Hello, stranger!
Who is he? What was his name? Where did he come from? Where did he live?
Well, we don’t even know what’s become of him. This poor beggar used to come by Tom Turnbull’s quarters, when Tom was in Batu Gajah. Sometimes, this old man tried to sell Tom a thing or two. Here is a picture of the old man (donated by Tom); he is seen here holding some cloth, in one hand, and an enamel mug in the other hand.
yes, the citizens of Perak come from all walks of life - Mining Towkays, hawkers, rubber tappers, coolies, etc.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:56 am
Hello Felicia, if you don’t mind me saying so, this old man looked more like a farmer than a beggar to me! Hahaha
His big straw hat, his clothing and the two sticks reminded me of a poor farmer in the popular Cantonese series “The Motherland” shown on TV in the early 1990s. Anyone still remember watching this series? If I remember well, the poor farmer was called “Kam Pak” which means “Uncle Kam”. He looked exactly like the old man shown above.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:55 am
Hi Ipohgal. i wouldn’t know if he looked like Kam Pak, as i never watched that series. actually, in the early 90s (or maybe very late 80s), my cousins and i used to follow a Japanese series called “Oyuki”….which was dubbed in BM!
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Hi Felicia, sorry, the series was actually “The Fatherland Part 1 & Part 2″ shown over Metro Vision in the early 1990s over Klang Valley only. I got it mixed up with another series called “The Motherland”. This TV station has stopped operating due to poor advertisement revenue in the mid 90s. Sorry, never heard of “Oyuki” though.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Poor old uncle, he could have been a coolie during the mining era. Or he could have been a victim of greed. Almost daily we hear of another scandal on Wall Street or in government where greed for money has driven people to destroy their lives. No wonder all wise teaching preaches that, “we must be on our guard against all kinds of greed, a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”.
July 24th, 2010 at 8:41 am
you may be right, Sundralingam…maybe this man did have a decent job once. but alas, luck ran out on him….