The World of Tai Tai

For the first two weeks in April, Papa was bothered by gallstone pain and he was reduced to skin and bone.  We took him to hospital one day and on Aunt Becky's insistence, the doctor put him on a drip.  Still, we were told that his condition was stable and that there should be no haste in getting his gallstones removed. The next two days, Papa's gallstone pain reduced and his appetite recovered a little. One day, after taking me to school, Mama and Ah Hui were shocked to find that Papa was delirious with pain on the floor, his shorts wet because he had excreted while struggling with the pain. They called an ambulance, which came only after forty minutes due to some confusion with directions.  Upon arrival at the emergency unit, Papa totally lost consciousness and  to the horror of both Mama and Ah Hui, his heartbeat stopped and CPR was performed on him.  When I reached hospital, Papa had been revived two times but the danger was not over yet. He was compl...

I am promenading along the Waterfront beside the long Sarawak River. The footpath, paved with mosaic tiles, stretches through gardens and hawker stalls for at least a kilometre. Small boats are plying up and down the river. Bright midmorning sunlight glints off the gently flowing ripples. Stopping near Khatulistiwa Café, a unique rotund building, I gaze beyond the simmering water at a large, imposing building on the opposite bank. It is the State Legislative Assembly Building, modelled after the architecture of a Bidayuh long house. A lightning conductor is perched on the highest point of its golden tapered roof, lending more vibes of grandiose to the building. Almost twenty-five years ago, the State Legislative Assembly Building was non-existent, and so was the waterfront footpath. I was nineteen then, new to Kuching and terribly missed my family in Miri. I always made a requisite stop at exactly the same spot after school, casting my pent-up feelings into the river, letting...