It is not that many years ago but then it is like another world or another century... What I am talking about is that of the way life was then.... In the early forties, a period when I grew up.... In a small village on the fringe of the east coat town of Kuantan.... Kuantan then was just a small town on the bank of the Kuantan river, a great river the winder like snake into the interior with it tributary goes as far as the mining town of Sungei Lembing, where the British have the monopoly of mining Tin, a metal at that time was as precious a commodity as gold.... for here lies the biggest load tin mine in the world.... for this commodity to get to the UK and the world, a train link was built and of course a port for ocean liner was set up at the mouth of the Kuantan river.... It is from this port that goods such as tin ore and other jungle products were exported to the world..... The exploitation of the country natural resources by the colonial power then was immense, with the local population gain very little benefit except for employment in the mine and other related services... The bulk of the benefit goes to the coffer of the British in the UK.... Well that is what all colonies are.... just a place to be exploited by the Master for their own benefit...... Our small village was not that far to the center of the town and our house, a typical Malay house raised above ground, situated at one corner of our rubber plantation, a small holding mosly planted with rubber, one of the main commodity that Malaya export to the world.... There was no running water and electricity then, our water source were from a well dug near the house.... It provide us with clear fresh water for all our use, including drinking and cooking and for fuel we use those dried woods that we collected in the rubber plantation.... Actually collecting firewood is a daily ritual for us children and at time it was also fun to wonder in the among the rubber trees and the wild trees and the green shrubs which grows lushly in between those rubber trees.... We would collect insect like spiders to play with and kept as pets...... The floral and fauna is still in it natural form and sometime we would takes some home just for the fun of it all.... Like the monkey pots.... The rough leaves of the Palas plants, for use as a sandpaper for polishing woods..... We would use this shady places as our playground to play hide and seek among friends and relatives.... It was indeed fun.... As there were no means of communication other then word of mouth.... the only way to communicate was by walking and passing messages from one person to another or to write it on paper.... At that time not many people could read and write... so talking was the only means to communicate..... There was no telephone, radio then, the only way of sending messages to long distances is by telegram and this cost money and could only be made at the post offices in town.... For us village folks the world is small indeed..., our village and the area around with a radius of about ten kilometers was our world.... That is how small our world was then... The rest of the country and the world was dark to us and it does not matter to us kids at that time... It is our world and we enjoy living in this kind of world.... No radio, no television, no telehone, no running water or electricity and no means of transport expect by walking..... It is a normal way of life to us all.... Actually it was a different world then Now... Then we could hear the birds chirping and singing, we could all hear those sound that nature makes, for there was not such sound or noise like we have today...The cars, the engine, the buses and the like that makes noise..., then all these machines were non existence.... So just imagine a world where there are no pollution of the sound and the air....The water in the creeks is crystal clear...The air we breath fresh and the dew on the leaves of shrub and on grasses in the early morning are clean and cool, unlike today. The morning are normally cool and the air fresh....We would bathe at the well and spend our time helping our parent or just play with friends at the compound of our houses.... The game are usually very simple, like playing marble, or hide and seek and other traditional games..... Then the war came and the country was occupied by the Japanese.... I was then just about five years old when the Japanese occupied the country.... As our parent relate to us later, it was madness during the Japanese occupation....Foods were scared...So many people died and live was miserable with the cruelty of the Japanese soldiers.. But since my father had a shop selling food, we were not that badly affected by the shortage of foods, at least we had rice on our table everyday unlike the others who had to relied on other foods like tapioca and go on for days without rice.... It is indeed sad to know of the situation then.... Anyway we managed to survived the Japanese occupation and after the war end in nineteen forty five, the British came back and occupied the country and once again Malaya became a British colony... but the situation was better then during the Japanese occupation.... Soon the school was open I got admitted to a Malay school., so every morning without fail I walk to the school which is about five kilometers away..... even when it rain I would still go to school using a large ham leaves for cover.... for at that time we had no umbrella or raincoat..... Life was simple then.... going to school, back home and playing with friends and once the sun set we had to get into the house and had our dinner and off to bed.... There was hardly any night life then since there are no electricity... We use lamp fueled by coconut oil to light the house at night.... Hardly light up... unlike now the house at night is lighted up like daylight.... so we went to bed early and once again up very early in the morning when the cock crows..... It is a ritual of our life circle then and it goes on until electricity came to town sometime in the early fifty........ Well that is life then and as kids we did enjoy our childhood and never really think of the world outside.... Our world was then our village... A small world indeed but then we were contented and did enjoyed live...... Friends... Take a pause .... Just imaging life without the telephone, radio, TV, cars, airplanes...House without running water and electricity..... That was the situation just about fifty years ago... It was a silence world then and life goes on.... In a simple way.......Could you just imaging living in an environment like that.... I guessed non of the present generation could visualized that..... My generation was there and I guess we were lucky to be there and then quantum leap to Now.... where everything are there to makes living much easier... I am not that sure life have became easier now..... It is rather a relative thing... Let leave it at that.... and continue to progress... and be happy for what we have .... Life goes on.......