Goodbye My Kampong

It wasn’t like the kind of horror movies that Ah Tetia had usually taken me to see, of vampires, which one could dismiss as being unreal. This was a supernatural horror film that dealt with ordinary people and everyday life, that brought the horror much nearer to home and was more impactful. It was the story of a young girl called Regan MacNeil who was playing with an Ouija board, and somehow brought the demon into her life. The actress Linda Blair played the role of Regan. She was brilliant. Max Von Sydow played the role of Father Lankester Merrin, an elderly priest and archaeologist who was roped in to help exorcise the devil. His features were such that it set the tone for the movie. It was a truly gripping film. It was easy to become unnerved from the start, and I naturally shifted in my seat to move close towards Boy Friend. If that had been his purpose and intention for bringing me to this movie in his private car, then he had succeeded. I was really terrified! By the time the scene in Regan’s bedroom appeared on screen, I could have leapt into Boy Friend’s arms willingly. I could never forget that scene, which gave me nightmares from that evening on, when Regan turned her ghoulish eyes towards the camera. Then she smiled menacingly. To my utter horror, she slowly creaked her neck and swiveled her head a full 360 degrees.

I nearly peed in my pants!

And Then There Was Colour

(1974)

AND then, there was colour in my life. Romance brightens everything. The ordinariness of daily living takes on an unexpected paint-wash of rosy hues. I was astounded at how the simple fact of being desired and loved could produce such an alchemy of change within me. I no longer lay under the Damocles’ sword of my father’s negative words about me. I was miraculously filled with the consciousness that I could do anything, be anything. I was transmuted! Love was an inspiration.

I suddenly knew how Eliza Doolittle felt when she discovered she loved her language tutor, Professor Henry Higgins. The characters from the musical, My Fair Lady, with music written by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, were played on stage by Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in 1956. The story was adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion. In 1964, when the musical was made into a film, Audrey Hepburn was given the part of Eliza. It was a hit when it came out in Singapore and Second Elder Brother took me to see it, since he knew I loved songs as much as he did. I was 13 then but still remembered all the songs.

In her new-found happiness, Eliza sang the now-very-famous song, ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’, which went like this:

“I could have danced all night

I could have danced all night

And still have begged for more

I could have spread my wings

And done a thousand things

I've never done before...”

Now that I was in the throes of love, I waltzed around our attap hut with a long bolster as my dancing partner, singing the song repeatedly and happily, making Mak smile. Third Elder Brother and my sisters made circles with their fingers near their temples to indicate my insanity. Robert was delighted. He thumped the mattress with joy. Somehow the tune must have conveyed the vibrations of happiness to him.

For many years, we all believed that like Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn had sung her own songs. Then someone leaked the secret that she only lip-synched to the lyrics. The songs in the entire musical were sung by a woman called Marni Nixon. Audrey Hepburn graciously admitted that the role should have gone to Julie Andrews. But the movie mogul, Jack Warner, wanted a more famous name. Perhaps he didn’t know how famous Julie Andrews was in the UK. A Surrey girl, Julie Andrews had been only 13 when she sang the British National Anthem in front of King George VI at the London Palladium. Her pure, clear voice had been heard throughout her maturing years in British theatres. Fortunately, when she was finally cast in her first Hollywood film, Mary Poppins, in the later part of 1964, and subsequently, in The Sound Of Music in 1965, she too became known to the US market and to the world. Still, the fact that Audrey Hepburn did not sing her own songs did not diminish her stellar performance in the film.

I was walking through my last years in the kampong on lighter feet.

“My company is sending me to Germany to train to be a production engineer,” Boy Friend announced. “I have to learn how their cameras are manufactured, so that I can run their production lines in their factory here.”

It was to Lee Kuan Yew’s credit that international manufacturing firms were brought in. They were willing to train the local workforce and upgrade local talent.

Thousands of people were employed during this spate of industrialisation, and hundreds were sent overseas to train.

I had not expected that bombshell.

“How long will you be away?”

“A year, they say.”

We were sitting on a bench at MacRitchie Reservoir, facing the beautiful trees and the body of water, the breeze making small waves lap continuously at the shore. My father would have turned in his grave if he had seen me sitting in such close proximity to a man before we were wedded! MacRitchie was colloquially called the pak tor haven, a Hokkien word which referred to lovers going on a date.

“You can wait for me or not?”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to marry you lah, when I get back.”

I had not expected a post-dated proposal. I hadn’t really thought of marriage. There was so much I still wanted to do with my life. I had already started making enquiries into how I could study for my HSC (Higher School Certificate) whilst I was working full time, so that I could qualify to