Reflections of my life and times during the Monsoon.

 

The small town of Narathiwat in Southern Thailand was hit by heavy rainfall and serious floodings on the 26th. of Dec. it is sad to watch the postings on You Tube or Tik Tok...suffering comes in all forms and to be not touched by the suffering of others no matter the geophysical or cultural location , it is imperative that a man/woman feels a sense of compassion towards the victims. Loosing your sense of humanity is when you have lost your sympathetic feelings within you. Narathiwat and the general area is predominantly a Thai Muslim area and I hope the Thai Government will act accordingly in providing resources and aids to theses areas; After all Thailand is a Buddhist Country. The Monsoon has made its appearance all along the East Coast and life will be put on high alert for most areas. I grew up in the East Coast for eight years of my teenage life and the Monsoon season has always been one of the most exciting times of my life even if there were floodings all over the country. My home back in the 60s was located within sight of the ocean which is across the main road and across form the palace golf course of the Istana Badariah and thus during the monsoon season the sound of roaring wind and waves can be heard loud from where I lived. Sometimes you fall asleep while listening to the roar of waves beating down on the shores and wind gusting through the coconut palms and the rain beating down on the zinc roof; you fall asleep like a baby. 

Behind the house as far as the eyes can see laid the rice fields which stretched from the waterway all the way to the foothills in the distance and during one of the worst of monsoon floods the whole area was inundated into a sea of fresh water. The kitchen which was built on the ground level had about two feet of water and when the water receded we discovered a six feet long cobra left behind under the refrigerator. It was discovered when one of my sisters was boiling water on the stove and she heard a loud angry hiss coming from somewhere in the kitchen. Fortunately for her the cobra had ran and hid under the raised refrigerator and only its tail was visible. The snake had entered the kitchen through one of the holes in the wall that was there to let out excess water and it was up to me to get rid of the snake which till this day I still regret having killed it in the process. It was a long King Cobra and very aggressive when I tried to get ahold of it. The only way I could think of in trying to get it out from under the refrigerator was to pour the hot boiling water so that it flowed under the fridge and drove the snake out in utter pain and anger. Scared as I was i had no choice but to kill it after a vicious fight between us  which caused me nightmares for the next few days and regret till today even as i am writing this: this was my bad karma. For years whenever i see a cobra on the discovery channel or in real life I think of the King Cobra I killed and it was just taking refuge from the flood. 

The aftermath of the monsoon was one of  the best time to take walk along the beach where heaps of flotsam and debris from discarded flip flops to huge tree trunks washed up all along the stretch of sandy beach and the it was a treasure hunt for me. I would look for driftwood and anything out of the ordinary that catches my eyes. I have been blessed to have spent my teenage years with the sea close by facing my home and the rice fields in my backyard. I could not ask for a better environment to spend my teenage years exploring and discovering new sights and smells especially after having spent twelve years of my life growing up on the outskirt of Georgetown, Penang on the West Coast of the Peninsular; it fed my imaginative mind more than I realized. The contrast between the 'city life' and the Kampung or village life was stark if not challenging for me who had spent his childhood among the Chinese and Indians, a life full of townlike adventures and then having to draw water from a well for my bath, a well that some days smelled like mud when the water level was low. 

Now on looking back i would not have asked for a better environment to grow up in albeit in Penang of in Kuala Terenggnu. It was a dichotomy of existence from the food i had to the exposure to my religious faith which  became a predicament having been raised a Buddhist in Penang and converted to Islam moving to the East Coast where the Malays were devout Muslims. My name alone created a cause for ridicule for i had a Buddhist name as so were my brothers and sisters until they too had their names changed upon conversion. I had to bear the insults and bully by the Malay boys of my age at school and in the village but i survived although not without scars and wounds in my heart and mind. I grew up an angry young man but slowly but surely my character changed and I dished out as much pain as I received.