SUNGAI CHOH (13) : Once Upon A Time | Where Light Came From

Once Upon A Time

(The Gasoline Lamp Lighted Up The Entire Room)

Stylish Guy

Two Siblings

On Wedding Dais

View Of Jalan Mawar

SK Sungai Choh

Sometimes I kept on wondering where light came from. Yet it was still amazing when the gasoline lamp lighted up the entire room. The light was so enchanting. It seemed  to danced on the walls and in the corners of the room.Yet we could do nothing, just looked at the gasoline lamp. The only source of light. There was nothing was offered at night to keep us stay awake all night. There was no bedtime story and no sleep orchestras whatever. No  tv or radio and  no electronic games to play. So might as well we kept  snoring all night long. Yet  no girl would come to my dream to play the main character. However, ten-year-olds had to go to bed early for school. Although Sekolah Umum Sungai Choh was not even half a mile away.

Kampung Umbai

My Sisters

Sek. Umum Sg. Choh

Sek. Kebangsaan Sg. Choh

Jembatan Sungai Choh

Sometimes my eldest brother and I played shadow games to fill the nightlong weekend. It was amusing to see shadows in different shapes. By twisting our fingers against the light, we could also performed a shadow show, a simple wayang kulit. Anyway my eldest brother was good at making shadows in various shapes. I think he deserved to be Tok Dalang of our family. Might be I could be just as good as Awang Batil. However all night long, it was really quiet and dark. There was no dancing of lights to be seen and no rhythm of  colours to be heard. We could only see dark space with frightening  shadows and scary sounds. Sometimes we could hear the beats of raindrops or the wild cries of animals. However the night calls slowly fading away. Finally the entire Kampung Sungai Choh was covered with darkness. By then silence filled every corner of darkness. 

Aton My Niece

On The Bridal Dais

After Wedding Ceremony

Flowing Under The Bridge

Bridge Of Sungai Choh

Nevertheless we just let the time pass by in silence. Every night was empty and meaningless. It's just a scary darkness. Sometimes we found it hard to sleep. So we might as well count  the holes in the roof or imagine the moon looking shy. As it’s said, "counting sheep  jump over a fence one by one" was a mental exercise for when you have trouble sleeping. Sometimes we felt like cold air entered  the room through the cracks in the wooden walls. Once in a while we could hear the click sounds of lizards under the roof and the wild calls from somewhere in the distance. By then everything was  like a dream,  floating in the cool breeze of the night. However the night  was so nostalgic  to  let the night rhythms whisper in the ears in the dark.   Sometimes we just let a few mosquitoes entertain us with songs that annoyed us.