The Odd Couple

Ah Gong and Ah Po were really strange bedfellows, sharing a lifetime together but totally different in outlook and mannerism, While Ah Gong was affable in every manner; Ah Po in essence, was more abrasive and contentious.

Though we lived with our grandparents when we were very young, those years were a blur to me. However I did lived with Ah Gong and Ah Po for a year during my sophomore year at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. Uncle Kwong Teck then had a house in Section 19 in PJ and had kindly offered to let me stay with him. My grandparents were living with him, having moved out from the house in the Village by then.

My two cousins, Allan and Jennifer were very young at the time. Allan must be about 3 or so and Jennifer still an infant. Ah Po took care of Allan (that's the reason why Allan is perhaps the closest to Ah Po) while Jennifer was fostered out to a babysitter. My aunt Hong Giap was a nurse in University Hospital and for a time, Ah Gong used to drive her to and fro from work. Uncle Kwong Teck was working for Carlsberg (of the famed "Long Cool Dane") and his friends used to call him " Carlsberg Chai".

I occupied the room facing the back of the house, near to the kitchen. Uncle Kwong Sin and Aunt Siew Kheng were living in a house just behind us. My cousin Siew Key was just going to Kindergarten; Lee Voon (Mun Mun) in nursery maybe and Lee Lee still a toddler. Aunt Siew Kheng was a great cook and I used to enjoy having meals at her house. Uncle Kwong Sin was working with Welcome, a pharmaceutical firm.

Life was mainly mundane--my uncle and aunt busy with their work and I with my studies. There were very few buses plying the area and I had to walk about one KM to Section 17 to catch the bus to the campus and walked 1 KM back again in the evening. It was so quiet those days that I was often frightened by the echoes of my own footsteps, thinking I was being followed. Try walking today and you would probably be more annoyed by oncoming traffic, noise and dust; than being stalked by strangers.

Life was also peaceful except for the frequent 'quarrels' between Ah Po and Ah Gong. Even as Ah Gong was quiet and docile, Ah Po found every reason to pick up a 'fight'; bickering over nothing really.

On one occasion, Ah Gong came home after a haircut; and Ah Po must comment he looked like a "Tuk Loot" -- meaning someone foolish in Hakka. Most times, Ah Gong would let it go but at times he would retort, sometimes making funny remarks which incensed Ah Po further.

A funny anecdote as told by Lee Kwoi in our recent dinner get-together to celebrate my mother's birthday goes like this: Ah Po nags Ah Gong to throw the garbage into the huge can placed outside of the house.

Ah Gong utters under his breath, " Fine, fine. Why don't I bundle you up as well and have you disposed together with the garbage?".

Ah Po, totally miffed, rattled off in the least-refined Hakka phrases, rebuked Ah Gong for a good half hour. Ah Gong picks up the newspapers, pretended to read them and subsequently falls asleep-- amidst all the fury and outburst.

And that was just Ah Gong and Ah Po...living under the same roof for more than half a century; sharing the same bed perhaps but had hardly shown sweetness or affection to each other.

Fate had united these two beings. Their marriage, though not entirely blissful, lasted a lifetime. Can we say the same of ours?