,she is my cousin sister",in disbelief another friend Fox will joined in saying,"I don't believe you,Pretty girl,your girl friend".
"Yes" insisted Fabian," she is my first cousin".

On one occasion Bruce's sister came by with a girl friend,Fabian gave her a gentle smile.All around will say,"Hey.Fabian,this also your cousin?.No,no this is Bruce's sister's friend".
"Wah,Fabian,you like this girl?",they said,"that was why you smiled with her".
"Fabian loved a fat girl,Fabian loved a fat girl",they all sang.

Bruce's sister came to all of them after the girl had left."Eh,Fabian,I heard you are in love with my fat friend"."No.no"replied Fabian in blushed.
"If you like her,I can introduce to you,okay?""Don't be shy".
"Introduce to that fatty girl to him",all of them shouted
No,no,I don't want",said an ambarassed Fabian and all laughed heartily over that joke.

Once Fabian had an argument with the younger brother of Joe,one of the Loke brothers.After some argument they fought.They wrestled and Onnie was pinned to the ground.Fabian asked him whether he yielded or not.Onnie refused.

Getting more furious Fabian pulled a handful of grass and put them into Onnie's mouth,then he l;et him go.Onnie got up crying with mouth full of grass,"Wait,I will tell my brother about this".
With everyone laughing as he ran away home from that spot.

With him gone Bruce sliced a piece of mango for Fabian,"It is very sweet",he said thankfully to Bruce,"Let me have the seed"."I liked the remaining juices in that seed".
"Very clever,but never mind I can wait for the next fruit",he had just finished his talk another fruit fell and they again shared it among themselves.



To be continued

Charter 17 Kite fighting

The word Kite fighting brings back many,many happy memories for Fabian and kid brother Francis.Initially when the kite flying season drew near Fabian and brother, together the Chong brothers,Bruce and Ivan,they were always chasing after loose kites.

Come kite season many enthusiasts will fly their kites to fight other kites in the air.Beautifully painted kites will donned the sky,but watch out for these kites were flown with sharp glass lined threats.So sharp that these can easily cut off opponents kites in the sky.

Kites will be flown at the steering of the flier from the ground at the direction the wind were blowing.A good kite cn performed many stunts in the air like diving to opponents kite and once in contact the flier from the ground can make the kite to turn in small circles,thus cut deep onto opponents threat.The last episode was to see whose threat was sharper and the skill of the flier was also in demand to see who was champion.

The losing kite will be cut off and fly away aimlessly out of control.Should that happened the kite belonged to no one and finder can claim ownership of.Thus began the kite chase.Dozen of boys will run after it,so were Fabian and gang.Bruce was tall and a very god runner and was many a times the first to reach these loose kite.

Once near to the loose kite he will dash up and jumped for it.If the kite was caught by him he claimed ownership of it by shouting,"Jangan Husek"in Malay that meant "Don't touch""It is mine"Sometimes many others also caught up with that kite at the same time and when this happened the poor kite will be torn into many pieces.Every one thus end up empty handed and a good laughed.

Actually it was never the securing of the kite that thrilled us,it was the chasing of it.There were so much fun and excitement in the chased.It was actually very thrilling running through all sort of environments,many a times injure by falling and cuts by sharp glasses of broken bottles and rusty fencing.Although many returned empty handed but every one were happy whatever the out come.

Later the Chong Brothers and Fabian switched on to making their own kites and glassed threats for kite fighting.But alas producing glass lined threats were quite laborious as first the had to pound glass into fine powder.They elected the glass of bulbs as it was thin and softer to pound ,as well as these were apparently sharper if lined on to threats.

To allow the fine glass powder to adhered closely to the threats used,"cow skin"gum had to boiled in water.In order that the threats be smooth as well as sharped egg white was added to it when the gum was cooled enough.With the fine powder of glass finally added and well steered,the threat rolled in a ball was dipped into that mixtures.

The threat will then be carefully lined in bands from pole to pole,care must be under taken to see that threat do not have excessive of the mixtures in it failing which the threat will be rendered useless for kite fighting.When properly dried the threat will be rolled up with a milo can for easy used and maintained.

Fabian was also an excellent kite maker.Those days dry bamboo strips were readily available from old baskets.Bamboo sizes were cut and shaved to uniform weight all round.A soft and light paper was used to make the kits.With ease Fabian make a few good flying kites.Well,he also taught his brother Francis how to make them.

On one occasion Francis was flying his kite at the field at the Chong's quarter without any hindrance,when suddenly his kite was being pursued by another kite from way back.That kite was diving fiercely at Francis's kite.Francis tried to dick that and turned hos kite down with another dive.

The other kite was relentless and kept on with more furious dives.Fabian seeing his brother in trouble rushed in to assist him,but Francis refused his offer to help and pushed Fabian away.Just as he was pushing Fabian away his kite caught the wind to move upwards,the opposing kite by then had reached Francis's kite.

A kite fighting thus began with the opponents having the upper hand,turning ion menacing manner cutting into Francis's threat and forcibly cut in.Poor Frnacis 's kite was caught going up to meet that force and that force above had the better cut edge and cut off Francis 's threat.Thus his kite flew off loosely and lost forever.

Poor Francis getting angry shouted at his brother,"It is all your fault,you stupid interfering bull".
"No,no,its not my fault,its your own fault for you do not how to fight with your kite",replied Fabian.
"I don't care,you must pay for my kite",shouted Francis.Bruce seeing this said,"Alright,Fabian will make you a new kit,alright?"
"Not alright,I want two kites",Francis replied.
"No lah,do not be so greedy one enough lah",said Bruce.
"Alright,but I want it now,understand?"cried Francis.
Poor Fabian had no other alternative,had to make another kite to replace Francis's lost.

To be continued when free.

Chapter 16 Fabian The Coconut Tree Climber

Being born in a poor family does not bother Fabian very much,for should he and little brother needed some pocket money there were the dozens of coconut tree behind their home.Ripe coconuts were all the time there,all they had to do was to collect one or two of these nuts and sold to an Indian groundnut seller who lived a short distance from their home.

This "Kachang Putih"or ground nuts seller will easily them ten to twenty cents for their coconut,depending on the size of it.However it was not every day they can find coconuts lying on the ground,especially after the harvesting by a professional plucker.This plucker came around once every month,or at the request of Fabian's father.

Should that happened there will be no ripe coconut on the ground,so no coconut meant no pocket money.Fabian and Francis will go hunting for the coconuts up on tree tops.They had to spot only trees far from the sight of their parents or any others around their house.

Normally the safest area for them was the far end of the field.That day they chose a tree at the far end which had some ripe coconuts on the tall tree.While Fabian made the attempt to climb that tree Francis squatted at the base of another tree some distance away watching.

The climb was no easy piece of cake,first and foremost when Fabian tried to hold the tree with both hands,his hands fully extended yet could not touch the other hand.It surely was a tree with enormous size trunk.Hard headed as ever he was,he refused to give up.

The task maybe formidable but he was relentless of giving up,showing sheer grit and determination he slowly inched his way up to the top.It was not an easy as it seem as the three was some thirty five feet or more high.As he reached the to he struggled to pushed himself up to all those fronds where he could rest and sit comfortably to pluck the coconuts.

Making himself comfortable and to calm himself, he rested for a couple of minutes before attempting to pluck the ripe coconuts.The tree had only one ripe bunch of five to six nuts and the rest were too young for sale.He plucked all of that ripe bunch.

Francis looking from the bottom at another tree shouted at him,"Pluck two young coconuts also,one for you and one for me".

Fabian looking down at the small figure of his younger brother shouted back,"Oh?very clever,pluck this and that".Nevertheless he plucked three young coconuts down as one was broken as it came down on hard ground.Francis running to the young nuts shouted,"One broken""pluck another one more".

Having done that Fabian slowly and carefully climbed down.Once down he breath a sign of relief he had made it down successfully.His cheat was bruised and was slightly in pain,Francis like a good brother ran home to fetch a knife to cut the young nuts for Fabian to refresh and also cut another for himself

Thereafter they collected the ripe coconuts and sold them to the same Groundnut Seller.They received a dollar for those nuts and shared that pocket money.Was Fabian scared?

