NOV 8 — Ishan’s been having a fabulous time in Kuala Lumpur over the past month. He goes kai-kai three to four times a day, takes Pickles the dog for his evening walk every day and is allowed to run with abandon at the neighbourhood shopping mall.
I’ve been having a great time too. It is nice when the power-walking ‘aunties’ ask after my mum and son and when the ‘uncles’ walking their dogs around the Bangsar DBKL sports complex wave hello as we cross paths. It is as if I never left.
I still refer to KL as ‘home’ because this is where my family is. It is also the meeting point for far-flung family members and last weekend was the highlight of our trip so far because cousins I grew up with came back for a long-overdue reunion.
I was lucky growing up because the year of the dragon yielded four other cousins who were the same age as I. We also had the company of other cousins who were close in age and so we were never short of people to play catching.
There were sleepovers, weekend dinners at our grandparents’ house in Petaling Jaya and trips to the cinema. Plenty of laughter, scheming, tears and fights.
Some of my fondest memories were of our joint family holidays to Port Dickson, Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands, Fraser’s Hill, Slim River and Batang Berjuntai (an uncle was stationed in palm oil and rubber estates in the latter two locations).
We would swim until our skin turned golden brown — or gray in my case. We would race up the steep hill in the garden of what used to be the Socfin bungalow in Fraser’s Hill, where we played soldiers with our older cousins Marc and Gerald in the gazebo that served as our lookout.
There was the towering Christmas tree in the Batang Berjuntai home that almost touched the ceiling — or seemed to when I was 10. And Miss Piggy the wild boar in her pen in the garden.
I still smile when my mind scans through this laundry list of memories. I have to thank my parents and aunts and uncles for making the effort to organise those holidays.
And now we have come to a full circle. My cousin Carolyn came back for a short holiday last week, now married and settled in Melbourne with a toddler of her own. Her brother Marc made a surprise visit from Sydney with wife and their little girl.
Our cousin Tracy cajoled her husband to drive up from Singapore for the weekend with their two children. Peter caught the bus from down south too. Kenneth was here with his four-year-old Aidan. Grace took plenty of photographs.
Our catch up over a big family dinner last Sunday was crowded, noisy and almost hampered by heavy rain but it was fabulous. The days that followed were just as happy, with relaxing mornings watching our babbling toddlers get to know each other as we feasted on ham ching peng (deep fried sesame dough sticks) and nonya kuih.
I have loved watching this new generation of cousins play over the past week. I hope they will enjoy the same adventures we shared some day.
Looking back on our respective childhoods, both filled with large close knit families, it feels like my husband and I are depriving Ishan of this vital connection to our families by living in Hong Kong where it is just our tiny circle of three.
As I write this I am flipping through the photographs I have printed for my parents: a monkey-faced Ishan holding hands with them as they walk to the market, Ishan poking his head out from between Uncle Nath’s legs as cousin Joshua looks on, Uncle Marc showing Ishan the ‘Transformer’ (crane at the construction site) across the road with Ishan in his arms.
It has been a good month. I wish it would last longer.
Meanwhile, we will continue to import family for short holidays and look out for airline specials so we can fly home more often. And with some strategic planning and coordination, we hope to make it to the next Big Catch Up.
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
