Wife’s Paternal Grandpa

My Wife’s Paternal Grandpa

The late Mr Lee Fu Chu(已故李富初老先生) was my wife's paternal grandfather. By convention of Chinese social decorum I would address him as grandpa too.

Grandpa was a highly respected figure in the Hakka clan with the surname (seh, 姓氏) of Lee during the post Merdeka years, especially in the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia, like Kedah, Perlis and Penang.

Friends and relatives at that time used to call him “shu kun" (叔公) meaning “granduncle", out of respect for him as an elder.

People of other ethnic groups residing in the area of Alor Setar also had high regards for Grandpa and they would call him "Tok" (Datuk)when they dropped in or passed by his shop in Jalan Langgar, Alor Setar.

Grandpa was a generous and approachable person. Friends and relatives who went to him for material or monetary aid would seldom go back empty-handed. I was told by a relative that his late father had once borrowed from Grandpa eight thousand bucks to buy their first house at Bukit Mertajam in the seventies of the past century.

Of course, there were bound to be unscrupulous people who were ready to exploit his generosity in order to swindle money from him.

The modus operandi used by these people followed a standard procedure as below:

A person would approach Grandpa with a business proposal for him to invest. The major portion of the capital would be provided by Grandpa but the business would be run entirely by the proposer as the manager of the business. Usually the business would be run for several years with grandpa consistently pumping in additional money to top-up the investment fund so that the business would be sustained but in the end the proposer would pronounce the business to be in a bad shape and it had to be closed down abruptly. As a result, Grandpa suffered a financial loss as the money he invested was like tons of salt cast into the sea whereas the swindler was seen to start a new business of his own. How he managed to get money for his business is yet to be known to others. One could only deduce that "One man's loss is another man's gain."   This was how grandpa's money was depleted again and again by friends and relatives whom he had trusted.

Nevertheless, Grandpa remained a compassionate man. He had donated money to numerous schools, associations, welfare bodies and religious organizations.  He even sponsored a child of a distant relative with a monthly subsidy of M$50 for the child to complete his undergraduate study at the University of Singapore in the early Seventies of the previous century.

 

Grandpa was a very affectionate husband too. He adored grandma like a newly-wed bride. Hardly one would see them argue. To see them quarrel was even harder still. They were so affectionate to each other that they would share together their food from the same bowl and beverage from a common mug. Grandpa himself did not like to play mah-jong. However, he would encourage Grandma to play the game as a daily pastime. Grandpa always said to Grandma, “Go and gamble as long as you wish. Any money you win from the game will be yours; the money that you lose  will be borne by me.”

Normally a businessman who is successful in accumulating wealth would also be tempted to gather more BMWs (Black Market Wives). I know of a case which happened at Nibong Tebal. There was a local prominent businessman who collaborated with a medium in order to coax his own wife to allow him to marry another woman so that his illness would be cured instantly and his life prolonged indefinitely. Little did his gullible wife know that it was her husband who was suffering from ‘the affliction of greed and lust’. This strategy was a very powerful tool that many others would emulate in the later years.

For Grandpa it was a different story. It had never occurred to him to allow any other woman to come into his married life. Although a fortune teller had once predicted that Grandpa would take a second wife, he did not toe the line as he opined that a faithful and responsible husband should have a strong will to restrain his lust from taking another woman. He had well managed his marriage with full responsibility as he did not believe that marriage is some kind of arithmetic problem that one can do over again if one gets it wrong the first time.

This chain of memories of Grandpa has reminded me of a Chinese adage, ＂修身` 齐家` 治国` 平天下。＂which means that one has to perfect one's character and to generate a harmonious family and community bond as the prerequisite before one could reign a country effectively. In a way Grandpa had fulfilled the quintessence of the above saying as he was an affectionate husband, a successful businessman and an influential figure of his clan.

BM High School Rojak

BM High School Rojak

~~This story is fictitious. Any resemblance with the real life characters is just a coincidence. ~~

Lately, I had asked a BM High School old boy, Henry Ng, to tell me what his alma mater is famous for.

He was dumbfounded to answer me as he could not think of any that the school is now proud of. Like what my  other friend, Christopher Lo, told me, “All the premier schools  in Penang, like Penang Free, BM High and Penang TI  are  now hibernating like lazy old snakes  waiting to slough their skins and hopefully they would one day be rejuvenated as vigorous dragons! The glories of all these schools could only be found in the pages of history. The present school of the BM High is just like the present school of the Penang Free; both are devoid of their past glories. They are just a pale shadow of the 70's or 80's and before.”

The instant I mentioned to Henry that ‘BM High School Rojak’ is the pride of the school now, he could not deny it but to agree with me with a grin.

 

It had been a common sight to see many people gathering opposite the main gate of the BM High School in the evening just to satisfy their taste buds with the delicious rojak prepared by a Chinese vendor. According to Henry, the vendor was having a lucrative business as his customers were from all ages and they were from all walks of life irrespective of race and religion as the rojak he prepared was 'pork-free' and 'beef-free'.  His success story had prompted another vendor to set up another stall in the town displaying a big signboard that reads ' BM High School Rojak'.

The signboard had drawn a huge crowd of customers gathering around to buy rojak from this bogus vendor. His business was so good that he could hardly handle it all by himself so much so that he had to reduce his business hours down to three days a week.

On the other hand, the business of the genuine vendor was affected tremendously so much so that he was very frustrated and very unhappy with the bogus rojak vendor who was trying to sabotage his business. As a result, he went to confront the bogus vendor. Subsequently, both of them engaged in a few rounds of heated quarrels. Onlookers were too happy to instigate a fight between them. Finally they agreed to end their conflict once and for all in a showdown to determine who should be the rightful claimant of the brand name of  'the BM High School Rojak '.

In the pre-showdown campaign, both the vendors were instigated and orchestrated by their respective ‘managers’, in which they would yell at each other with vulgar words like,

"BASTARD!!! I'll slaughter you!”
“YOUR BALLS!!! I’ll make your pants drop to the ground!”
…............

The D day finally came when the hands of the ‘grandfather’ clock on the clock tower struck the appointed time. The two rivals met at the courtyard of the old BM court house to settle the score with the modus operandi usually shown in the Western movies. They engaged in three rounds of boxing, the sport that was quite prevalent in the BM High School during the sixties of the last century. Both the boxers had agreed that the winner of the fight would legitimately own the name of 'The BM High School Rojak' irrespective whether he was a bogus or a genuine vendor of the business.

The verdict was quite obvious to the town folks when they saw the bogus vendor still bearing the signboard ‘The BM High School Rojak’ on the following day.