THAT SWEET MOMENT

(impromptu)

by Dunstan Chan

11/4/13

   My family was poor. Then again who wasn’t in the 50s? Though we were poor but I have many beautiful memories of my childhood. Many of them involved the regular trips to the cinema.

My parents were avid movie goers. When a new movie was in town my family would be among the first to watch it. I remember vividly those joyful evenings -- seven of us (2 adults and 5 young kids) would pile into Pak Mat’s taxi. Usually it was a P. Ramlee movie. The man was more than an icon of the Malay cinema. In fact, he was the Malay cinema. He sang, acted, directed, wrote and produced the many endearing movies of yesteryears -- the golden era of Malay film industry.

   His movies captured the whole range of emotions – grief and joy; tears and laughter; fear and hope. We would emerge from the cinema teary eyes but with laughter in our bellies and joy in our hearts. P. Ramlee believed in happy ending.

   Then it would be off to Abu’s place. Abu had a noodle stall where he would cook up a storm every evening. This was the pre-plastic days. The helcyon days when we still wrapped our takeaway food in banana leaves. Abu would “bungkus” a few packages. One the way home we could smell the sweet aroma of the fried noodle, egg and beansprouts fused together and conspired to test our patience.