If Only Papa Had Written.....

Papa was one of the greatest jokers and natural comedians in his time. His jokes and mimicries would send everyone rolling with laughter. This is why our home was often a gathering area for my sibling's friends and visitors. Although we lived in the notorious village of Jelutong in Penang, people just loved to visit papa and listen to his stories which were humorous yet inspiring. Even though papa was a humble school teacher, and we were not at all rich, my parents were always very hospitable. Guests would be treated to coffee and hot, piping beh teh sor or tau sar piah (famous Penang biscuits). Sometimes, papa would get his children together to give a sponatenous little concert. It was easy for everyone to love him, because papa was always full of ideas, fun, laughter and joy.

Despite his busy schedules, he still found time to help others. Sometimes, parents would send their trying children to papa for a dose of counselling. His gentleness and love touched even the hardened hearts of some hardcore gangsters. Hence, you can understand why at papa's wake, so many people from all walks of life turned up to pay their respects! Papa always advised us not to look down or look up to people. The only One we can look up to is God for He is the Creator of the universe.

My siblings are all much older than me. Being the youngest, I usually followed papa around on his motorbike. Hence, I listened to conversations between papa and his friends. I enjoyed learning from the wisdom of the elderly. This probably explained why I matured so fast, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Papa was a gifted musician who could play more than 20 instruments, self taught. It was a pity he did not have formal music education. If he had, he would have become as famous as his son, Kee Yong or his grand-daugher, Kam Ning. He taught himself music composition and arrangement, and often arranged music for his band. Papa was also an avid reader and a talented writer. At one time, he used to contribute and publish some of his articles in magazines.

Papa often taught me a lot of things. He would explain things to me as we went on our daily morning walks. It was papa who taught me about the intrinsic value of morning dew. When we reached Bukit Dumbar for our morning walks, we would gather some dew from the grass and applied it on our face. It was refreshingly cool and as papa had said, it promoted healthy and smooth complexion. Gosh! It beats having to spend hundreds of dollars on expensive cosmetics! Whenever people ask me about the secret of my excellent complexion, I would narrate the above.!

Of course, the fact that I grew up with Malay and Indian neighbours has helped me to relate easily with everyone I meet. When I was studying in Canada, it was easy for me to connect with the cosmopolitan crowd. This is probably why I am enjoying my life here in Singapore, as I meet people from all over the world.

It is a pity that papa was too busy to write and publish his stories. He had touched many lives with his pearls of wisdom. I thank God that I have an elephant memory
and can still remember most, if not all, of what papa had taught me. My nieces and nephews had vague memory of papa as he passed away when they were very young. Some of my younger relatives had never even met papa. Hence, I often wrote about papa in my articles so that my relatives could learn from his wisdom and relate to papa.

As I had said earlier, I would not be able to leave billions of dollars behind like Nina Wang. However, I am sure I could leave billions of characters behind as my little legacy to Singapore and Malaysia, the two countries that I love the most.
Malaysia because I was born and raised in lovely Penang Island; and Singapore because I spent most of my wonderful working life here.

I am so glad that with the availability of computers, I can access to Malaysiakini and be updated about news in Malaysia. No doubt, we can still read in the Straits Times and Berita Harian, but nothing beats the click of the computer. I am also glad that http://malaysiakini.com is also in Chinese. Some of my Malaysian friends in Singapore and other parts of the world are still not aware of Malaysikini. I hope to pass the word around, so that they too can be connected to Malaysia. After all, one's place of birth is always one's first love.

Gan Chau