Yes,he was for once on the top he was shivering with fear that he might make a mistake which could be fatal.He was lucky to have accomplished that flight but it sure was dangerous for a boy so young his age to do that.But Fabian was a very hardy boy and nothing can stopped him.Praise the Lord for keeping him.Amen.

Chapter 15 Fabian the Glider

Days passed very quickly belong long Francis was enrolled into Primary one at Anglo Chinese School.Those days the first six years in school were called Primary one to six but later converted th standard one to six.What is the difference anyway?What is in the name?

So Francis was seven years old and Fabian nine years old and studying in Primary three.Almost every day after school they will play behind their house where there were coconut palm and some other trees.Fabian liked to climb trees those days and will always relaxed at branches of trees,where high up he could enjoy the cool breeze blowing.

Normally their grandfather or grandmother(mother' s parents) will be around preparing the soil for planting of vegetables and sweet potatoes.Many a times the cousin sister and sister were around helping around.

On one such afternoon Fabian as usual was up to his tricks,climbed up a tree,and sat comfortably on a branch.As he was enjoying the breeze he shook the tree vigorously.Suddenly there was a splitting sound.

That was the sound of a branch splitting and Fabian sitting on the branch had given way and broke off from the main tree.There was a gust of wind blowing and Fabian, while still sitting on the branch,together glided down following the direction of the wind landed safely on the ground.

He in fact glided down sitting on that broken branch.His fall was therefore broken by the gliding down with the brand,thus landed softly on the ground.Francis looked at him in amazement so were the rest of the people around.For all of them saw him gliding down on that broken branch.

The snapped branch was in fact quite high from the ground,and about thirty feet from the ground.Whatever that be it surely was a lucky escaped for Fabian-in reality a good experience to glide down from so high,with every one marveling in astonishment.

Chapter 14 The Days of Firewood

In their childhood years,Fabian's family had no idea what was gas or know how to apply them for cooking.Those were the days when electricity was mean for lighting only.For cooking they had to make used of firewood or charcoal.


Normally firewood were collected from the surroundings.Dry branches of trees and fallen coconut leaves.Should there be in sufficient then rubber wood were purchased for the cooking.These rubber wood usually came in big blocks and had to re-chopped into smaller pieces.

Usually the breaking down to smaller pieces had to be given out to professional choppers.These choppers had the necessary tools to break down the huge blocks of rubber wood.It can be done locally by themselves should they had the tools and brute strength to accomplish the job fast enough.If so it will take days to split up a small pile of wood.

The chopped pieces cannot be used immediately as most were still wet and had to be dried.To hasten its drying the chopped pieces had to be stacked in such a way that it dry faster.Fabian being the elder boy had to stack those wood.

The stacking were actually to place all cut up pieces in a square and there stacked upwards,thus allowing air to run through to all the wood and also sun dried.The stack should not be very high as Fabian could only reached a height slightly higher than him.Therefore he had to make a few stacks.

It was not a difficult task yet it had to be done.Fabian did it very unwillingly but what to do he had to do it.Well he performed the chore slowly singing as he does his job.Francis will be standing by the side and made funny gestures at him.Getting agitated he will threw a piece of wood at him,glazing Francis one wee bit.

The wood glazed Francis and slightly hurt he cried,"You naughty boy,you throw wood at me".
Grandmother on hearing Francis crying will come along with a cane.
"Please do not cane me",begged Fabian,"He was disturbing me that was why I threw the wood at him.
"You do that again and I would not you go without a caning".
Fabian shaking his backside behind the grandmother as she turned away from him,smiled and making very good sign at Francis.
"Look,grandmother,he is making fun at you".
As the grandma turned around Fabian shouted,"I was only dancing".Was he dancing?

Yeah,those were the days.

It took several days of drying before the dried wood will be collected and stored under a shed.,especially built for it.But the days of using firewood to cook were limited before long gas were introduced to replace firewood.

Chapter 13 The Neighbours

Fabian's home although of wooden structure can be considered a bungalow situated on a two and a half acre plot of land.Opposite their home was the General Hospital,in fact their house actually faced a sick ward.

Their good friends,the Chong brothers reside also opposite about fifty meters away from the sick ward,in the Government quarter - another wooden bungalow.That family had three males and three females siblings.Their father,a government servant was a dresser and their mother a house wife.Beside that they also had a grandmother.

On the right side of Fabian's home was another wooden bungalow.this house was well fenced up.At the back of that house was a workshop where workers hand wrapped cigars.Francis and Fabian had their first taste of tobacco smell every day as they sat around the back of their home.

Some funny with this family were they never move out to greet or make acquaintances with anyone around.In fact Fabian's family never knew them.All they had were glimpse of some of them,that was all.

In the evening the old folks will play badminton with some of their friends.At times one or two shuttle cocks will fly wildly over the fence to Fabian's compound.Since there was a fence they let that be a lost item and never made any attempts to retrieve them.

Ah,those shuttle cocks started Fabian and Francis on the road to become badminton stars,or did they?How can they be any good when they do not have proper equipments to train in.Instead,Fabian fabricated his own version of rackets with planks.Whatever the shortcomings Fabian and Francis still enjoyed themselves playing badminton and did learn the game.

On the left side was another wooden bungalow,they were exactly opposite the entrance of the General Hospital.An Indian family lived there,they were actually beside the Primary school.This family was never in sight.The back portion of that house was a noodle producer.

Those were the actual neighbors of Fabian's family.Further back at the house resided some friends they met in Primary one at Anglo Chinese School.For example the Loke brothers and others.

Chapter 12 Fragrance of the Night

The night life in Fabian and Francis were seemingly dull as television were unheard of those days.Neither was there a radio in the house nor they had any idea what it was.Fortunately there was electricity around those days.

During the night they were surrounded by sounds of crickets and other insects.Like it or not they had come to terms with them to enjoy they music the made.Then there were the hawkers making their rounds to sell their food.

Normally an Indian man will come round first.At the shouting of,"Hop",he announced his arrival."Hop" was actually spring rolls of cooked " mankuang",costing only ten cents a piece.Following the the sound of "tick tok" man will passed by.

The "Tick Tok" man was very rhythmical the way he drum on his bamboo strip.following him will be a push cart of a "Wan Tan Mee""seller.They only stopped wherever there was a demand for his food.

Being of poor family Fabian 's family seldom stopped any of these hawkers,besides they had earlier taken their dinner.

However the silence of the night will always be broken by the fragrance of the night.Yes the night soil man will passed their house en-route their toilet which was about five chains from their house.

There the Indian worker will exchange the rubber toilet bucket with a cleaner one and the half filled bucket will be carried away by him to a waiting Truck.His passing the house stunned the family with the smelly waste in the bucket.But it was only momentary that smell will be around and will be drifted away as time flies.

With them performing that job all the waste were cleared.Although a dirty job these people did a marvelous job in removing the waste without failed.No surprised,man,they were all government servants.Without these willing people doing that job we will have a problem.So a big hand to them for a job well done.

In the 80s'onwards these workers were slowly phrased out with the introductions of modern sanitation systems.Thus ended the nightly fragrance of the past.

Funny where will they disposed those night soil,many claimed some were sent to vegetable farms round town as organic fertilizers.Therefore organic farming was never new to all of us,In actual fact those days vegetables sold in the markets fully utilized organic fertilizers.Those days farmers seldom used fertilizers which they said were more expensive,let alone insecticides and fungicides.

Chapter 11 Drawings in the Sand

Every morning Ah Loy Sook will come out of his house and looked around.He was amazed at the drawings on the sandy ground in front of his house.He wondered who could it be that did all those drawings.

There were no big boys around only two little kids whom he believed could not have drawn those drawings.To him they were good drawings,characters of which were opera styled.To clarify his doubts he planned to find it out himself.

So early next morning he woke up slightly earlier than normal.He hurried to his front door.There it was,he caught sight of the artist.Who was he?.He was surprised to see little Francis drawing away and singing those opera songs.

"I say you say,so it was you who was drawing all those drawings all this while early in the morning.A boy of five years old doing all those drawings and he was filled with praises for Francis.

"Wah,very good,you indeed are a great artist",he praised Francis.

He did not allowed that to rest just like that ,for he went round telling everyone what he discovered.So Francis being a child artist was thus spread around.

