Chapter 4: Flight by Night

1953. Malaya is still recovering from the effects of World War. Peace remains an elusive dream. After combating foreign intruders, now Malayans have to fight their own kind, albeit of different political allegiance. Just two years ago, High Commissioner Henry Gurney, the protocol crazy British official was brutally gunned down en route to Frasier’s Hill in broad daylight. Now, they are saying that the British, under a shrewd military man by the name of Gerald Templer, who is claiming to protect their subjects, are forcing people to be placed in concentration camps like enclosures to combat the new threat that is engulfing the world, communism. Already, many rubber tappers and estate owners are labelled as the running dogs of the British and killed. Trains had been derailed, and a curfew is in force. Fear is widespread.

The situation in Muthu’s family remains status quo. Lakshmi, with her persuasive techniques, still managed to squeeze some money from her husband. Even though it is akin to drawing water from a stone, she has her novel ways. For the past three months, he seems to be regularly going to the printing press. Perhaps, the Gods had dawned some sense into him finally. She is not too hopeful, though. She wants to live one day at a time. Paraphrasing in his words, "why worry about tomorrow?" in his case, "when you don’t even know what will happen today?"

***

Muthu and his friends had put their money where their mouths were. They had started a small printing press. With a few jobs here and there, printing cards, booklets and newsletters, they went on. Lakshmi was waiting for a new dawn, but her dreams came shattering late one night.

***

Lakshmi is sleeping with her kids. It has been a long day. All the spring cleaning and washing took a toll on her and the kids. After all, they helped. It was supposed to be a family adventure of sorts.

"Lakshmi, Lakshmi!", She hears the banging on the door. Lakshmi, in a daze, is trying to make sense of the goings-on around here. The last time she remembered, she was aboard an ocean liner en route to Madras to meet her idol Jhansi Rani. The cruiser was embroiled in rough seas, and she felt her body swaying from side to side in the motion of the rocking boat. The hypnopompic aura cleared when she realised that it was only Thamby who was vigorously shaking her to wake up from her beauty sleep.

"Lakshmi, Lakshmi, open the door! surkah, quick!".

It is Muthu. He sounds desperate. She can visualise him all sweaty with pearls of perspiratory dots from his forehead and his agape mouth.

"Is he in some kind of trouble?" Lakshmi wonders. She had never heard her husband of fifteen years sound so frantic before. Many unpleasant thoughts flash through her mind during that short walk between her bed and the front door. As she is adjusting her saree, covering the essentials and pushing the loose ends of her hair into its place, more dramatic scenes from Tamil movies come pouring into her consciousness.

Did the printing press burn down? Was there a robbery? Did he have a brush the law for printing subversive articles? Any trouble? Did anyone die?

After what appeared like an eternity, Lakshmi makes it to the door. The leave of the door opens to a view of a man drenched in sweat and a hurry. Stunned, Lakshmi stands perplexed.

"Come, pack all the clothes and children’s things!" Muthu rattles on as he rushes to pull out the trunk of suitcases under the bed and on the cupboard.

"The lorry is here. We have to move house. I have a job in Ipoh, and I have to start there tomorrow."

By this time, Lakshmi was an old hand at Muthu’s tricks. She is aware that the house rent, yes, they were living in a rented house, had not been paid for the past three months. The landlord, Mr Chellapa Chetty, had no time beating around the bush, but to tell in simple terms to pay up or ship off! She had also heard from her gossiping friends that printing press venture was all on credit auspices of another money-lender. Muthu and his friends must have also lapsed on their payment too. Hence, the sudden rush to disappear. Vamoose!

***

As if the toiling in the morning was not enough, the young souls have to shove their belongings hurriedly into bags. Lakshmi bundles the kitchenware into boxes and their measly belongings into her handbag.

A bone-shaker in the name of a lorry arrives in front of their home in 2 hours. Rattling all over, the driver dared not off the ignition for fear that it may not start again.

"Samy,!" whispered Muthu is a hushed voice to the lorry driver. The last he wanted to do in the thick of the night was to create a commotion and alert the neighbourhood of his hurried departure. "Off the engine. The neighbours have to sleep!".

With the two attendants and six pairs of helping hands, the product of their 15 years of wedded bliss and patchy remnants of the family that once rule Penang is snuggly fitted into the 5-tonne lorry. Within a single generation, the family that once ruled Penang is now running away under the cover of the night from creditors. All along the journey, the echoes of her late father in law’s immortal word keeps reverberating in Lakshmi’s mind - "A man should live by his word, without that he is no man!"

Ipoh, 1953, is a booming town. The discovery of tin in the valleys of the state drew many characters to its town, the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. The good had one intention on their mind, breaking free from the clutches of poverty and to carve a fortune for themselves and their dependants in an honest way. The bad took the opportunity to benefit from the booming business from whatever devious and illegal way they could think off; the ugly got caught for it.

The Muthus are the in-betweens who are just like migratory birds passing through, who break their journey and continue as the weather permits. They are blown by the wind, shaded for a while and off they fly, hardly leaving any discernible mark. Like a butterfly flutter, their existence also means something to the ecosystem but nothing earth shattering.

It was a month since they reached Ipoh. The kids just spent their time playing and loafing around. Lakshmi starts worrying about their future. Of course, life cannot be just about having fun. They must be able to fend for themselves in adulthood. They do not need to move mountains, but at least, they should be able to move themselves, day to day.

She got to do something.

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