His Early Days

In the early 1900s, Kampong Menora would not have been accessible by road. Kg Menora is situated by the banks of Perak River, about 2 miles downstream from the capital of Perak, Kuala Kangsar, The main mode of transportation then would only have been by sampan. Only the elites would travel by elephants.

An group of people traveling on elephants at the bank of Perak River in the early 1900s

This was where on 15th Febuary 1899, my father, Abdul Samad was born, in an era of no electricity, piped water or organized medical care. Putih Rokiah, his mother must have been a strong and resilience woman. His father Ibrahim was a Forest Ranger working for the Forest Department and had always been away at work throughout the Lower Perak district. A year or two later, Abdul Majid was born and he had been the only uncle I ever had.

His early education was by his beloved mother who taught him how to read the Koran. Education was so informal then. Dad use to tell me that in some occasion, his mom would be busy cleaning the compound around the house but attentively listening to his loud recitations. She would correct his reading instantaneously when she hears a flaw in his recitations. To me, that was simply amazing!

At an early age of 12, like a little bird that need to fly out of it's nest, he had decided to leave his kampong home. It was quite a normal thing to do in those days, I suppose, where adolescent kids would leave home to seek knowledge or greener pastures. For him it was to seek English education or locally said "sekolah omputih". That has been his childhood dream.