Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Flashback
My Uncle Venu has always been a major influence in my life. He is the youngest of mum's siblings and her only brother. Being the youngest in my mum's family, it was natural for me and my sis to cling on to him and to connect with him. For most of my childhood, he was away in India studying medicine and I can hardly remember hanging out with him during those early years. But he always struck me as someone who was cool, someone to look up to, someone I d want to be.
My mum was closest to him (and still is) when she was growing up, mainly cause of the short age gap as compared with her 2 older sisters. Mum's family lived in a rubber estate in Kluang, Johor, where my grandfather was the estate manager. When me and Div were much younger, mum would tell us all the crazy thing our uncle would do. He was always the adventurous one in the family, going of on solo expeditions of the estate before he was even 7. Naturally, this would freak my grandmother out, resulting in her dispatching the local labourers to go looking for him. Often he would be found on top of some tree. He was pretty much a real boy, and still is actually. He used to take things apart and put them back, much to the dismay of my grandparents. He did things his way and was definitely one not to be bound by rules. A free soul in short, very much like my dear sister. Mum was usually the quiet partner in crime, though she never realised it. But she usually accompanied him, pretending as if they were gourmet chefs preparing first class cuisine with exotic ingredients (usually leaves and water) with her masak- masak set.
He is also a big music lover. Pretty much all the retro stuff I was exposed to was because of him (apart from me dad's influence). He definitely got me in love with The Doors (he always reminded me of Jim Morrison in some way), Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Neil Diamond. Mum admits that it was because of him, she fell in love with classic rock and all the gold retro stuff. He is also a voracious reader who introduced me to Stephen King. Pretty much every classic or any good stuff I ve read of was because of him and mum.
He now works at a clinic in Johor Bahru and is married with 3 sons. 3 boys who I am absolutely mad about and who make homecoming so enjoyable. The oldest boy, Vishnu who is in kindergarden now has taken after me when it comes to his fav superhero; BATMAN. Whenever we buy toys for him, its usually me and my uncle who get more excited and tend to end up checking the toy out, oblivious to the sighs and shaking heads of my mum and aunts. Vishnu is getting there musically as well. When I was last home, he told me, 'Vishant aten (aten is a respectful call for an older brother), I learned 2 new songs from the radio' and he proceeded to sing choruses from I Shot the Sheriff and Phil Colins 'Another Day in Paradise', all this at 6 yrs old.
During my summer break back home, I didnt get much of a chance to see him, cos I was just too busy travelling, meeting up with friends and I guess I just didn't put it down as a priority. Towards the last 2 weeks of my break, with mum's constant reminding, I made up my mind to go visit him. I left Malaysia for Perth on a Thursday, and it was the Monday of that week that I went to see him. It was just an overnight thing, but I am so glad I did it in the end.
Arrived in JB in the evening and was greeted by my uncle and his 2 sons (the youngest one, Rohan was just 6 months old then and was with his mother). It was good, the moment I got into the car, the kids kept bombarding me with questions and all kinds of funny words, the kind you make up at that age. We went straight to dinner at Pizza Hut. The second boy, Hari is a real food connoisseur. He was making such a racket with Vishnu, but the moment the food arrived, he piped down and ate his pizza quietly with glazed look in his eye. Every bite was ecstasy to him. After dinner we dropped the kids at their mum's place, where we stayed for a bit as Vishnu wanted me to watch an Ironman DVD with him. After wishing them goodnight, we left for my uncle's place. From that point on, it was like 2 bachelors enjoying life. He popped in a newly bought Deep Purple concert DVD and blasted the volume. Ah tt was sheer ecstasy. We were like 2 young rockers drumming our fingers, shaking our legs and singing along to those Rock Gods. We also watched a Cat Stevens concert which blew my mind away (he eventually gave the dvd to me). After awhile, about 2 in the morning, we got hungry and went for mamak. We just sat there with 2 servings of garlic naan, tandoori chicken and 2 teh halia each, talking cock, complaining about politics, discussing family matters, our individual future plans. It was good, real good, I felt we really connected then, like brothers, like a best friend. We went to bed at 5.30 am.
It was sad leaving the next day, I just kept regretting that I didnt spend enough time with him and that really sucked. Getting on that bus was hard, I promised I d email him when I got back to Perth.
To this day, I havent emailed him and it's incidences like this that really piss me off. I just hate it when we get carried away with how busy we are in life, till we forget to do things that mean the most to us. He called me up last week. He was visiting my mum and h brought his boys along. He asked about my foot and asked how things were going. He even asked with a tinge of hope, if I was coming back for the mid year break, but I dashed those hopes away, sigh. It was good to talk to him and the boys, made me feel a bit more complete. I really cant wait to go home. Thoughts of being with him and the rest of my family always get me going when I m down. Its just that thought of se
eing them again and just being myself.