Francis did not let that to make his head swelled,he went to score well in this field.From the day he went to school he made it known to all that he was really good as an artist.

His brother was never an artist so never excelled in that field.Actually Francis 's sister was also a good artist in her own rights.Co-incidence or otherwise their father was also an artist-an unknown artist.

Chapter 10 Salted Pear Stall

The Clog maker rented a shop lot in Town whereby he can worked and trade his clogs on the spot without having to move anything.Thus saving some time and hard work.

However within a short period another man rented that space and another space room for his immediate family.Staying with him was his wife and two very small daughters.Tagging along was also his brother.

This man was a Hawker plying his foodstuffs from a push cart.So the clog maker place was to stall his push cart,and his brother sleep in that place too.During the evening the man and his brother will pushed the cart to the Great World Park to sell his foodstuffs.They called it a day usually after twelve midnight.

The Great World Park was the only place of entertainments in town then.It offers a host of activities ranging from film show (non talking Black and white),in operation was also a cabaret where people can go dancing,and a variety of stall offering little gambling.Occasionally Cantonese Opera will also performed on stage there.

In the morning both brothers will be around preparing their food stuffs for sale.Their main trade was making of salted pear water.Salted small shalots and other salted food stuffs from China.In addition they also sold fruits.

Fabian and Francis called him "Ah Loy Sook"and his brother "Ng Sook".Why they do not know,for they were to call them those names.His daughters were too small to play with Fabian and Francis.

Because Fabian attended "English" school,Ah Loy Sook wnenever he sees the boys he will wished them"Good Morning,Fatt Di Fou Pui Come Di Mou See".And the boys will laughed away happily.

Fabian does not understand what he said but understand that it was his interpretation of English as it was spoken.

During the arrivals of the Operas in Teluk Anson,on most occasions they went with their grandmother they always buy fruits,drinks and tit bits from Ah Loy Sook's stall in the Park.He was very generous and many a time gave the brothers a treat but their grandmother insisted on payments.Anyway what were good tenents be,just some smll treats.

His brother presence at the stall every evening caught the attention pf a film dictor who offered a part his film as a Japanese General.What a pleasant surprised for him,really.Without hesitation he accepted that role,very unfortunate only for one film with nom other offerings,otherwise he could be famous.

Chapter 9 I st.Day at School.

It was the beginning of the year 1949 and Fabian was enrolled into Primary one of Anglo-Chinese School,Teluk Anson,Perak.

Those days no school uniform yet and so everyone came in their own dresses,after all only boys were remitted to this school.For the first day Fabian came under the escort of his mother,as most students do.

All the students were made to sit wherever they could find a chair.The parents of students stood outside the classroom while the class teacher register the students names and other particulars.The teacher was a tall and slim Chinese lady.

Each time she called out a student's name the student was requested to stand before her,should the parents be around the teacher,the teacher will request the parents to be also present to clarify any doubts.

When Fabian's name was called.his mother stood in for him telling the teacher allshe need to know.His birth certificate was produced to varify further details.On completion Fabian returned to his seat and the mother left the school,while the teacher proceed to register other students.

The whole morning was spent on registering students.When teacher watching Fabian remembered a fellow students mimicking the way some students" mother walking and poking funs at them,thus making every one laugh and the poor student annoyed.

"Hey,You Stupid!you are not funny",shouted the annoyed student.
"Oh yeah",replied thatstudent.
The teacher on hearing that small commotion yelled out to that naughty student,"You there,come here and stand by my side".
All the students made funny gestures at him.
"Teacher,they are trying to be funny with me".
"You keep quiet and stand there,do not move ub til I tell you".

Therte was a silence,then some student especially the annoyed student made a fuuny geature as though a bird on flight saying,"Very Good".

Chapter 8 An Auntie's Marriage

When Fabian was about six years old their mother's sister got married to a Hospital Assistant from the nearby General Hospital.Francis was four then.It was a very simple marriage at their house.

Only near relatives were invited to witness the marriage as well as for a dinner.First there were prayers with chicken,pork and fruits.Then came the tea ceremony whereby the elders were served with tea and in returned received an "ang pow"(red packets)' each,following the younger people to receive their "ang pow".

There were about ten small children around and the Auntie ordered all to line up in one single ling."Fabian,you being older boy come in front first".
'No.no"retorted Fabian's sister,"cousin sister Mei should be first,second me",said Fabian's sister,"then only comes Fabian".
"Okay",said the Auntie,"Fabian you go behind them".
"But where my ang pow?"
"Afterward you will get your ang pow".

So every kid got their red packet and were instructed not to open the red packet until dinner were served.That evening the dinner was very lavish as there was chicken,pork on the table as well as other varieties of food.

After dinner all the kids gathered around to check their red packet.Wah,everyone got forty cents each a lot of money to kids then can buy sweets,cakes or at least two bowls of curry mee.Anyway they had some pocket money.

The newly wed stayed in their own house,a government provided quarter also along Anson Road.

Chapter 7 Changing the Attap roofing

Every two or three years or so the attap roofing of Fabian' s home along Anson Road was due for changing otherwise it will leaked on rainy days.Not only that the planked also requires a white wash.

The attap had to be purchase from Durian Sabatang and the changing normally done by Malay Contractors.It was never a big job and could be done completely within three days.First the old attap got to be removed and did it portion by portion.In anuy case any portion whose attap were removed will be replaced with new ones.

Two Malay worker does the job and they were reallyfast in their job.Within three days or so the job was completed with eased.With its new roofing done next comes the painting with lime powder.Actually it was to be a white wash and family members help in the process of painting.

Frnacis and Fabian too joined in the painting.Beng small boys they could hardly lift the brushes to paint.In stead of giving a good painting they were dripping white wash everywhere.On one occasion instead of painting on to the wall,Fabian ran the brushed over Francis face and body.

"Hey!,why you bo good fool,you are painting on me"cried Framncis.
"Oh,is it?",further playfully painted again on his body,Francis got mad,he plicked up a big stick and gave chased to Fabian.Fabian seeing the stick on Francis hand began to run away.
Poor Fabian he accidently ran into the arms of the grandmother who was standing waiting tio administered the caning on Fabian.
"You naughty boy"she said while caning Fabian,"I will cane you now".As she caught hold of Fabian by the arm she gave him two strokes of the cane.
"Aiya,my por backside,it surely is painful"as he struggled free from the grip of his gaaaaarand maiother and ran way as fast as he could.
"Very good,serve you right,you naughty boy"shouted Francis.





To be continued

Chapter 6 The Circus In Town.

For the first time in Fabian's life the circus came to town.It was the "Tai Tien Kiew Circus".Heralding their arrival they paraded round town once with the horses,elephants,some clowns and a few caged animals like the Tiger and the Lion,annousing their presence in town.

They put up their tents along Immigrant Road next to the Sam Min Chinese School,Teluk Anson.The main tent was in the centre,a very huge tent in deed as it housed the in the centre where they staged the show.Surrounding were seats,comfortable seats for those who can pay extra for their tickets.Further up were the stair case type of sitting for cheaper paying patrons.

In the evening Fabian's father would take them to watch the animals on display at another smaller tent.Tigers,bear,python and lion were also on display in cages.All watching were never allowed to get near to cages.Many people brought sugar canes to feed the elephants, there were also a few horses and monkeys but unfortunately all chained up.

The first few shows thee were big crowds so they did not attend those shows.It was in the later stages that their father took them to see the performance of the circus.On Saturday and Sunday the management also put up extra shows in the afternoons.

The day came for us to view the show a few days later,by then the crowd was reduced and there were ample sitting place available.Fabian and his other siblings clapped hilariously as the show began.

First to appear were the trapeze stars,they amazed the crowd with their swinging to and fro.High light were they exchanged swings in mid air and also the male star catching the female star as she jumped towards him.There was a net below so there was no fear that someone might get hurt.

Next came the crowns who came out fooling around with their routines.Then followed the horses with riders jumping on and off horses and changing rides on horses back.Everyone clapped with loud applaud.Francis even stand up and cheered at the wonderful performance.

There was also performances by a strong man they all called him superman for he was quite an handsome guy.He performed some weight lifting and allow someone to crushed a slap of stone on his chest with a hammer.

