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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright March 2023
How many centenarians do you know?
I thought I'll never ever meet one in my lifetime until 23.03.2023, the first day of Ramadan.
Hj Abdul Karim Yacob is 100 years old on the first of Ramadan. He was born on March 23, 1923.
He wanted to fast against the wishes of his children but he made it without mishap. He woke up early, had his sahur, and did not eat or drink the whole day spending his time praying and reading the Koran.
At sunset, he broke fast with us.
But looking at his frail body his only daughter told him not to fast the following day citing the Koran that a man at his age is excused from having to fulfill this yearly ritual of fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan.
Although still healthy at 100, he suffers from dehydration which is not good for his ailing kidneys. He is not on dialysis or anything like that but dehydration makes his skin dry and itchy.
But the year before, at 99 he told us he was able to fast the whole month without a break to which we say "Syabas Tuan Haji!"
After dinner on the first day of Ramadan, I asked him whether he knows of anyone in his cohort who may be still alive.
Without missing a beat he said he remembers "Che Det" who served as a cashier at a restaurant in Pekan Rabu that he frequented during the war years.
"But I think Che Det is two years younger than I! He must be 98, now!"
His memory is excellent. He remembers everyone's birthdays, including names of his great great grandchildren and call them by their full names whenever they come for a visit.
If that's not good enough, for example, try remembering each and every medicine of which there are many that the doctors prescribed for his health.
He can tell you which doctor and what date those medicines were prescribed and what their side effects are!
The funny thing is he can spell each and every medicine correctly plus who produced them without having to look at the package.
When you asked him about 2nd World War he'll tell you some gory stories of hunger and poverty that prosperous Malaysia now would never know.
If you asked about entrepreneurship during the war years you could never imagine how innovative Malays could be surviving on tapioca making a variety of dishes that are extinct now but were delicious then without having to resort to rice because that was indeed a rare commodity then.
Pressed for more examples, he said "Try getting oil out of rubber to run the engine of your car!"
Until he told us that night we didn't know that you could actually squeeze oil out of rubber to drive engines of your car! Many vehicles on the road in 1940s he said worked on rubber oil.
For his 100th birthday, we joined him for dinner at Qureshi of KLCC which serves excellent Nothern Indian cuisine.
He loves the capati, nan, and delicious briyani with a variety of dishes that brought tears to his eyes thinking of the war years when he went for days without food; living off vegetables he could find in open fields playing hide and seek with Japanese soldiers who wanted to capture him and his friends to be sent to the construction site of the Death Railway in old Burma in which many of his friends perished.
After his birthday celebration, we ran into a family whose child is one year old and was happy to have a slice of Haji Karim's cake baked by his daughter in law.
He told the young mum and dad that with good food and a healthy lifestyle in 99 years, the kid too will be celebrating his own 100th birthday. That brought smiles to everyone's face!
One of the guests at that table said, in Japan on the day a resident celebrates his 100th birthday the Mayor would personally come to the house to greet him with a big cake, a card and a bouquet of flowers.
Obviously, the Japanese values their centenarians more than we do in this country.
Haji Karim ought to be part of the Human Library we talked about so much in this country to give everyone a chance to hear what he went through in the last 100 years!
He is a rich resource of oral history yet to be captured anywhere.
We would urge that centenarians in this country be made use of more meaningfully before they pass on.
Would KL City Mayor kindly look into this and emulate what the Japanese mayors do with their centenarians.
Go show your appreciation before it's too late!
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