My mum was closest to him (and still is) when she was growing up, mainly cause of the short age gap as compared with her 2 older sisters. Mum's family lived in a rubber estate in Kluang, Johor, where my grandfather was the estate manager. When me and Div were much younger, mum would tell us all the crazy thing our uncle would do. He was always the adventurous one in the family, going of on solo expeditions of the estate before he was even 7. Naturally, this would freak my grandmother out, resulting in her dispatching the local labourers to go looking for him. Often he would be found on top of some tree. He was pretty much a real boy, and still is actually. He used to take things apart and put them back, much to the dismay of my grandparents. He did things his way and was definitely one not to be bound by rules. A free soul in short, very much like my dear sister. Mum was usually the quiet partner in crime, though she never realised it. But she usually accompanied him, pretending as if they were gourmet chefs preparing first class cuisine with exotic ingredients (usually leaves and water) with her masak- masak set.
He is also a big music lover. Pretty much all the retro stuff I was exposed to was because of him (apart from me dad's influence). He definitely got me in love with The Doors (he always reminded me of Jim Morrison in some way), Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Neil Diamond. Mum admits that it was because of him, she fell in love with classic rock and all the gold retro stuff. He is also a voracious reader who introduced me to Stephen King. Pretty much every classic or any good stuff I ve read of was because of him and mum.
He now works at a clinic in Johor Bahru and is married with 3 sons. 3 boys who I am absolutely mad about and who make homecoming so enjoyable. The oldest boy, Vishnu who is in kindergarden now has taken after me when it comes to his fav superhero; BATMAN. Whenever we buy toys for him, its usually me and my uncle who get more excited and tend to end up checking the toy out, oblivious to the sighs and shaking heads of my mum and aunts. Vishnu is getting there musically as well. When I was last home, he told me, 'Vishant aten (aten is a respectful call for an older brother), I learned 2 new songs from the radio' and he proceeded to sing choruses from I Shot the Sheriff and Phil Colins 'Another Day in Paradise', all this at 6 yrs old.
During my summer break back home, I didnt get much of a chance to see him, cos I was just too busy travelling, meeting up with friends and I guess I just didn't put it down as a priority. Towards the last 2 weeks of my break, with mum's constant reminding, I made up my mind to go visit him. I left Malaysia for Perth on a Thursday, and it was the Monday of that week that I went to see him. It was just an overnight thing, but I am so glad I did it in the end.
Arrived in JB in the evening and was greeted by my uncle and his 2 sons (the youngest one, Rohan was just 6 months old then and was with his mother). It was good, the moment I got into the car, the kids kept bombarding me with questions and all kinds of funny words, the kind you make up at that age. We went straight to dinner at Pizza Hut. The second boy, Hari is a real food connoisseur. He was making such a racket with Vishnu, but the moment the food arrived, he piped down and ate his pizza quietly with glazed look in his eye. Every bite was ecstasy to him. After dinner we dropped the kids at their mum's place, where we stayed for a bit as Vishnu wanted me to watch an Ironman DVD with him. After wishing them goodnight, we left for my uncle's place. From that point on, it was like 2 bachelors enjoying life. He popped in a newly bought Deep Purple concert DVD and blasted the volume. Ah tt was sheer ecstasy. We were like 2 young rockers drumming our fingers, shaking our legs and singing along to those Rock Gods. We also watched a Cat Stevens concert which blew my mind away (he eventually gave the dvd to me). After awhile, about 2 in the morning, we got hungry and went for mamak. We just sat there with 2 servings of garlic naan, tandoori chicken and 2 teh halia each, talking cock, complaining about politics, discussing family matters, our individual future plans. It was good, real good, I felt we really connected then, like brothers, like a best friend. We went to bed at 5.30 am.
It was sad leaving the next day, I just kept regretting that I didnt spend enough time with him and that really sucked. Getting on that bus was hard, I promised I d email him when I got back to Perth.
To this day, I havent emailed him and it's incidences like this that really piss me off. I just hate it when we get carried away with how busy we are in life, till we forget to do things that mean the most to us. He called me up last week. He was visiting my mum and h brought his boys along. He asked about my foot and asked how things were going. He even asked with a tinge of hope, if I was coming back for the mid year break, but I dashed those hopes away, sigh. It was good to talk to him and the boys, made me feel a bit more complete. I really cant wait to go home. Thoughts of being with him and the rest of my family always get me going when I m down. Its just that thought of se
eing them again and just being myself.
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