Rajisvary D/O Vairappan and Siow Lee Xian
Rajisvary D/O Vairappan:
Let me introduce myself. I am Rajisvary d/o Vairappan, I am 64 years old but yet I would like to have my dearest father to be with me, next to my name all the time even though he left this world 33 years ago. I was born in KK Hospital and grew up in Jalan Simpang Bedok, Oh what sweet memories! My mother Parvathi was a wonderful but strict mother who gets anything in her hands to whack us on the spot for any wrongdoings. Oh yes "us" its my 5 other siblings, two older brothers, Kaneson, Tangemany, Me, my sister Kotha and my younger brothers Ananda and Sekar.
Kampong days were the best days in my life, we walked on bare feet. I don't remember seeing a doctor, I heard about “chicken pox” only as no other disease ever came near us despite eating fruits without washing or if a sweet fell we just picked it up and blew the sand away and put it in our mouth. All the kampong front doors are always wide open; we only close when it's time to sleep at night. Best of all there were no race or religion among us, we played together, Ha! I remember an apple would be cut into 6 slices to be shared among my 6 siblings.
Let me tell you about my environment, we lived in a spacious 3-room kampong house; we had zinc as our roof. Each time the television showed problems on the screen, my brothers would climb up to the roof and try to do some fixing and one of us would be on the ground to tell him the situation, whether to tilt the “Ariel” to the left or right. And we had neighbours who would come down in the evening to watch TV, as they don't have a set. And when it is festival time we would share our cookies with the non-Hindus and in return the neighbours would put some sugar or sweets on the plates as a gesture not to return empty plates.
My school was Bedok Girls School; I was admitted to Primary 1 at the age of 7. I never went to Kindergarten. I was the shortest among my peers so I had the privilege to be first in line. In those days most of us were considered malnourished and we were made to drink a cup of hot delicious milk. I remember studying English, Arithmetics, History, Geography, Tamil, Science, Drawing, PE. My teacher was a British teacher named Mrs Ballard. Oh! The tuckshop, it's my best place to go. Just for 5 cents you can get a plate of “Nasi Lemak” or ice cream or sweet drinks or "Kachang Puteh" or a bowl of noodles, mouth-watering dishes.
Well those were the wonderful days that I wish to travel back to time. Now I am in my 60s. I am married to a handsome retired soldier T. Sundrasoo and 2 beautiful children with their spouses, Vanitha Arivanathan and Saravanan Yogeswary. How time flies, how our Singapore has changed. We hardly carry cash in those days, even so it will be coins. But now my grandchildren Priya and Madhavan have cash cards to draw money anytime. Adults only talk on the telephones when necessary but now...! Yes there are changes in everything we do. There are pros and cons to our changes, but whatever it is, discipline is important especially in bringing up our children, the leaders of our country! Thank you for this opportunity!
Rajisvary D/O Vairappan
Siow Lee Xian:
40 years later, someone else was born. Also at KK hospital! Her name is Siow Lee Xian and she has a smaller family of an older brother, a mother and a father. She grew up in Tampines, a place that was once barren but now home to three malls and a hub! She loves where she’s at and hopes to always be here. Everything is so convenient and she seldom feels the need to leave Tampines.
While she didn’t live in a kampong, she was lucky to have good neighbours to grow up with. In fact, they’re one of her closest friends! They’ve seen each other through all stages of life: from starting primary school to starting work, they’ve always been with each other. Sometimes, they like to call the little corridor that connects their two houses a kampong - with both doors thrown wide open and them just walking in and out of each other’s house.
Although Lee Xian doesn’t watch a lot of television, she watches a lot of online programmes like Youtube videos, variety shows, and dramas. Interestingly, she doesn’t have a subscription to Netflix, something most people her age are subscribed to. Like my neighbours, she would go over to her childhood friend’s house about a five minute walk away to watch her favourite Netflix shows instead. Thanks Natasha!
Lee Xian’s primary school was quite far away, at Aljunied. It was Geylang Methodist Primary School and she went there because it was close to her grandparents’ house. They’d take care of her after school. Unlike me, Lee Xian was often the tallest in class and she would almost always be last in line. There was also nothing you could get for 5 cents. It’d cost at least a dollar for a bowl of noodles!
Right now, Lee Xian is in her 20s. She graduated this year and was lucky enough to find employment so quickly. Soon, there will be a new addition to her family: her brother is getting married! She’s going to have the older sister she never had when they get married and she is very excited for the wedding. Change is happening just rapidly for Lee Xian as it did for me. She wonders whether in 40 years time, she will be the one completing the first five pages of the book instead, and would get to read about the childhood of someone 40 years her junior.
