pakdoktergolfblog: Balik kampung...

Whenever some of pakdokter's friends at the golf club or pakdokter's clients at the clinic ( many of whom were quite of the inquisitive type) asked pakdokter whether pakdokter would go back to the kampung for the Hari Raya, pakdokter would generally answer them in the negative. Pakdokter would tell them that pakdokter's kampung is actually at the Brickfields! This is quite true to some extent. Pakdokter was born in Brickfields, grew up and schooled in Kuala Lumpur ( except for the 8-year stretch of secondary boarding school in Ipoh) and even went to the medical school in KL to become one of the Made-in-Malaysia doctors! So, 'kampung' to pakdokter is 'Kuala Lumpur'.

pakdokter was born at the second house from the left

of the row of link houses in Brickfields popularly known as 'Seratus Pintu'...

pakdokter's current residence is on the 30th floor of the brown tower

behind that row of the old house....

But pakdokter's parents came from up North. Pakdokter's father originated from Kampung Kedah in Parit Buntar, Perak, and pakdokter's mother came from the nearby Gunung Semanggul district. As a little boy pakdokter used to travel with pakdokter's parents back to the kampung, and that kampung was always the kampung in Kampung Kedah, Parit Buntar, where pakdokter's father owned several plots of residential land, several acres of paddy field and a few acres of durian orchards in the hinterland.

That kampung was named 'Kampung Kedah' because its settlers were mostly of folks from Kedah who had to flee the state from the invasion of the Siamese army.

'Balik kampung' those days would mean a day-long drive along the Federal Route 1. Pakdokter remembers we would leave home very early, drive up the narrow, winding and dark road through the Templer's Park. For some reason it is etched in pakdokter's memory that driving through this part of the road would put ourselves at the risk of being pounced upon by 'tigers'. Perhaps this was just pakdokter's parents' way of making us behave at the back of the car, or maybe it was true that that region then was really infested with wild tigers....

Then somewhere along the stretch near the present Rawang and later after Tanjung Malim and a few other spots like Slim River, Sungkai and Sungai Siput, , the car would be stopped at military or police road blocks whose personnel would search and examine the boot and the inside of the car.

Of course after pakdokter learned how to read and became slightly intelligent and was able to read history, pakdokter now understood that these road-blocks were there to check that no 'sympathisers of the communists' would be able to provide 'supplies' like rice and sugar to the 'insurgents'!

Recollecting the trips to 'balik kampung' in the 50's was like watching an epic movie in 'black-and-white' actually.....

Today, only pakdokter's eldest sister still lives in the kampung house. And pakdokter must admit that pakdokter did not make the regular 'pilgrimage' back to the 'kampung' like most city dwellers do faithfully during every Hari Raya these days. Come to think of it pakdokter had actually mostly used the Hari Raya holidays to make trips overseas......

Scouring the collection of old photographs, the last time pakdokter 'balik kampung' must have been 6 or 7 years ago because pakdokter had brought along 'Dad', pakdokter's late father-in-law. And pakdokter's children, Rastam and Raena were not yet living overseas......so they were with us in the 'balik kampung' trip too. It must have been during a 'Hari Raya' period, based on the jars of cookies served on the dining table.

the 'kampung' house.....circa 2003 or so...

pakdokter's brother-in-law was a senior official of the Islamic Party

note the party's 'full-moon' logo at the door-step.....

pakdokter's family and pakdokter's sister's family....

Fakhrulrazi ( pakdokter's nephew), Kak (pakdokter's sister) and
Bang Lid, pakdokter's brother-in-law....

Dad (pakdokter's father-in-law) and Bang Lid (pakdokter's brother-in-law)

This year pakdokter and partner decided to make that 'balik kampung' trip again. Both our children could not come back for the festive holidays. We left a few days after the Hari Raya to avoid the mad rush and the traffic.

'Dad' has passed on about 5 years ago and Bang Lid ( Cikgu Haji Khalid Abd Hamid), pakdokter's brother-in-law has also passed away just over a year ago. There was only pakdokter's sister to visit whose younger of her two surviving son's and his family now occupy the family home with her.

the 'kampung house' today.....

Pakdokter's sister who is now 73 years old seemed to have come to terms with the departure of her late husband but age is definitely catching up with her. She is troubled with osteoarthritis which limited her mobility, but apart from this she is generally healthy for her age.

The political struggle of her late husband has been carried on by her younger son, Fakhrulrazi, who is a passionate activist of the Islamic Party in the kampung. And the pictures below are testimony of his activism.

The house is the centre of regional political activities of the party and many of the 'political ceramahs' by notables like Ustaz Nik Aziz and Haji Hadi Awang had been held there!