Pak Idrus's Blog

Both my parents were illiterate and yet they send their children to school. Until this day I could remember that day in January 1946 when I went to school when the school was reopening after the war. I remember vividly my father holding my hand and walk me to the Malay School [Sekolah Melayu Teruntun] at Jalan Gambut, Kuantan. From the shop at Wall Street [Now Jalan Mahkota] we walk across the Padang. Then along the path near the Government Office buildings and the patch of grassland to reach the school. I was then seven years old and excited and happy.  When I was registered as a student my name was written as Idrus bin Abu Bakar. I was sort of shock and wondering for a while; why they did not write my name as Awang. All the while I was call Awang and never heard of the name Idrus. Then the teacher explain that my registered name is Idrus. It takes a while before I could get used to been call Idrus. In those days kids never get to see their Birth Certificate so I was totally lo...

I am back in Kuantan for a short break from the city life. Kuantan a small town on the east-coast of Malaya is my hometown. I grew up here and spend my childhood and my youth here. So, there are lots and lots of memories. In a way coming back here is sort of reliving those memories. I shall write some of it here. In the forties in the kampong where I grew up there was no air or water pollution. The well water was clean, and air was so refreshing. The word pollution did not exist at that time and no one talk about pollution. Now that with all the talk about pollution I realised that there was also no sound pollution as well at that time. The reason I am talking about noise pollution is that when we were living in the kampong in Kuantan we could hear every noise of the wild, the crickets, the frogs, the birds and everything else that makes sound. Since there were hardly any cars or buses, lorry or air plane flying by or any factories that create noise there was no noise polluti...

Every few months I would go back to my hometown of Kuantan, a small town on the east-coast of Malaya. I grew up there so I am always nostalgic of the beautiful days of my growing up period. As one get older one's early memories get clearer thus one began to have the feeling and the urged to be there and relived those wonderful moments again and again.. I have chosen to make Ampang Jaya in the state of Selangor as my home but Kuantan is never out of my mind. How I wished I had a house there and settled there after my retirement some 28 years ago. But then I found out that it not worth to have a home there where most of the infrastructures are still in a third world condition. The Kelang valley where my home is now first world just like living in the US or in Europe. So every three or four months I would get to Kuantan and live there for five days at time. Since I do not have any house there I have decided to makes one of the high-end hotel there as my home while in Kuantan. It  is ...

A few days ago; early in the morning I notice Tam the mother cat squatting on the window sill. On seeing me she made a small noise. I somehow knew that she wanted something so I went to the front door and open the grill. As I walk to the door she jump down and met me in front of the door. She move closer to me and brought my attention to a dead mouse lying on the floor nearby. She sat near the dead mouse and look at me. I then look at her and petted her back. she looks pleased. I knew at that  instance that the dead mouse is a gift for me. Sort of thanking me for always feeding her and her son Kenat. I quip to her thanking her for the gift and then she happily left. I then went into the house and told Asmah about it. Well this is not the first time our cats did this. It happened before probably they knew I no longer hunt for food thus that dead mouse is for dinner! ( did not want to post the image of that dead mouse) Well that is an episode of the story of my life. It always made ...