Further the elephants came and performed their part.Running in circles and standing on tubs plus standing with front legs on each others' backs.

Their final performance was the tigers.A circular cage was set up before the cages were brought in.The trainer was whipping his whip all the time to induce the tigers to follow his instructions.the poor tigers were forced to leaped from one stool to another.And before you know the show was over.

But alas Francis was too tired to see the ending performances for he had fallen asleep in their father's arms.When it was all all he got up briefly but returned to sleep thereafter and got to be carried home.

Next that news broke out that a chimpanzee had escaped from the circus and the management went all out to catch that Chimpanzee.Fabian and Francis were playing out side that they noticed a huge monkey on their mango tree in front of their house.Fabian got hold of his catapult and shot it with a stone,but he missed.

His second shot was neither good at all,so Francis said,"You are no good with it,let me try".
Getting agitated Fabian passed the catapult to Francis.Francis took aim but missed by a mile.
"Huh?Such a good shot?","You are worst than me".
Francis loaded another small stone to the sling and aimed carefully before he released the shot."Tup!",he got the monkey on the body which made the Chimpanzee cried out loudly."See?'"I told you I am good" claimed Francis.
"Flogged shot'"said Fabian.
"I am a better shotter than you,at least I got him.

The Chimpanzee was not hurt bad,by then someone had informed the circus management about thw where about was the it.They cam almost immediately and with ease tricked the monkey from the tree and recaptured it back to the circus.

When leaving the chimpanzee made a gesture as if it wanted to punch Francis or was it a coincidense that gesture was made.It definitely confused Francis.

Chapter 5 The Padi Pounder

At the back of their house was a wooden padi pounder.During the Japanese occupation rice was difficult to come by.Many people resorted to planting their own food like padi,vegetables and sweet potatoes.

Thus the pounder at the back of Fabian's family was to pound their own padi.The pounding was to remove the husks of the padi.Rice can also be further pound into powder for making cakes etc..Later when there was sufficient rice in the market the pounder was left abandoned.

Fabian and his other siblings used to play around it.They tried hard to use it but the wooden pounder was too heavy for them even to move it.It was properly fixed up so that anyone touching had first to remove all other fittings.

It would not bulged but as kids were kids they made belief and played as if they were pounding padi.

Later the pounder was removed and the place was converted into another room.An old clog maker rented that room and make his living place and work shop.He did not moved in alone.He came with an apprentice.

The apprentice was a tall young man who liked to crack jokes with us,but not the old man who was stern and hunch back.The job of the apprentice was always to wake up before the master,boiled water for making of tea and to cook porridge for breakfast.

When that was done he will have his share of breakfast and on finishing perform other chores.
Like sharpening of the tools,prepare pieces of wood for the clog making etc.etc..

Fabian and his other sibling had nothing to do so squatting in front of the crack apprentice and watched him sharpening the tools,which he did skillfully.Then he will chop pieces of wood from a big block.When going to chop the block he will instruct us to move further away.

"You all move further away when I chopped.".

And we moved a little,"No,no some more further,why yiou all do not understand?"he laughed as he instructed us.We did moved but again not enough.He said it louder,"I say moved further away".

We moved until he was satisfied."And do not move too near to me"he further instructed us.Then he will performed his funny stye of chopping which made all laughed at him.

Watching the old man smoke his bamboo pipe after his breakfast was another thing.The Bamboo pipe was about two feet long and he will squat on a stool before he smoked.After that he will put some tobacco on a half way tiny pipe and then lighted it.

When lighted he blew the bamboo pipe making some funny rowing sound within the pipe.It all amused us.So when he was away Fabian being the naughty one took hold of the pipe and blew it with force but nothing happened.He gave up after a try at it because the pipe stink of tobacco smell and when he accidently dropped the pipe water in the pipe split all over.

Frightened as he had cause some damaged,he wanted to escape,but the apprentice saw everything.He jokingly tried to put fear into Fabian saying,"Now the master will scold you,So You better cleaned up the place before he comes back".

Reluctantly Fabian cleaned up that place but not good enough, the apprentice helped him.He even put back some water into that bamboo pipe.All this while little brother was watching what happened and he wandered.

"Hey,brother,is the smoking good?",he asked.
"Want to try"replied the apprentice,Francis said"Yes,yes.I want to try".
So the apprentice got some tobacco and applied it to the small pipe and then lighted it up.He blew a little then handed over to Francis.
Francis was very joyful on receiving it.First squatted down like the old man and then put his mouth to smoke.

As he tried to smoke the bamboo pipe,the smoke of the bamboo pipe choked him and he coughed loudly,"Huh,huh cou,huh.....I don't like it and it taste very bad",cried Francis quickly putting the pipe aside.
The Apprentice and Fabian laughing heartily at him.Angrily Francis retorted and walked away saying,"I don't friend you all"."You make fun of me".

Chapter 4 The Cantoese Opera

When Fabian and other siblings were few years old,entertainments were very few.Film shows were black and white and non speaking type.Anyway they were too young to understand them.The Cantonese opera were more appealing them.

Their grandmother was a big fan of the operas,so was their mother.Whenever the grandmother attended any show either one or two siblings will tagged along especially their sister.Their grandmother will usually attended with an old friend.Those days they will always booked the very front seats.

When it was full house as normally does,they will seat on their granny's lap.Otherwise they were free to sit anywhere,for there will be ample seats vacant around.

While their mother will always seated far away which were very much cheaper.Whenever no tickets were available she and her friends will stand outside the wooden fencing to watch the show.Many a times Fabian and Francis followed her,as small boy they squeaked into the crowd and seat in between the fence wooden bars.

The opera usually ends at 11.oo o'clock or so ,by then Francis will be sleeping in their mother's arm,despite the big noises made by the cymbals,drums and gongs.

Being too young to attend school,the two brothers stayed at home while the sister attended school at Convent school.So what do they normally do?

Well,they played opera recalling the fighting scenes of operas.Fabian will always played the crooked general while brother Francis the hero.They used two pieces of coconut leaves banded on to their heads with a length of cloth.Opera Generals usually had tow peacock feathers on their head gears.

"Chang,chang,chang,Chang!"sang out loud by Francis heralding the hero arrival dancing in a cicle witha stick as spear."Tong,tong,Chang " next came the enemy .He circled round Francis ready to fight.Francis pulling one of the leave to hios mouth biting uit sdang."Aaiyayya,You dirty crook,I am going to finish you today".

"Ha! Ha!"retorted Fabian,"fihght then we know who will die".So the fought and Francis 's spear touched Fabian but Fabian refused to die.

"hey,I have killed you,you must fall down".

"No,no I can die"replied Fabian.

"Youi area cheat,I don't want to play with you",cried Francis.

Hey,Francuis we fight again'

"no,not with you,you cheated: cried Francis,that ended their play for that day.Yeah those were the days.

"Ton,Tong,Chang",imitating the gongs and cymbals of the opera they saw the night before.

Chapter 3 Under the Gueva Tree

There was a Gueva tree on the other side of the house almost at the back.Fabian,Francis and their sister used to play under that tree,for the was an old rotting Austin made car parked for years below it.It was no more in service.

Apparently it belonged to their late grandfather, it was beyond repair and left there to waste.Those days cars had no auto-starter,in order to start the car it seem the car had to be anchored with a crooked iron rod.The seats were all gone accept the steering wheel.The broken down engine was still intact.

Fabian was always at the driver's seat pretending to drive while brother Francis was always the one anchoring the starter.

One day Francis got fed up and told Fabian off,"Why must I always me the anchor man and not you.?"

"No.no",claimed Fabian"because I am smarter than you,that why?".

"You shut up","I am just as smart",replied Francis."And I would not anchor for you".

Seeing Francis was adamant and refused to bulge,he relented and gave way to his brother's demand."Alright,I let you be the driver for one time only'.

So Francis took over the wheel and Fabian anchored the old junk.No sooner had he anchored the old car.Francis began to steer the wheel as if driving and making a lot of noise as if the the engine was on.

"GrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrGrrrrrrrrrrrrGrgrrrrrrrrrrrr",he began shouting louder and louder as if he was driving very fast.Fabian getting fed up struck the bonnet with a loud bang.Saying,"Okay,car break down","Come down".

