When and where was this and what really happened,,,- Retro. SRI LOVELY, Lintang Organic Farm.

 

Sometime in 2012 I left Georfetown, Penang driving in my 'Kancil' and headed for a place called Belantik, in the township of Sik, Kedah; I was headed out for my 'spiritual' adventure. The Kancil, one of Malaysia's best small cars, had taken me to and from Kuala Terengganu twelve times with not a problem.

How i came to choose Belantik and the Sik area is a story told a few time already in the past and involved a KWSP State Officer from Kedah and my friend Ah Huat the Air Conditioner mechanic and this took place at Huat Huat Aircond. Services in Sungai Dua, Penang, near JPJ, Sungai Dua. Check him out if you ever come this way and need your car aircond gas refilled. Ah Huat was busy upgrading my Kancil while the KWSP man and me were busy planning my cross country trip and the rest is his-story posted somewhere in the Blog gone by. 

 Ah Huat, I call him Jackie Chan, master at his trade and was a great teacher and friend. I used to hang out at his shop and work for him too. In his office on the walls are my artworks gifts for him, I wanted to have my pieces hung on his walls just because of it being in the most unimaginable place like my paintings hanging at the Pok Pi's Kopitiam Restaurant in Kuala Terengganu; I wanted Ah Huat to own a few pieces of my works, was how much we respected and can tolerate each other.

This episode is entitled, "From my Hut to Your heart." Alhamdullilah, by the Grace of The All Merciful.

One day two of the Captain's boys came to my hut telling me that their father invited me to their house for lunch. It was during the Fasting Month and so I asked the boys, "Is you father not Fast?" "Mamu! today is Hari Raya! You cannot fast on Hari Raya!" I was lost in time and space working at the farm.  

The Kancil was upgraded in safety and comfort as Ah Huat fixed accessories and installed a radio where there was none before - for safety?! The whole roof on the inside was lined with LD lights that with flip of a switch the whole car lit up like a Christmas tree...for Safety. A set of Safety Kit in case of break down on the highways including illuminated cones and such. A battery recharger, a two man tent, and so on. I felt Safe driving the little car wherever I was. We were a part of each other crossing the Main Mountian Range Titiwangsa of the East West Highway for twelve times or should I say 24 times; it was a Miracle. The Kancil was a projection of myself, an extension, a manifestation of who I am, just as I am manifesting this PC station before me and through proper coordination I transfer my thoughts and emotions on to the screen and later it becomes a part of a lengthy Blog, and here we are!

I had initially decided to stay at the Organic farm for two days and I ended living in the hut for two months. The place had its hold on me like it was what I had needed to happen more than anything else.

It was 2012 and it was a memorable time of change in my life; the placed changed me, healed parts of me that needed to be healed. I stuck it outsleeping alone in a deserted village at the edge of the forest. To fall asleep to the choir of frogs around the hut and to be awakened very early in the morning by the songs of the gibbons playing high up into the Pokok Petai and Tualang trees.  

Were you not afraid? I fear of thinking about fear itself. I am afraid of being afraid and it was from the desire to learn about the nature fear itself I decided to go upon this trip with the Kancil, or Mouse Deer, that is what Kancil means, Mousedeer, the smallest but also the smartest little deer in the forest. Only the Kancil could trick the mighty Belang {Mr. Stripe} into many submissions and defeat. Stories were told of the chivalry and witty wise ways of the Kancil; The Trickster. I think a book was written entitled "The Wise Witty Ways of the Kancil", not too long ago.

  

I became the caretaker, gardener, story teller of the community of an average of Five to Ten characters mostly young tough Malays kids and then there was the Captain and his young son and that was about it. I was in the midst of a struggle to stay afloat project the was going south. So I invested my energy into turning the place into what later would become a place visited by young folks from all over the world interested in learning how to grow organic rice. You might say I brought a little light into the hearts of those were struggling in the the dark. The Lintang Organic Farm was resurrected and the place became famous all over the world. 

My inspiration came from the Cavin Costner movie "Field of Dreams," in it was a line that inspired a cause to build a Field of Dreams so as to be able to enjoy what great gifts life has to offer made possible in the field of dreams...the epitome of Creativity or Creative Consciousness. This was what i told the Captain and helped him through the rough patch of setting up the facility; he was on the verge of giving up.

Captain Zakaria Amantasha, was at one time a Major in the Arm Forces, he was elected as Battalion Commander for the United Nations Security Forces in Kosovo. The captain would rather you call him Captain than Major. I felt I was standing before a giant of a man before a giant of a man when we first met and I was asking permission to squat for two nights at the farm and he agreed. From our talks often into the night I learned of the situation and decided upon what needed to happen; I decided to invest my energy. To turn the place upside down and sweep through the whole place like a hurricane and then see what happens, or like the wild fire burn all the drags and dross away and grow from fresh earth. 

Don't worry Capt. you build it and they will come... I kept telling the Captain, I don't think he was aware that it came from the movie, but it worked and the Captain kept the place alive till it started to attract attentions from far and near. 

They came to learn and to experience what it was like to get close to nature again. What it takes to build a dream and make things happen for the benefit of all. 

SRI LOVELY was successful enough to be mentioned in the Malaysian Parliament sitting praising the benefit it had on other agricultural activities in and around the country. A method of organic rice growing that does not depended upon any form of chemical fertilizers of growing free from any toxic pest control, it was an experiment of back to what Nature has to offer. 

Local Rice farmers came to learn from what was a new method of rice growing and the dependent upon locally generated fertilizers and anti bugs repellent made locally from the natural resources found around the area.

 

With success came comfort and they came from all over the world thanks to good PR and the Internet, the chalets made it official this is definitely a Homestay affair.

These chalets were built two years after my stay at the farm which was off and on for almost two years.

An Australian Chef, my good friend Ham -Milton was one of those characters that fell in love with the place and kept returning. They came from South America and Europe, from Japan and New Zealand all willing to learn about life in the rural village at the edge of the forest and the foot of the hills.

They were guests at the wedding and fell right at home eating with their fingers.= with a silly grin on their faces. There was a connection between young and old crossing all boundaries and there was mutual respect for customs and traditions. 

                                               It was originally from this humble beginnings. What used to be the Kitchen and dining hall.

A whole lot of healing took place for guests and locals alike as the two came to meet in the 'Fields of Dreams' where the rice grow from single seedling into a large bush, into a bag full of Padi. The technique was learned in Indonesia or so I was told and works very well here.

Food and eating is always a good binder of relationships no matter the race or creed.  

                                   And the Kancil brought me here. My son Timo comparing the two and the Merz. belonged to my twin brother. This is a retrospect of the past just to remind myself of what could have been... or was it all an illusion? What is being rich and what is wealth? Throughout my life i have been blessed with the presence of a mirror image of myself in the form of a twin brother. Although half an hour difference our path took the opposite directions as epitomized by the two vehicles.