My memories of Singapore "Kampung Melayu" Jalan Eunos

I miss my time in Redang Island. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. The clear blue sea, swimming among the fish, lazing by the beach watching the sun rise. It was almost paradise on earth. I loved watching the lifeguards being boisterous, pushing one another off the jetty, swimming in the deep water so easily like they were dolphins. They seemed so happy. They live such simple lives and how much I wish for a simple life.

I have lived all of my life in big cities. I was born and brought up in Kuala Lumpur and then spent 17 years in London. City life is all I ever knew. My only experience of 'kampung' (village) is going back to Singapore Kampung Melayu, Jalan Eunos, my grand-mother's house many years ago which by now, has been destroyed and the land taken over by the government. The compensation given were peanuts compared to the memories that have been taken away from the entire future generation.

My grand-mother's house was a real kampung house. My grand-ma's house was right opposite the masjid where my grand father used to be the imam before he had a massive stroke  and became bed ridden for 10 years. The house was massive with three living rooms and five bedrooms. Each living room is like the size of an entire apartment. You go down the steps into the kitchen which was humongous. However, the drawback was the toilet was outside in a small tiny hut with raised platform, a big gaping hole in the middle and a 'poo' pail underneath. As a small child, that was a disaster especially when you need to do your business in the middle of the night. However, we used to have chickens, goose and cats.

Those were the days when going back to Singapore for Hari Raya Eid-ul Fitri was like going to heaven. I used to enjoy it so much seeing my aunts and uncles, cousins and everyone. My Singaporean aunts and grand aunts were so loud. When they speak, the whole village could hear them. It was almost like they were shouting to one another but they were actually being friendly.

When my cousins come, we used to run around and play catching. We were so happy and I love to see people being happy. It was a simple life in my kampung. My grand-mother would spend most of the time in the kitchen. She was like super efficient and would do everything by herself. She will not allow anyone to help her because she didn't want people to get in her way. She always used to fry lots of chicken because that was my favourite and she used to cook so many dishes. She was always busy, always doing something. I don't think I ever saw her sitting down doing nothing.

She looked after my bed ridden grand father for 10 years. He had his bed just next to the kitchen and he could only say two words "Allah" and "Nab" which is for Zaynab (my grand mother's name). All the time I could hear him say "Allah...Allah...Allah...". I never met him when he was well but my mom tells me about him all the time, how clever he was, how intelligent he was, how understanding he was...I feel like I've known him all  of my life. My grand mother also looked after a niece who was paralysed since birth. she used to make dolls for us out of cloth. She would make a doll house too out of card board.

I enjoyed my childhood Alhamdulillah and it wasn't about anything big or expensive, it was the simple things in life that I enjoyed the most.