Month of the Ghosts in Lunar Calender

The 7th month in the Lunar Calender (used by the Chinese) is commonly known as the Month of the Ghosts. Generally it falls on August of the Solar Calender (used by the rest of the world). It is believed that the God of Hell will grant the ghosts a month's leave, and the Gate of Ghosts' Fort will be opened to release the ghosts. They are free to roam human land for one month, after which they will have to return to their sufferings in Hell again.

The mid of the Ghosts' Month was 2 days ago, believers burn incense,hell money and the like and offered some food by the road side to appease these hungry ghosts.They believe that by doing so the ghosts will leave their family alone and will not bring any harm or misfortune. The youngsters are advised to stay at home at night during this month and let the ghosts to do the roaming instead.

This is also the month of story telling. The stories being told are all ghost stories,of course! I would like to tell you one too. When I was a little boy living in the new village, my younger brother and I went out to play after dinner every night. After all the other kids had gone home, we two still hanged around our favourite coffee shop. We could not afford to buy any drinks or food there, but the owner just ignore us and let us hang around.We read news paper or comic books there, or just listened to the grown ups chatting. Our favourite pass time was to go the back portion of the shop which was converted into a majong room, where there were always 2 or 3 tables of majong sessions going on.We would stand behind the players to watch, some players chased us away, but most of them just ignored us.

One night my brother was bored watching the majong and wanted to go home early, but I was attracted to the session which was going on.That particular game was very interesting, therefore I asked my brother to go home first. So he left. After a short while he returned, his face was very pale and was panting loud. He begged me to go home with him because he was afraid. It was strange, he was never afraid to go home alone before, moreover our house was just down the road only. Anyway, I went home with him.

On the way home, my brother told me that he saw Uncle Kau's ghost. I laughed and said,"Are you sure?" He replied,"Yes, when I reached the front door of our house, I saw someone was squatting in front of Uncle Kau's house. When I look closely, it was Uncle Kau's ghost! So I quickly turned back and ran." I could feel goose pimples all over my whole body immediately.
Uncle Kau's house was directly opposite ours, he died a few days ago. (Refer to my earlier post on bad memories of lightning strikes). When we reached our house, my brother pointed to the spot where Uncle Kau's ghost was squatting before, but it was empty now. I believed my brother's story, do you? People say it is bad luck to see a ghost, maybe that was why I became a computer engineer and my brother, a construction worker.

During my days as a computer engineer I heard many stories about ghosts, but I had never met one, touch wood.

In those days, computers were huge machines, and special rooms were prepared to house them. What better choice is there than converting abandoned room into a computer room? The usual reasons for these rooms to be vacant was simple, there were haunted. Scarey,man!

Unfortunately, I had to spend long hours at night alone in those computer rooms, the computers of the old days were slower than snails. To quote an example, to format a 32MB hard disk would take 8 hours. It was seldom completed successfully at the first try, it may just failed, hang, or stopped due to power interruption. If that happened, it had to be started over again. You could not just press the "START" button and go home, then come back after 8 hours. If any thing happened during those 8 hours, you had to start from zero again, valuable time would be lost. Therefore I had to stay and watch over it, all alone in the haunted room. I did not hear or see any thing all these years. People were amazed why I was not disturbed. I believed every word they said, but I had no choice.

Another example: During one of my out-station assignments, I was told by the receptionist of my favaourite hotel that it was fully booked. I was disappointed, suddenly she said,"Room 3xx is still available, do you want to take it?" I quickly responded,"Yes, of course!" After signing the check-in card, I became calm and could think clearly, I felt some thing missing. So I asked her,"Why did you ask me that question just now?". She was not her usual self and quickly replied," nothing,nothing,nothing, I just ask only!". I pressed on,"Is it because it is haunted?", she said,"how did you know? You still want it now?". I took it, I had no choice. Again nothing happened, I slept peacefully through the whole night.

