Swimming in the canals

The village which I lived in as a child was a wet padi growing village. It had a very good irrigation system, there were more than 20 canals controlling the flow of water into and out of the padi fields.The grass growing on the banks are trimmed regularly by the workers, so it was very neat and tidy, ideal for us kids to roll on, and then drop off into the water.
The canals were not filled with water all the time, certain months the Agricultural Officer will order the water gates to be shut and no water will flow in the canals. Only pots and patches of water pockets here and there. It was a good time to catch cat fish in the pockets of water.We loved it.

During this time the padi began to ripe, later ready to be harvested. After that the formers will plough the dried up land to plant secondary crops like tobacco, chilli, sweet potatoes, brinjo, water melon,long beans,etc.
When these crops were ripen and harvested, it was time to flood the fields again getting ready to grow the main crop, the wet padi.
The Agricultural Officer would announce the exact date for the water gates to be raised. He would send his men to go round the village on a land cruiser armed with a loud speaker to blast the news to everyone. Notice would also be pasted on the notice board outside his office.
When the gates were opened,the canals would be filled with water up to 5 feet deep feeding every field along the way.
The workers from the agriculture dept would patrol the canals ,inspecting the water outlets to the fields and the grass on the banks. The grass were important for preventing erosion of the canals banks. At the same time the workers would chase away any children lingering on the canals banks, because no swimming were allowed in the canals. Not only the water level was too deep for the kids to swim in, it was also extremely dangerous to go near the water gates. The whirlpools created by the gates would suck them in if they went too near. Moreover the kids climbing up and down the banks would damage the grass also.
We still sneaked to the canals after school to swim and play. But we were not foolish enough to go near the gates, we always swam at least a few km away from the gates. Not only it was safer, but also not so easily detected by the agriculture dept workers. For some reasons the workers liked to hang around the gates.

Beside the workers we were also on the lookout for our parents and neighbours. But we knew the hours they would pass by the spot where we were swimming and we would be less absorbed in our games and be more alert during those hours. When we spotted someone approaching, we would all submerge in the water and hold our breath until he passed. If we were unlucky to be seen, we would know what awaited us at home that evening! Yet we could not resist the temptation of the canals and would return even after receiving the punishment.
The workers had a more effective way to deal with us. Sometimes they shouted at us from afar to scare us away. Sometimes they sneaked up on us and collected our clothes (we all swam naked, we were the originator of the nudist movement...hahaha) then only shouted at us. We all ran away naked and they pretended chasing us from behind on their bicycles.They made us run round the village across the main street and they then went back to their quarters, with our clothes.
Finally, shame overcame fear, we went to the workers' quarters to beg them to give us back our clothes. After what seemed a life time,the agriculture office would come out and made us write down our names, class, and class teachers' names. He made us promised to finish our home works everyday for the next week and to show him every day. Strange, why did he do that? May be his girl friend was our class teacher?. Ummm...must be.

A tough question to answer

Sometimes I ask myself,"Have I made the right choice by leaving the kampung?"
I know I cannot answer that.

My father was a farmer in a small Chinese new village, planting padi and tobacco alternately during the year. We kids had to help in the field during week ends and school holidays. By the time we finished our 6 years of primary school education we were quite strong and knew most of the works to be done in the field.

Except for a fortunate few who were from well to do families like the shop owners, senior government officers, most of the kids would naturally drop out and adopt farming as a way of life. Alternatively they will become apprentice for various trades in the town. There were good reasons for this, the most obvious one is of course they would start to bring home earnings or boost the productions in the field. The second reason was that many could not get through the Primary Examinations hence could not advance into secondary schools. The third reason being that their families could not afford the school fees and the cost of livings in town, because the kids had to leave the village to further their studies. There was no secondary school in villages then.

My father was a very poor farmer, it looked like I was destined to be either a farmer or a tradesman. But I would not settle for it, I wanted to change it. I studied hard whenever I found time in between doing chores. When the results were out, I was one of the only 2 students who scored grade 1 in my class. It was something during that time, I tell you.

So I told my father about my intention to carry on studying. He said he had no money, if I want, I could take some rice from home and feed myself in the town. I had to ask my mother for cash because she was working as a domestic maid in the big town quite far from home. She agreed that I was too frail to start working and should wait for a few more years when I grew bigger.

So armed with RM30 and a bag of rice for every school term, I continued my study in secondary school. During school holidays, when my class mates planned for their vacations, I was asking around for jobs available during that period.

Also I was busy asking seniors and my classmates if their elder brothers, sisters or cousins wanted to sell their used text books. And I sold my used books to my juniors. Those days text books were not changing like fashion shows every year, so they could be passed down from seniors to juniors. This saved the students quite a bit of money.

After completing form 5, I joined the Government as a technicain. While working I sat for the external diploma which was recgonised by the Government. It took me 6 years to complete, and I got rapid promotions whenever I passed a stage.

I went over to the private sector later because it was more challenging. I became a computer hardware engineer. I worked for several multi-national companies before I retired.