"No,I would not,you cheat". yelled Francis.Francis shouting attracted their grandmother who came to his aid.

"Tell me,who is bullying you?Is it that naughty brother of yours",she was carrying a cane as she came.

Fabian seeing this,ran away,with Francis and sister laughing at him..

The gueva tree not only provided shade for the old junk but also produced fruits,gueva ,hard fruits like apple.Both outer layer of whitish fresh can be eaten only difference was the inner cored had plenty of seeds.

Once Francis noticed a ripe fruit up the tree and he pointed it to Fabian.Without any hesitation Fabian jumped on to it climbing the gueva tree as fast as he could like a monkey.He got the fruit in his hand within seconds with his brother demanding a share of it.

The elder brother refused'"I got it first,why should I share with you".
"But I saw it first"retorded Francis."You must give it to me or else I call granny to cane you".
Just then the grandmother was coming towards the tree.Fabian on top of tree could not escaped in time so he surrendered meekly to his brother's demand.
"Nah,here is the fruit",said Fabian as he gave Francis the fruit,"But you have to leave at least half for me,okay?".
"Oh,no,never,I will not give you even one little bite".replied Francis as he received the fruit,making funny gestures at Fabian.Well,he could not do anything to his brother so he just kept quiet.
"Ah,that is a good boy,sharing with your brother first",said the grandmother.

Fabian could not do anything but as the grandmother turned away he tried imitating the way the grandmother spoke.Francis and sister laughed at his funny gestures.Those were the days of growing up.

Chapter 2 Slurping Tea from A Plate

When Fabian and Francis were four years old and Francis two two years old their father always took them for tea early in the morning on his big bicycle.

Both brothers sat tightly on the bicycle bar while their father slowly pushed the bicycle to the restaurant namely Cheong Kee just in front of the market.On arriving at that restaurant their father arranged both to a seat each and ordered his cup of tea,he also ordered some roasted pork buns and dim sum.

When the tea came,he poured some into a small plate and remaining left in the cup.Very often Fabian was given the small plate and the brother the other half cup.Fabian on receiving his share of tea on a plate will bend towards it to blow it,just to cool it.

When sufficiently cool enough Fabian slurped the tea into his mouth.The tea sure tasted very sweet and nice.The noise he made while slurping made younger brother laughed heartily.

Well,there was time while slurping his tea he accidently blew the tea all over the table and at times splashing on Francis face and shirt.For that he got a scolding from their father.Warning him next time - no more tea for him.This made Fabian very sad and he put up a long faced that made Francis laughed hilariously.Anyway,those were the days.

To continue when free.

Chapter 1 The House along Anson Road Where Fabian was born

Fabian and Francis were born in Teluk Anson and lived in an attap house along Anson Road.It was a wooden house whose cement flooring were raised about two feet from normal ground,thus the house cannot be flooded.

The house is situated just opposite the District General Hospital and about two hundred meters away their heritage the famous Teluk Anson Clock Tower.It was about five hundred from the Perak River.

It was subjected to constant flooding especially during rainy seasons and when the tide of the river was high.During flooding Fabian and Francis used to watch little tiny greenish worms swimming in the murky flood water.Their cement flooring was two feet above ground level where flood water can reached them.So they simply laid in front of their way and watch the little worms.

The front of their house was a fence of a row of red hibiscus which flowered all the time,the whole year round.There was a big drain just in front of the row of Hibiscus,quite deep and well cemented.Many a times Fabian as a small boy had fallen into it and got hurt.

There were also two mango trees in front of their house.Both tree were infested with big red ants which can bite people.Both brothers never dared go near to them for fear of being bitten by those dreadful red ants.

At the back of their house were a number of old coconut palms.All of them very tall.The empty ground of the house were planted with some vegetables,sugar cane and sweet potatoes.Oh,the toilet was about three chains from the back of the house and it was raised to more that three feet.Thus flood water cannot reach it.

Actually they lived there with their parents and their elder sister.Their grandmother too resided with them.

Chapter 12 Shifting Again.

Business of Fabian's father was a total failure and before long were forced to shift away from that house leaving behind a lot of memories.

His mother got a job in a rubber plantation namely Ratanui Estate,about two miles from town along Changkat Jong Road.By then Fabian was about fifteen years old thus becoming a teenager.

At the Estate there were filled with activities and met numerous good friends,notably were the Yap brothers and sisters.They were children of the estate's building. contractor.

They shifted into a one room quarter,only one person working so not entitled a bigger quarter.So all five of us cramped in that small room.Our father slept behind near the kitchen where there was space.Poor sister was doing her senior Cambridge Examinations and had to burn midnight oil under a dim kerosene light because in estate all lights out by ten o'clock at night.

Fabian was in Form three.The change did on environment did not trouble him for he had new friends to play with.They had no river to swim so they swam in irrigation canals and water gates.Fabian tried diving in these canals and landed on a buried sticks which hurt his head slightly with every one laughing at him.

Here he learned to fish in this irrigation canal with a short stick or bamboo as rod and short piece of twig as float.Once Fabian,his brother and the Yap brothers blocked up both side of an irrigation drain with mud and began bailing out its water.

When most of the water were bailed out they began catching fishes in the muddy drain.At first they were excited in catching some fish and than suddenly Fabian caught hold of some thing big.He yelled out," here I have a very big one,I think it is a very big Haruan (snake head) and it is very strong".

The thing was wriggling strongly and as he pulled up the "fish".Every one watching shouted,"No,no not Haruan, Snake,snake".That frightened Fabian for it was a meter long python wriggling and struggling hard on his hand.Immediately the horrified Fabian flung and hurled the poor snake away into the air,on to dry ground.The Yap brothers quickly climbed up and captured the damn snake with sticks without hurting it.

The snake was kept captive in an empty fertilizer bag and firmly blinded up with a strip of scrap rubber from the nearby rubber tree.Then they went on to catch other remaining fishes in the drain and laughing and making jokes on poor Fabian."Very big Haruan ,ah?,stupid.It was a snake".

Fabian chuckled with a hearty laugh, joked back,"What to do,that snake liked me".

The fishes caught were shared among themselves,at least they had some fishes for dinner.Well the snake was sold to someone by the Yap brothers for a few dollars.

In this estate Fabian and Francis had a much bigger play ground.Of course here they again have many new friends mostly estate workers' sons.Here they do not roamed the streets but ventured all round the rubber plantation.Using catapults to shoot monkeys and birds plus fishing.

Here Fabian cycled to school so was his sister.Francis being the youngest had to go by school bus.Life was never a bed of roses,for here Fabian had to collect dry rubber wood as firewood after school.

It was really tough job collecting firewood,for he had to travel quite a distance for them.Well little brother came along so were the Yap brothers.Then collecting firewood can be fun,hell lot of fun.Climbing rubber trees an shooting birds with their catapults.Those were the happy days.

chapter 11 Playing Truat

Fabian went to Secondary schools and had to walked all the way to school.the distance was slightly about a mile or so.

In the afternoon in 1956 he was enrolled to study Mandarin at the Anglo Chinese School.Lessons began at 2.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.So every day he had to hurry back home and then attended classes again thereafter.Fortunately his Auntie offered to ease his burden by allowing him to take a bath at her house which was a stone throw from the school.

There was a fee of $5/= per month for those attending these afternoon classes.$5/= was a lot of money those days and being from a poor family,payments of school fees were all the time late.

Students there were taught to read and write in Chinese (mandarin)plus also caligraphy with Chinese brushes.Initially the results of Fabian were very good and top the class but after two years his studies in Chinese took a down ward turned.

Chinese classes was organized to assist Chinese students for the learning of Mandarin (the National language of China).Most of the students were recruited from all the existing English schools especially those studying in the morning.Therefore there was a mixtures of students and co-educated.The actual organizers were The Methodist Church (Chinese).

In mhis class were girls from the Convent School.Those were the days Fabian had some girl friends.The girls had funny sounding names.One was Woo Pai Lain and Fabian used to disturbed her as Miss Five Hundred years as translated into English.Then there Gin Hua,a Miss golden flower and others.What so funny?Is it funny?

Everything went on smoothly for two years.Yes it was in the third year that Fabian began to show neglect in his Chinese studies and sadly also began to play truant.He stayed away from classes because his family cannot even pay for his school fees of $5/=.

