After a long hiatus and the Christmas month I begin my blog writing. I left off with my grandmother in Triang, my cooking utensils all packed of in a box, my first and last attempt to cook, yeah I never picked up the cooking magic and till today never can I claim I make a cup of coffee by myself. One reason perhaps my bachelor days only lasted 6 years and got married at the age of 23 with my wife aged 17. Married for almost 60 years. I thank God for the longevity of my marriage. More about my grandmother now.
In Triang only 3 Tamil families were there, my grandmother knew the trolley driver family well enough. My granny cooked simple dishes, and the Tamil family supplied the vegetables and other sorts of paraphernalia required for our meals. I don’t remember taking her shopping for provisions etc. I knew the trolley driver Ragunathan for many years even when I was in Gemas the first time and later when posted as an Officer some years later – left Gemas to get married in 1960 and served again from 1980. I served in Gemas for 13 years until my retirement in 1993.
I worked in Triang as a trainee Clerk. Next to Triang was a smaller station Chikus which railway guys called a “halt” meaning a station manned by a Clerk in charge and not a Station Master. A halt is not a station. At a station you have more than a single track on line to accommodate more than one train. In a halt only the main track runs, no goods traffic is dealt with, but only passenger tickets are issued by the Clerk in charge. I was a trainee and not therefore could not be a Station Master until I completed a period of training of 3 years. But I knew booking tickets and I was send to Chikus for a month to cover the duties of the Clerk in Charge going for training.
Chikus station was a wooden building, an office and 2 other rooms for the permanent Clerk. The 2 rooms were locked up and I had to stay in the main office, use the floor to sleep and the office becomes office cum house. More than that the building is isolated and the only building in the middle of the jungle and the nearest house or people 3 miles away in an estate. No water, there was a well and no electricity. Light was provided by the single table room at the station. Any movement at night entails the carrying of the lamp in one hand. It is dark everywhere and the glow from the table lamp causes an eric reality rightfully the back ground to a ghost movie.
My granny sends food from Triang, some 3 miles away. The food is bought by the trolley driver in the afternoon and you share this food for dinner unheated. Two passenger trains stop at the station halt one in the morning and once in the evening. The main mail train does not stop here. The drinking water comes by the passenger train in the morning. Every day you anticipate the arrival of the trains which bring in passengers and people and you realising you are not the only one person in the world. The permanent Clerk was married and had company. Sleeping at night was an ordeal, dark everywhere, jungle noises, screeches everywhere, and there I with a Bible near my pillow. My bible reading was regular. Many years later, while speaking about Chikus to an elderly man who had served there, was petrified when he related elephants frequented the halt or station and it was common for the animals to scratch their backs against the building. None happened the time I was there for a month. I was about 17 or 18 years old then and wonder how I passed the one month.
My Station Master at Triang was a Malay man Amin, a kind hearted chap. I had even been invited to his house for lunch and I went. Skin colour was not important then and we were all humans striving to eke out our life.
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