I've found another little house on the prairie -
though surprisingly, where i don't see the deep blue sea,
nor do i hear the sound of the waves, hitting the beach,
no white sails, bobbing on the horizon, do i see -
no soft breeze rustling through the leaves, the trees,
nor monsoon winds to bend the branches, the trunks of the trees...
no casuarinas to line my path, no coco palm trees,
nor lonely footprints in the fine golden sand...
I've admired the beauty of a sunrise through the mist -
and how lovely the green hills stand, amidst the clouds
i've heard happy little birds, singing in the trees,
and seen the branches sway in a different kind of breeze...
i've complained: no deep blue sea, no golden sand in my midst
and realised in my heart and in my mind they do exist,
so no matter where i go, what i've missed:
none is lacking, none missing,
coz they're always there:
always, in my heart and mind, do exist...
When i first came to sleepy little Kluang town in 1977 from Muar(where i did my first year of teaching), there were only three main streets in town branching off from Jalan Batu Pahat-Mersing: Jalan Station, (along the railway track), Jalan Dato Teoh Siew Koh, and Jalan Captain Ahmed... There was one Parkson outlet and a bare garden, without a single flowering plant - only a row of palm trees to line the edges (one could see from one end of the garden right across to the opposite end)in the town square, a market and a bus-station - all within sight of each other...
ReplyDeleteNo seaside, no big river(Sg Mengkibol which passes through the town was like a big monsoon drain,at its widest point - till that big killer flood that immersed the town centre one very wet year - and Sg Kluang in an obscure corner of Yap Tau Sah), no casuarina, no beach... i sighed, and complained, for many years... before adopting this little town (it has grown) as my second home...
That was Kluang, and the only beautiful sight was Gunung Lambak (on a lovely misty morning it looks like Mount Fuji), and Kluang being a valley, a thick layer of mist settles over the town asyou sleep... and you'll wake up to go to school the next morning in a blurry, foggy light... I've viewed the town come alive one misty morning from atop the hillslope of the hospital(warded for asthma at the start of a new term and missing a first day of school!) and the view was great... and the sound of morning rush hour traffic 'so far below'... and imagining what each person would be doing in STK...
The whole town is situated on undulating ground, and all the strategic places are on a 'hilly mould' of its own: the government office, the hospital, STK and the Police Station opposite, Sek Vokasional Kluang(my first school in Kluang), Chung Hwa Sch, and also No. 68 Jalan Suasa, Taman Kluang Jaya stands and now there are hill homes at the foothill and the lower slopes of Gunung Lambak (that every Kluangite loves and is proud of - besides our rail coffee and 'kopi cap televisyen' - enjoyed by the townfolk, (including the royal family), loved by brewers of Kluang's famous brands)...
Come see our quaint little town (that has expanded through the three decades that i was here), you might like us more, if not the town...!