His teacher Mrs.Teh was surprised at his truancy and learning it was because of failure to pay the fee,thus dropping out,showed mercy on Fabian.She sent word to Fabian requesting him to attend classes and that non payment of fees should not be the problem for failure to attend class.

Fabian was too shy to accept the kind offer and continue staying away.
Thus ended his Chinese study.Whatever it was he stopped his Chinese education but continued on with his secondary education in Anglo-Chinese School.Armed with almost three years of Chinese education Fabian could read and write Chinese.

Was it good enough?


To continue at a convenient time

Chapter 10 Funeral Banner Carriers

The business of their father was not doing so well,food was difficult to come by.Their mother had to work as a rubber tapper to put food on the table.Many a time they got to starve and wait for their mother to return from work with food.

Those were days but they still continued schooling.Those also were the days when their Auntie dished out out help them by supply some food to the family.Normally they will dropped by their Auntie's house on their way home from school for food.

Come school holidays they will stay at home or played around the river side.Those days as young boys their dressings were just as Lat's cartoons.Big baggy shorts at least Lat's pants were of equal in length,but Fabian and Francis their pants could some time be of different length.Their mother was not a trained tailor so that was why?

With no money they were all the time worried.One morning Ah Pie their friend suggested they earned some money the easy way,just to carry banners at the funeral of a rich man's wife.Ah Pie apparently had done it a couple of times.

After pondering over it Fabian agreed to follow him.However,Francis also wanted to come and joined them.Fabian thought not because he was so young then,but he insisted.After some persuasion Fabian relented and allowed him to follow them.

When they arrived at the funeral many people were already there and have taken their positions for the banners carrying.Ah Pie being an experience carrier immediately selected his banner and rushed out another two for both brothers.

When all the banners were taken up,the man in charged came arranged the lining of the procession.At the fore front were the drummers,followed by the host of musicians playing solemn music.Banners bearers were next in line.There were many banners.

When all were properly line up,a sudden gust of strong wind was blowing,with it all the banners were flattering to the strength of the wind.As the banners swerved in the wind the myriad of various colors of the banners were waving beautifully in the air.

The wind blowing strongly can get bad,and Francis almost fell down because of that.
The strong arms of those around was there to help and everything went smoothly to schedule.

Soon the time the procession to begin came and the journey began.It was not a long route to take only once along the main road.That was enough to caused a small hitch of embarrassment for Fabian.Many friends of their parents saw both boys carrying the banners.They wee pointing their fingers.

However Fabian braved that with a bold front.Thinking they were earning honest money they were not stealing,cheating or committing a heinous crime,so why the hell be afraid of others seeing them or be ashamed of this.

Very soon the procession was over.The man in charged gave out red packets to all rendering services for the procession.Fabian and Francis recieved their,but when Francis opened his red packet he was shocked to see only one dollar instead of normal two.

Angrily they approached the man in charged he was given a smaller packet because he was carrying a small banner,that was why only one dollar.Fabian pacified his brother by agreeing to give him a treat afterward.

Feeling hungry and thirsty both brothers went immediately to a noodle stall."Give us two bowls of curry mee,top it up with plenty of vegetables and extra roasted pork".
"please make them more spices",thus ordered Fabian
"What?at 30 cents a bowl you wanted so many extras?No way you add another twenty cents,maybe".
"No,no,in that case just give us 30 cents worth of it",said Fabian.Francis smiled,"Wah,your thirty cents very big,ah?".Then they both laughed.

The curry mee tasted real hot and so they ordered another two glasses of cold bean curd water.

As agreed Fabian paid for the meal,at 30cents a bowl and 10 cents for each glass of bean curd.Those days that was the price.

Well,at least they had a nice lunch,leaving the balance of money for schooling days.
Whatever it was both of them never tried that carrying Banners again.It was a good experience.

Chapter 9 The Kungfu Master

Those days many people were learning "kungfu" the Chinese martial art of self-defend especially after viewing many Chinese fighting movies.Everyone were learning it.

Francis and Fabian were no different.So every evening they gathered in front of their house where there were a couple of logs having been left there by neighboring sawmill.They were also playing and shallow fighting with each other imitating the heroes of films.

Sometimes other friends also joined them.When tired they will sit or lying on top of those logs and started talking and yearning about Chinese art although they have no idea what it really were.

However their dreams soon materialized,because a Carpenter's apprentice whose name was Ah SoL,they called him Ah Sol Ko or brother Sol.He was a funny guy who like to tell us crazy jokes and talked big about his art of self defence,Kungfu.

Nonsense or what,they did not bother,all of them requested his service to teach them the art.Well,he pondered like most "Si Fu" or Master,then gave a broad smile to respond."Okay,I be your Si Fu".Ha,that does it they now had a kungfu master.

So next evening both of them met our new kungfu master and thus began their learning the martial art.He showed up bared bodied showing off his muscle.Yes,he was good at it.He taught the basic how to defend themselves and to attack in the simplest ways.He apparently practices the shoalin type of kungfu.

Both brothers practiced for nearly two months and they wandered it was really good.What ever it was they shadowed boxed at times to find out.Anyway it was like child play.That did not prove anything.

Somehow Fabian was never tested when one fine day Yam Head,a very much bigger guy than him picked up a quarrel with me and challenged Fabian to a fight.When Fabian stood up against him he seem like a giant,taller than him by at least a head and well built.

That nearly scared the wits out of Fabian but he took his stand like a man.Suddenly Yam Head raised up his fists in a stunt ready to fight.Seeing this Fabian quickly administered an right upper cut to his chin.

That did it.The punch was quick as lightning and he struck the chin of Yam Head right on target.A well planted punch and off felled Yam Head to the ground.All the friends gathered around Fabian,hailing him as a hero.Yes,a one punch hero.

Poor Yam Head was send sprawling on the ground,when he finally stood up he could not attack Fabian anymore because everyone was around him,claiming him as a hero and a good fighter.That poor guy just stood up and cried.

A big guy like him stood up and cried like a child,just imagine.He could do nothing but turned away walking with head bowed down.Fabian felt sorry for him.He never knew after some training he could so fabulous as to deliver such a powerful punch.

Two months of kungfu training paid off,otherwise Fabian would be as timid as can be.They continued training under that master for sometime.

Chapter 9 Row,row Your Boat.

As a child we have learned that nursery song,"Row,row your boat,gently down the stream,Merrily,merrily,Life is but a Dream".Ah,that was it.Francis and Fabian were always by the side of the river most mornings.

One fine morning they saw the usual Malay fisherman chaining his boat or "sampan" to a nearby mangrove tree and then left."Sampan" as they so called because it was supposed to be made of three pieces of planks as in Chinese.The small boat could have other name but no one bother to use it but only "sampan".

Francis suggested that they go up into that small boat for a feel of it.So Fabian climbed into the back of that small boat.Francis followed but his entry made the small boat wobbled.He took fright but slowly steady himself.


But alas that small boat cannot cater for two persons.An unwanted move in that boat and the boat will over turned.The boat actually meant for catching prawns and can take one person only.With both sitting in that boat the water level almost reached the brink of the lowest point of its sides.

Seeing the boat steady Fabian took the oar and began to row.They could not have gone far because the boat was chained to a tree.The rowing caused the small boat to move around that same spot only.

Francis sensing that the boat was not moving away stood up.As he stood up the small boat tilted to one side.And Francis shouted in fear,"Boat capsizing,abandon boat!". Fabian had no time to reply and followed the boat as it overturned.Both brothers were in deep water but being good swimmers they recovered their composure and quickly swam to the river bank for safety.

Because were swimmers no harm came to them and they swam back to the river bank for safety.The boat had overturned and they could reversed it back,so they waited for the tide to recede.

When it was low tide they overturned the boat back to its normal position on the muddy river bank.When high tide again came the boat was a float as usual so no damage was done.Nothing a miss.The too gave the boat a good cleaning.

Later in the day the Malay fisherman came and was pleased to see his boat in placed.The boys greeted him and inquired as to when he will begin his job in catching prawns.The Malay fisherman told the next morning.

Out of curiosity both brothers went to find out how the fisherman catch his prawns.It was very early the morning about 4.oo a.m.both boys waited for the Malay man to begin.