The closest thing I can say was my encounter with ghosts is the following story:

One of my clients' computer room supervisor was killed in a road accident. She was a very dedicated girl, to the extent that I felt she was becoming high strung over her works. I received a pager message that their line printer was down on the day she met the accident. I rushed back from out-station and to attend the call. It was then that I heard the bad news. Although sad, I still have to solve the problem at hand. I change all the printed circuit boards with good spare ones, checked all cables, connectors, fuses and motors. But the printer still did not work. Then I suspected the character belt might be jammed, so I increased the gap between the belt and the platen, but still won't work. Finally, I stripped the character belt and rollers, but still nothing happened. Out of desperation, I spoke to myself and called the supervisor's name. I pleaded with her to leave the machine alone. Then I switched the printer on to try, the motor started to spin with full force,unbelievable! Later, the IT manager told me that the printer broke down at precisely the time she was killed. This is a true story, maybe it is coincident. Well, maybe.

I have a tip for young repairmen and who are non believers, if you find one of the critical screw or nut missing try this trick. Usually I would talk to the air like mental patients do, then use your sharpest screw driver to poke on the floor and say," who is hiding my things, move away!" It works, at least for me.

The tragic Genting Highland bus accident which killed 37 people 2 days ago also caused many people to connect it with the "Ghost Festival".

If you believe in God, you have to believe that there are ghosts. If you believe there exists ghosts, then you have to believe in God, no matter in what forms or shapes.

Happy Harvest Festival

To all KDM friends, Happy Harvest Festival!

Bad memories of lightning

The village where I grew up was a very flat piece of land. There were no tall buildings around and no hills, the highest point was a tree or a person riding a bicycle. General knowledge tells us that lightning always strikes at the highest point, therefore many of my village folks were struck by lightning while taking a shelter under a big tree or cycling in the rain.

My class mate's father was killed by lightning strike, the shocking memory is still fresh in my mind after all these years. He, his name was Kau, lived across the road opposite my house.Kau had a bigger family as compared to mine, both his parents worked in the field, plus 3 brothers and 2 sisters, it was a noisy farm. I like to hang around if there was not much to do in my own farm.

It happened on a quiet Sunday, and the harvest was just over. The irrigation office had shut the floodgates to allow the fields to dry up in order for the formers to start the planting of dry crops like sweet potato, long beans, chillies and tobacco.

It was relatively free in the farm, therefore my father did not ask me to help him in the field. Naturally I went with Kau to his farm. It was quite a fun day because his father was not around, he went to the forest to collect some sticks for building a support for the long beans plants to twine on. Although Uncle Kau was not fierce but seldom talk and smile, we were quite scared of him anyway.

The usual knock off time was 6'clock pm, but the clouds began to gather and looked like it was going to rain. Since there was not much to be done, Kau and his 2nd elder sister and me left for home at around 4'clock pm.

As we reached the shops area we saw people gathered around in groups talking, out of curiosity we went close to them. Suddenly one of the crowds pointed at Kau's sister and started screaming,"your papa, your papa!" After listening to their explanation, we learned the shocking news that Uncle Kau was struck by lightning!

We ran to the scene, as I ran my mind was blank and breathless as if I was in a nightmare. When we reached there, Uncle Kau was already being taken to the nearest hospital. The bike was still intact, but the sticks were strewn about. The most striking scene was a deep crocked trench running across the road. It was the result of the lightning strike. Eye witness said Uncle Kau was thrown up as high as the lamp post. Imagine the strength of the strike! Kau's sister rushed back to the farm, crying all the way, to inform the family members who were still working in the field. It was confirmed later that Uncle Kau could not be saved by the doctors.
It was not even raining when Uncle Kau was struck by the lightning.
The reason he was struck was because his clothes were wet while working in the forest.Since then I know that lightning strikes do not necessarily occur in thunder storms.

