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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright January 2024
Back in 1960, a mere RM0.30 sen could transport us through time on a taxi journey, a trishaw powered by a pedalling soul under the equatorial sun.
Four of us, sisters and brothers in tow, embarked on adventures to Alor Setar General Hospital, a place where liquid medication awaited, nestled in bottles we brought from home.
The glass bottles, sterilized the night before, were our ticket to health. Forget one, and it cost half the taxi ride – a hefty price.
In those days of a three-year-old nation, independence tasted like rice from Kedah's fertile fields, and fish, once abundant, danced in the waters. A terubok, a rarity now, could be ours for a mere RM0.5 sen.
Our father, a draftsman in the Drainage and Irrigation Department, earned RM300 a month, feeding seven hungry mouths. Inflation was a stranger, allowing us to indulge in 5 terubok meals with our taxi ride money if we were careful.
Cinemas beckoned on weekends, offering a magical escape for RM0.30 sen – front row seats for the cost of a taxi ride.
The upper deck, reserved for those with dates, required a princely sum of 0.65 sen. To afford this luxury, I scoured the neighbourhood for discarded bottles, each fetching 0.5 sen. Six bottles paved the way for a Saturday afternoon in Hollywood fantasy in air-conditioned comfort.
I often pondered why the taxi man didn't collect bottles instead of toiling on his trishaw in the hot sun on a daily basis.
In time, I discovered that the man buying my bottles retired a millionaire as a scrap metal dealer. The trishaw peddler succumbed to tuberculosis, a victim of cheap cigarettes and a hard life.
As the years passed, I lost my parents, brothers, and sisters, but the echo of a 0.30 sen taxi ride lingers, a nostalgic melody from the symphony of days gone by.
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