SIBLINGS 75: THORN AMONG ROSES

Final checking by Noriah to ascertain the acceptable amount of fruits
the Monitor's car

With the bigger capacity of his car's boot, Ana must be the happiest of the lot because the bigger amount and assortment of fruits that would reach their destination in Suka Menanti

Beaming with pride for the very fruitful outings to Pelubang

To have a superb 70 year old body like me, my advice to you, "Consume as much as you can but later on must also work like a horse to commensurate with what you have taken."

Mr Perumal happily collecting the fruits for the take away by his wife's former students while enjoying the delicacy of serawa pulut durian specially prepared by his wife


COLLECTIONS OF MR PERUMAL'S ASSORTMENT OF ANTIQUE CLOCKS

SOBEHAH'S SON'S WEDDING IN SUNGAI PETANI ON ON 25.06.2011

At wheel chair bound Sobehah's son wedding at Sungai Petani on 25th. June 2011

When Zam asked me to accompany her to one of her schoolmate functions, I was quiet embarrassed because I would be the only thorn among the roses. Either my thorn would pierce the roses or on the other hand, the bunch of roses could choke me to death. That was why I kept to myself during the first few meets because I might expose my weakness of talking a lot which might pierce the eardrums of the roses.

As time passed by, I began to adapt myself well with the roses. Not all the roses voices were sweet and soothing to the ears but not all were thundering to the ears either. However with the fusion of both of the extremes, then there were harmonious melodies to the ears and full of warmth to the heart. Apart from that, I was also not the only thorn among the roses but there were also other unfortunate thorns that has survived among the roses.

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Zam’s schoolmates are very active in their schedule or unscheduled activities. Their activities were well-oiled because of the efforts of their vocal and active coordinator who could spit fire. Whether you like it or not, she is the live wire of the gatherings. Being a single mother and a teacher by training, unconsciously she is the monitor of the group that has successfully provided the glue and grease to the organization. With her zealous efforts, the activities of Zam’s schoolmates has blended cohesively which has the ingredients of solidarity and sustainability among their schoolmates

Now, I begin to enjoy their gatherings because the monitor herself could smother the beatings from others while at the same time she expects others could smother her spitting fire. For now, I do really feel at ease with these kinds of arrangement but I would be always on the alert that I might be caught with sudden surprises.. Insya Allah

On Saturday, 26^th July 2011, we have a very fruitful visit to Mr. Perumal and Miss Soomchit’s orchard mansion at Pelubang. As usual, Zam’s classmates brought along their home made varieties of foods. The visit was very fruitful indeed because it was at the right time and the right place together with the right hosts of Mr. Perumal and Miss Somchit. The magnanimous pair made in heaven made us ashamed by letting the flood gate open to us with the total freedom of picking any fruits of our choice regardless of the types and quantities.

Mr. Perumal himself plucked the ripe fruits such as rambutans, mangosteens, dokong and durians. We rendered our helping hands by consuming them and bringing his collection of fruits to our cars. It was the most pleasurable tasks for us and deep in our hearts we were really hoping the magnanimous pair would invite us again for the next fruiting season. However our day dreaming was shattered to pieces when Mr. Perumal informed us that he wanted to put up for sale their much loved mansion together with the orchard.

Their British Cottage Architectural mansion on the sprawling two acres high tech orchard embodied their life long ambition after their retirement from their services. Both of them has reached their epitome of success and they have enjoyed their life to the fullest and they have reached their plateau of nirvana. Their magnanimous deeds has also brought joy to the lucky receivers including their former students. As age has outpaced them, both of them has decided to move into another phase of their life. They has decided to move back to the town with a smaller space of home which would be within their physical capacity to manage efficiently.

Along his journey of 70 years of life, Mr Perumal has also acquired another life style which was colleting of antique clocks from the four corners of the world. Mr. Perumal is not just like any other antique collectors, but he is also a master craftsman in clock repairing. He in not a stingy clock repairer but he has also rendered his skills for a good cause.

On the insistence of his former SAHC , Dato’ Noraman Raffee, Mr. Perumal has repaired many Mosques’ grand fathers’ clocks around the vicinity of Alor Setar. Although he is willing to part off with his much beloved mansion on the sprawling orchard at Pelubang, Mr. Perumal does not has the heart to part with his life style of collecting of antique clocks. As such, apart from Miss Boonsoi Somchit, his collections of antique clocks would faithfully follow Mr. Perumal into another phase of his life. For all of us, we do really wish that Mr. Perumal and Miss Boonsoi Soomchit would remain in their heavenly orchard so that we could pursue our fruitful endeavours to Pelubang for many many years to come.