Here are some advice, keep away from wall, do not hold any tool or equipment made of metal.Avoid doing the following activities when it is raining:

• Do not take bath - wet body is conductive to current
• Do not cook - cooking utensils are metal. A housewife was struck by lightning while cooking
• Do not watch TV - 2 brothers were killed by lightning coming down through the external aerial
• Do not use the telephone
• Do not lean on the wall - My neighbour's wall was struck by lightning
• Do not take shelter under a tree - the most common place where a person was killed by lightning
• Do not play in open fields, like football field
• Do not swim in rivers
• Do not ride on a bicycle

Cooking with firewood

When we reached the lower end of the canal, the firewood were lifted out from the water. This was where a lorry could reach.They were left to dry on the banks and mean while my father arranged with the owner of the only lorry in our village to transport them back to our house.
The logs were further swan into shorter lengths of about 2-foot long each.

Then they are split into smaller pieces with a huge axe. Watching my father splitting the firewood, it all seemed so simple. He lifted the axe high above his head and with one chop, the round block split into two and fell off to the floor.But when I tried to do it, it was so heavy that when I lifted it above my head I was almost pushed down backwards by its weight.

Therefore I could only lift it up to my eye level and chopped it, of course I had to chop it few more times in order to split it.

The split firewood were then strewn about in the front yard and allowed to dry. I assume everyone knows that wet firewood are difficult, if not impossible, to catch fire and will create a lot of thick smokes if added to a burning fire. You all may have heard about allergy of all kinds, but have you ever heard of allergy to wood? I bet many of you haven't.

There is a type of tree in Malaysia called Qi Shu (Paint Tree or Seven Tree). It is a hard wood and is dark brown in colour. When a piece of chopped Qi Shu is soaked by rain water,the brownish water oozing out from it is harmful

to a person allergic to it, when he comes into contact with it while walking in the rain will trigger his symptoms. His body will be covered with red rashes, in adverse case his face will be swollen and can hardly open his eyes.You may not believe it, but I had seen many such cases with my own eyes in the village.Some claimed that even without coming in contact with the tree, just the sighting of it will trigger allergy symptoms in them.Now, that is a little hard to believe.

Starting a fire was a skill every child in the village learned for cooking with firewood when he/she reached the age of 10. Before that they were not allowed to try it because they may start a fire but did not know how to control it and could burn down the whole house, worse still, together with the neighbour's.
Every household has a gas stove in this modern day and there is no need for it any more. But it is still useful if you like camping or outdoor life. You may impress your peers by starting a fire with ease for BBQ or a camp-fire!

Merry X'mas !

Wishing all my Christian friends a Merry Christmas!

Firewood in the canal

We worked for about 2 weeks, 7:00am to 6:00pm everyday, gathering what we needed in the woods. My dad estimated that we had collected enough firewood for a lorry-load and sticks for a good twine-climbing support, therefore prepared to move them out of the woods.

He cut some long pieces of raw rattan which were twinning round the trunks of huge trees. We carried the logs, the sticks and rattan on shoulder and moved them out. It took us about 1 1/2 days, we were slow because my father was a very easy going man, when I felt tired or bored I would wander away to catch fish or snails in the streams or to look at the trees or to study the insects.He did not bother me and went on to do the task on his own, and would take a rest himself now and then.

Outside the woods was a canal which led to the trunk road where a lorry could access. We lined up the logs side by side along the bank of the canal. The logs were of equal length and formed a very neat line. Father laid the rattan on top then used nails to string the logs up to form a raft-like structure. He nailed 3 strings of rattan on each log, 1 on each end and 1 in the middle. It looked solid, or so it might seem.

When done, we slowly slided the "raft" of logs into the canal. And it floated! I started to understand why father discarded the hard wood because it would sink in the water. He nailed one long piece of rattan to the head of the "raft" and guided it down the canal when it started to drift downstream. My job was to use a long pole to push the body of the long snake-like raft away from the bank, so that it would not get stuck in the mud bank.