First the Malay Fisherman put a very bright light in front of the boat,following he sat be sat at the back of the boat and started to row slowly.As he rowed slowly in the river,amazingly some prawns began jumping towards the bright light and landed into the boat.

Once inside the boat these prawns cannot jumped any more and thus cannot escaped.The boat man continued rowing until the break of dawn and sufficient prawns were caught this way.Fabian and Francis could only followed part of the way on the river bank.That was sufficient for them to understand how to catch fresh water prawns the "kampong" way.

Chapter 8 Fishing and catching prawns

Those days Fabian and Francis ,they never had the money to purchase regular fishing equipments,but who needs fishing rods etc.then, for river fishing? All they had was a long piece of fishing guts and a hook,for weight to pull down the hook with bait a small piece of stone will suffice.Yeah that was it.As for baits they can used earth worms which were easily available by digging the soil or easier still by pulling up some grasses to catch the worms.

Another simple baits will be to catch some small prawns with a coconut shell.However the shell must be recently grind of its fresh.Tiny prawns feeds on the left over of fresh in the coconut shell.It would not take a few minutes to catch two or three of them.

What ever it was Fabian always used earth worms to fish.The worms were attached to the fishing hook.Following the the hook were thrown into the river,not very far but as far as the fishing gut will allowed.Then come the waiting game.One had to be patient to wait for a bite.

Normally fishing was done during high tide when there were more fishes coming in following the flow of the tide.Fabian never like fishing because he had no patient to wait for a bite,therefore not catching any thing.

But there were a time he really caught a fish.He and brother BBque it over a fire and ate it.That a lucky day indeed.

One fine evening at the river they saw two Malay fishermen laying a barricade by he riverside.It was low tide and the laying was easily done.The barricade of bamboo striplings were laid about few feet from the river banks.

These were set to trap fresh water prawns coming in during high tide when the river water will over flowed into the barricades,thus trapping the prawns inside when the tide recede.

Fresh water prawns fetched a good price then,These prawns had big heads and smaller body and armed with long big blueish craws.They were actually as big as the hand can hold.At high tide they swim round the river banks in search of food.Apparently they followed the tide.

Very early the following morning Fabian and brother went to that river bank.Finding no one around ,both went into the river.The tide had receded to almost kneel level.so they immediately went to scope the river side with their hands.

In the beginning they caught two prawns.Encouraged by this Fabian tried to catch more.At one scope he sensed something in the river and immediately caught hold of it."Yes,I got one big fish",he yelled out.

No sooner had he finished yelling he pulled up something wriggling vigorously.Francis saw that it was not a fish but a water snake.In horror he called out,"Snake,snake".At this moment Fabian also noticed that it was a snake struggling and within that split seconds he fling the snake away,out further into the river.<

That was really a scared for him,for holding it any longer he might have bitten by the water snake.It was indeed a lucky escaped.Thereafter both brothers climbed up to the river bank to safety.

With two prawns in hand they boiled them over a small can of water.Well nothing was lost after all.They each had a prawn for breakfast and the soup to quench their thirst.It can be considered a good day's work.

Both brothers actually had another lucky escape from another reptile - the Crocodile while catching prawns.These two brothers having forgotten the snake incidence went catching prawns again especially having seen the bamboo barricade set up by the same pair of fishermen one afternoon.

So next morning when the tide was beginning to recede both of them sneaked out to that river bank.Though it was very cold,nevertheless they brave it to go down the river.No sooner had they began catching prawns Francis suddenly saw a what seem to be a length of log floating towards their direction.

He notified Fabian to look at it,"Look a piece of log".

Fabian took a lazy glance at it,but what he saw put him in a dazed.Shocked as he was somehow managed to shout out."No.no.it is a Crocodile.Without hesitation both brothers scrambled to safety.

No sooner had they climbed up the river bank the Crocodile had lunged at them with open mouth.At the same time it also wagged its tail at both brothers.Fortunately the beast was slowed down by the bamboo barricade before it pushed them down to ledge at them.

It was really a lucky escape for both brothers,the crocodile just missed them by inches.Its wagging tail nearly swept them for they could filled the gust of wind fanned by its wagging tail.A direct hit by the tail could also be fatal for either brothers.

Frightened and terrified both of them ran some distance away from the bank before stopping to take a breather.Sitting under a coconut they panted breathlessly and thanking their lucky stars that they had a very lucky escape.

They got nothing but learned a harsh lesson.Actually no crocodile had been seen there for sometime because of the busy jetty nearby and some how this beast had followed the tide and strayed its way there.

Chapter 7 Moonshiners

One full moon day Fabian and brother Francis could not sleep properly that night,so they both sneaked out of the house for a breather.

The open compound were few huge logs left there by the neighboring sawmill for temporary storage.They sat and at times lying on top of those logs.Just then there was a strong breeze blowing.

It was real cool indeed,while relaxing on those logs Francis suddenly noticed some lighting in the bushes a short distance from behind their house.He was scared stiff and quickly pulled his brother Fabian's hand directing him the direction of the lights.

"I think Ghosts",he murmured in a shivering voice.

Looking at that direction Fabian also took fright as it was already passed midnight,so he too looked terrified.On further observations they noticed that there were someone moving about there and they were talking in Malay.

They waited a while before plucking up courage to sneak near to have a closer examination of what was happening over there.So slowly they crept towards that spot watching their steps as they moved forward,,fearing they might step on a snake or something else.

What ever it was they still kept a safe distance from that spot.However they could not make out what those men were doing.Fabian then suggested they went away from that place for fear of being discovered.Thereafter they returned home to sleep.

Next morning both of them did not allow what they saw to rest.So after breakfast they noticing no one at the spot which was under an old mango tree,proceeded to investigate what was it they saw the night before.

There was a rough shed constructed with only a few pieces of old and rusty corrugated zinc sheets.The shed was not high only slightly higher than a man.There were few big drums lying around,two of them were filled with dirty yellowish water.

There was also a paper box containing some whit powder and some dry chillies littered around the ground.There was also smell of liquor.Liquor?Oh, no, illicit liquor.Those guys were moonshiners producing illicit liquor or "samsu" as locals called them.

Now it was illegal to moonshine and can be arrested and prosecuted in court.Fearing for the worst,Fabian quickly hurried his younger sibling away from that wretched place.

Fabian and Francis aware of the danger involved kept their mouth shut and stayed away from that place from that day on wards.

However,only a week later or so, the long arms of the law caught up with those moonshiners.Apparently the Police had prior knowledge of their activities there and waited for the correct moment to capture them red handed on the spot.

All of us saw the Police led them away in handcuffs.It was a Chinese man and two Indians.Served them right,committing a serious crime and must be prosecuted.Crime therefore does not pay.

Chapter 6 To Catch a Turtle

One fine Sunday morning Joe turned uo Fabian's residence intending to go for a swim in the river.It was low tide and the river banks were muddy.

Nevertheless they all went to the river side together with small brother Francis.All of them gather under the shed of a mangrove tree where the always dived when the tide was high.

To-day,however was low tide that morning so they sat sat there building castles in the air and laughing heartedly,when all of a sudden Francis noticed something moving in the mud beyond.

"Look ! Turtle he exclaimed.

"Where?"asked Joe."over there pointing to a pool of mud a few meters away.

Sensing it was a turtle all of them rushed towards it intending to capture it.Francis was the first one to reach that spot.He stood in front of the small pool of mud,and before he could bend down to catch the turtle,the turtle was faster then his bending.

It rushed off in between the legs of Francis.Seeing this Fabian dived at it.It appeared as if he had caught that creature,but no he dived straight into the mud.Apparently his dived head on into the mud,with his face almost stucked in.

His diving made the surrounding mud to splashed all round,dirtying Joe and Francis.All go a fair share of the mud bath.

"Look who we got here?"," A mud man",two of them began making jokes on Fabian.

"very funny""both of you are no better" Then all sat in the mud and laughed.By then the turtle which was bigger than a big plate had escaped into the river.What a lucky escape for it,otherwise it would have turned into turtle soup.

The three of them went on to clean themselves in the river and thereafter returned home empty handed.

