old people’s talk

Happy Ponggal to all Tamilians. Yesterday I visited the home of a student of mine, Mathavan in Sungai Long township in Cheras and got sucked into the boisterous stream of idle talk of two elderly man. Their reminiscenses of my late father was soothing to my ears though. What struck me was the dilemna of these old people (a 66 year-old and 70 year-old) in having to constantly fall back on the glory days past to keep their sanity intact. To keep these memories flooding back in vivid detail, of course some alcoholic drinks seems (sic) to be of help. Compared to myself (teetotaller, pushing 52) who has difficulty remembering much of the past especially persons of our then neighbourhood in Cheras 2 1/2 mls. Could it be that this memory lapse is because I’m not living in the past rather constantly forging ahead to the future? But on the other hand the two old men who’re retired general workers of Dewan Bandaraya and Forestry Department respectively, seem to have been gradually disassociated from the future and present, so much so that they need to fall back on the past. Interesting characters those two, maybe I’ll include them in my present novel, The Breadwinner which is actually about the labour class Malaysian Indian society situated in Cheras 2 1/2 mls municipal workers’ quarters.