After about an hour travelling down the canal, the head of the raft was caught in the mud bank at a bend. Father tried to jerk it free using the rattan, the rattan suddenly snapped. The body of the long "snake" started to curl, with all my might I tried to straighten it but in vain. You can not imagine the power of the water until you tried to go against it. If the raft were left to hit the bank, the rattan would snap or the nails would be dislodged. That would be a mess, we would have to start all over again to restring the logs.(Raw rattan are brittle, they are tough and resilient only when dried.)

I could not bear to watch the expression of despair on father's face, so jumped into the water to pull the head of the raft free. Then with one hand pulling the raft and swam with the other hand as quickly as possible to straighten the body of raft. Father who was stunned seeing me jumped, recovered quickly and used the pole to keep the body of the raft straight. I remained in the water and led the raft along until we reached our destination- the trunk road.

Father who was silent until now, spoke to me,"good thing you know how to swim!"
From then on, he would never scold me and my brother for swimming in the canals again, and it was unconventional in our village!

In the woods

When I was a child, everyone in the village used firewood for their cooking in the house. Those well to do families bought firewood from lorry drivers but those of us who could not afford would have to gather our firewood from the woods outside the village.

My father brought me along to gather firewood in the woods during one of the term school holidays. We cycled there. We left our bicycles at the fringe of the woods and went inside on foot.

We went to the woods for two purposes, one was to collect firewood, second to cut some small plants for building support structures for twines like long beans to climb.The ideal ones should be of the size of a thumb.
After walking for a short distance, we started to search for suitable plants. We did not collect small twigs like firewood sellers in fairy tale books do. We chopped trees with trunks of 1-2 feet diameter wide. We would then saw them into round logs of 4-foot lengths.

Suddenly my father exclaimed," look, that tree will be a perfect beam for the pig style!" I look at the direction he was pointing. There stood a tall, straight tree not far away. The tree was very near to the fringe of the woods, not very deep inside, I wondered why it was not chopped down by someone until now.
Father was excited because he was planning to redo the roof of our pig style for some time already. Now he found his perfect beam.

After admiring the tree for a long while, Father felled the tree and trimmed the leaves then carefully placed it at a safe spot by the path. We then continued with our search for suitable firewood. Not every tree in the forest is suitable to be used as firewood. Some tree are too hard and heavy and will not catch fire easily. Some trees will give out a lot of smokes. Some will emit strong stench. We were looking for wood which were easy to cut, easy to catch fire, give out little smokes and did not emit bad smell.

We managed to fell a few suitable trees and we used a big saw to saw the tree trunks into even lengths. The saw we used was a big one about 5-foot long, with a handle on either end. To saw a log, the saw would be placed perpendicular to the log and one person would stand on each side of the log.When one person pulls the saw, the other will help to push it, and vice versa.

We stopped work at around 5.00pm and got ready to go home.Of course, we did not forget to carry with us the straight log we fell early in the morning to be used as a beam for the pig style. We started to head for the border of the woods. But strange things happened, we could not find the way out. We were going in circles, it was getting dark by the minute, and the log we carried felt heavier and heavier.

Father was chanting quietly to himself because he did not want to alarm me.Yet we were still making circles in the woods. Finally we brought the log back to place where it was felled and laid it by the stump. We started out again, this time empty handed. Within minutes we were out of the woods already!

The next morning Father brought with us some "kueh" and fruits. The first thing he did on reaching the spot where we worked the day before was to put the kueh and fruits in front of the stump of the log we felled and burned some incise. We both prayed and asked for forgiveness from the tree stump. We believed it was the residence of the guardian of the woods - the "Datuk Gong" who was a Muslim. We annoyed him by uttering the word "pig" in front of him.

We continued our works, and we did not encounter any more strange thing after that. But as a precaution, we avoided using that path again. We cleared a new one and used it for the next few days to get the place where we worked.

Until today I still can not find a logical explanation to what happened that day inside the woods.