Chapter 5 " Ahoy-there - a Durian coming"

Beside swimming in that river much of their time were spent lying under those coconut less trees,enjoying the breeze blowing there.It was always a cool atmosphere.Many a time the whole gang were there,but most of the time only Fabian and brother,Francis.

Come Durian season,the jetty further upstream (about one odd meters away from their playground) workers will sometime unload fruits produced by the "kampongs" in the rural areas where there were little or no transport at all.

Durians,rambutan and mangoesteen were unload from boats at this jetty.Unloading Durians the workers had to pass from the boat to the jetty by hand as all the fruits were not brought in by baskets,but lumped together in one side of the boat thus saving space.Baskets were also rare in the rural areas then and costly.

THe workers were all very capable in passing the fruits from hands to hands.It was a very thorny issue and a small slip might hurt one's palm.Leave the workers alone they were all very skillful and most passing were very,very accurate.In any case there was always a minor margin of failure.

That could be fatal,not for the worker but the Durian,as a miss pass meant that they lose the fruit and it will definitely land into the water below and floated away very fast.What was one fruit the workers will not waste time swimming after it to retrieve it.

That particular Durian will flow down stream.That Durian coming down stream would not miss the watchful eyes of Francis and Fabian.On seeing that fruit,a shout of joy will ringed out through the ears."ahoy there,there comes a Durian".

Without hesitation Fabian will rushed off the banks and dived in to swim vigorously towards that fruit.Well.being an improved swimmer that was "Sup,sup.Siow" for Fabian.
"Sup.sup Siow" meant in Chinese "Very little bits or very small things nothing to bother"or maybe better "No problem".

The fruit was then opened up and shared among all present."Kampong" or village Durian had many seeds of fresh, so enough for everyone present.Poor boys those days were too poor to buy Durian and to pluck one from the river was a grand occasion,and everyone enjoyed that treat.

It is not every day that they had those fallen fruits,sometimes none will float by,but workers were workers they do make mistake,that will depend on the boys' luck.

Well those were the days.

Chapter 4 Attempt to Swim across the Perak River

It was one fine Sunday that Joe came to look for Fabian.He had planned to go swimming in the river.Well,fate had it that it was not a nice day for swimming,as it was low tide.

The river banks were muddy so were the water.Nevertheless they still decided to swim in those water.Francis also came along.It was no fun swimming in low tide and playing in the mud.

So Fabian getting bored decided to give it a try to swim across the river.On the other side were a long stretch of sand banks.On sight on the other side were boats loading sand.

Joe was not in favor.He and Francis stayed back to watch.

Fabian dived into the river and thus began his quest.As it was low tide the river was flowing down stream quite swiftly.Being a very much improved strong swimmer Fabian swam with ease as he cut through the swift water.

It was high noon and the merciless sun was blazing real hot on them,but that did not ,made the difference to Fabian,he was so determined to make that swim a success.He was a powerful swimmer and before long he reached the middle of that river.

Atlas he made a mistake by looking back.He was caught by surprised at the distance he had covered and saw the figures on the river banks of his brother and Joe apparently very small.He took fright and lost his confidence so he swam back towards shore.

Had he continued swimming straight he would have conquered that river and what a lost.A failed attempt thus.Swimming directly across he could have achieved but the thing was had he the ability,strength and energy to swim back,that was the ultimate question.Fabian doubted that too.

Would he try again? That remain to be seen.

When he was back on the banks he laid down for a while panting in the mud to catch his breath.Both his brother and Joe were laughing at him,poking jokes at him.As he was breathing heavily he did not reply but only smiled back meekly.

Chapter 3 "I Am Tarzan,The Ape Man"

"I am Tarzan,the Ape man".

"Ou ..eeeeeeeeOu Ou....",yelled fabian while standing on a branch of a big mangrove tree with the branch he was standing protruding extended out towards the river.Actually he was preparing for a dived into the river some twenty feet below,stalked naked,no girls around that secluded area except his brother Francis and six other friends.

"I am Tarzan,the Apeman",he again shouted and thereafter took a dived down into the river below.By now Fabian and gang were already very excellent swimmers.

"No,no you are not"yelled his brother,"You looked more like Tarzan's chimpanze,Cheeta".With his dark complexion Fabian could not give a favorable reply instantly.

Another voice followed,"You are absolutely right he is not Tarzan but I am",shouted anther guy also up on the same hanging branch.Everyone laughed out loudly,"Ha,ha,ha,how can that be?You are one legged"called out by another.

Ah Pie as he was called because he was lamed from birth on one leg."Who say Tarzan cannot be one legged?","Tarzan was attacked by a Lion who injured his leg badly that was why Tarzan was one legged".

But before he could finished he slipped and fell directly into the river.Causing a very big splashed,and every one jeered out at him.

"See,I told you all,I am the actual Tarzan",shouted Francis,making his stand as he climbed proudly to the end of that branch and made a spectacular dive and everyone applauded and clapped with joy.

Everyone took their turned to dive from that branch thereafter.When hungry they plucked the "Monkey Fruits" from the mangrove trees.These fruits were as big as apple but flat on the top side.The fruits actually had very big seeds and only a very thin layer of white fresh were edible.They were never sweet but sour.

While they were enjoying those fruits Joe joined them,seeing them devouring the fruits he asked for one and they passed him one.He thought it was to be very sweet so he took one big bite.

And,"Wal...what is this fruit ,so sour,"yelling as he split out what he had bitten.Instantly he threw that fruit away.

Seeing that everyone laughed at Joe.Now Joe knew he was tricked into biting it.Yes that fruit was very sour and its seeds bitter.Joe marvel at how all the boys there could consumed that fruit.Well,because there was nothing else to eat so force to eat what ever available.

Now all of them were sitting on that extended branch and shaking vigorously.laughing and making jokes.Many a times diving into the river to swim.Alas that branch was too weak to carry such a weight, suddenly gave way and tore away from the tree.

Down went the branch and the all the boys into that river,as all were swimmers no one was injured.All quickly swam back to the river bank,laughing and enjoying every moment of it.

The Adventures of Fabian

Chapter 1 The Shifting of House

Sometime in the middle of 1955 the last of our family fortune,our family house was sold and we were forced to shift to an office cum house along Immigrant road.The place was small by any stand but it was sufficient to maintain our small family.It had only an office and one living room.

The house was built about fifty metres away fro the bank of the Perak river,it was a very,very wide river and reputed to be infested with crocodiles.

All of us were warned not to venture near to that river,because we do not know how to swim.Fabian was then was thirteen years old and younger brother,Francis, eleven.

Behind the house was an vacant stretch of land planted with a few very tall coconut palms but unfortunately all those tree had no coconuts on them.This land was also filled with thick growth of grasses and bushes.

Chapter 2 Learning to Swim.

With the river so near,thus we were tempted to swim in it.Now we do not know how to swim."What shall we do?" so thought Fabian.
Then learn to swim,lah."retorted Joe."yeah,lah."came from Francis,"we can learn".

The three of them then plotted out a plan how to sneaked out to the river.Then of course they also have to wait for tide to be high tide.Only high tide can they swim in that river because when low tide its river banks were very muddy.

Then one fine day before the sun set and the tide of the river was high,the three of them sneaked out without informing anyone went to the river bank behind the house.
On reaching the river bank all took off their shorts and went into the shallow part of the river.

All of them could not swim,so they splashed around in the shallow part of the river.This went on for few days,just standing all the time in knee high water level and never dared go out further.They soon got bored with it and learning no swimming.

What to do?So when the tide was low they went to locate a suitable spot to learn to swim.They spotted a spot near a small bridge and they measured and found out that at high tide that spot was only neck high for them.

Come next high tide they again sneaked out to that spot.Stripped naked they slowly went into the river.Soon they began springing from the bridge to the river bank which was about eight to ten feet in length away.

Despite the fact that there was no one to guide them they soon simply splashed their way with both arms aimlessly from one end to the other.They also learned how to kicked in the water.

Many a time they swallowed some muddy water.Anyway all have a fair share of the taste of those river muddy water before they finally can really swim in that river.There was also a time when Joe was almost drown had they not caught hold of his hand to haul him in to safety just in time.

All of us had those experiences but whatever it was all of them master the art of swimming without guidance but only their sheer determination and guts.