The problem with me now is that my 2 kids are still studying in colleges, and I could not find proper jobs due to my age. If I remained a farmer, my children will be happy as farmers too. There will be no worry of whether I could support them until finish colleges or not.

Did I make the right choice?

Kite flying in the kampung

This article and several others were posted in another blog hosted by Blogcharm.com which is now closed down, so don't be surprised if you feel that it is familiar.

When I was a kid there were no video games,cybercafes and TV.I did not know how the town kids passed their spare times and never bothered to find out.Even without these entertainment outlets,we kampung kids had no problem to pass our spare times.In fact we felt that we did not have enough spare times! We had traditional games and pasttimes like tops-spinning,birds-catching,fishing,swimming,and of course, kite-flying.

We kids did not know how to make giant kites as the adults, we made simple kites instead.The kites we made were usually diamond shaped and split-bottom shaped ones.Though simple and small these kites can fly to great height and easy to manage,especially suitable for us kids.
The prequisition for kite flying is a sunny and windy day.Then find an open field clear from any high tension cables.There were many such places in our kampung.My favourite spot was the open space behind the school field.It was the favourite for many other kids too.You may fly the kite with the help of someone who will hold it high up and he has to wait for you to give the signal to let go.The coordination between the two fliers have to be good,otherwise the kite will wriggle down to the ground if it is released too soon due to lack of momentum.On the other hand,if the kite is released too late either the kite will be broken or the string will snap due to the tension created by you running at a high speed.Not that simple right?

Or,you may fly the kite solo.This is how you do it: lay the kite on the floor face up,then holding the reel of string and allow it run loose behind you while you walk to the othe end of the field.Here you would learn to find the optimum distance between you and the kite after trying for a while.When you are satisfied with the chosen distance,then run as fast as you can while holding the string high above your head.If you walk too far,the string will be too long and the slack would prevent the kite from getting up from the floor.If you walk too close,the kite would no doubt be able to take off easily,but it will not be able to sustain it height because the wind at low altitude is not strong enough to hold it alight.You need to allow longer string for to kite to reach greater height where it will embrace stronger air current and stay up there.

When the kite got up in the sky eventually, you still have to manoeuvre it carefully because it may somersault or nose-dive suddenly due to unexpected change of wind directions or air currents.It may also wriggle down when the wind weakens and you have to pull hard at it and wind up the string quickly to gain speed.However,when the kite has gone up higher and has taken up about a reel of string and starts to feed the second reel you may relax now.It will not get caught in any rooftop or coconut tree again no matter how it somersaults or nose-dives.But you still need to watch out in case it starts a series of somersaults or multi loops.

It was at this stage that I always let my mind drift looking at the kite high above and wondering what could it see in the surrounding villages and how far away was its view.It must be a lot different from our narrow views and short sightedness down here on the ground below.
It was not peace and quiet all the time,interference would always come from villages nearby.Kids from nearby kampungs would send up their kites to get entangle with ours on purpose.Then both parties would compete to pull back and to wind up the string,the quicker side will keep both kites.Sometimes these kids from other kampung modified their string by putting a layer of paste mixed with ground glass from broken light bulbs.Our ordinary string would snap when it came into contact with these modified strings,and we would lose our kites also.I don't think this is good sports,it will only create ill feelings among the races.

One more thing to watch out for is the sudden change of weather which is typical in our country.We had to race with nature to bring back the kite,sometimes we won,sometimes we lost.When we lost the kite would have a new cloth,but sometimes it happened so fast that the wet paper of the kite broke loose and the kite would drop like a stone and could not be retrieved again because it fell to a spot too far away.
It is all part and parcel of kite flying,it is the same with life,full of ups and downs.

Flying a kite

When someone says,"Go fly a kite!" he is telling you off,implying that you are being naive.
But I find flying a kite is not simple at all,there is a great deals of lessons to be learned by doing it.
First of all, you have to learn the skill to make a kite that will fly,it should not be too heavy yet strong enough to withstand strong wind up in great height,so you must learn how to pick the right materials.A balanced kite is equally important,you have to learn to test it before taking it out to the field.
Secondly,you must know where to fly a kite.It got to be a open space safe to run about bare footed:without holes,pieces of broken glass,wire or ropes and creepers to trip you over.It is like a runway for an aircraft.
Thirdly,you will learn to pick the best time to fly a kite.Do not fly on a dead,raining day.Wait for a windy,bright sunny day.The strong wind will lift the kite up easily,and you do not have to worry about your kite being damaged by rain water also.
The most important lesson of all,is that you will learn to persevere.If the kite does not take off smoothly or nose-dived to the ground,you will pick up the kite,repair the damages if any,you will try to figure out the causes of the failure."Is it due to defects in the construction of the kite? Or is it because I was running too slow? Or is it because I was running at the wrong direction in relation to the wind?...".You will try again and again until you succeeded to fly the kite to a great height.Imagine the joy and sweet taste of success!
Isn't it the most important lesson everybody must learn in life?

Let the kite take you above the cloud to the highest might

Kites always bring back fond memories of my childhood,when I let the imaginations fly with the kite to the farway places.