Let us start with "rumah abah" in this my legacy.
It is about 300 feet away from Pt. Sakai itself and another 300 feet from "rumah emak tua". It sits on an acre of rubber trees.
A "bridge" made from two pinang trunks used to connect the "road" (it wasn't even a road then. It was a bullock cart trail hence Jalan Kereta Lembu). He bought sand as the track from the bridge to the house, then back up the other way to meet the bridge - creating a square. Within this square, he dug a rectangular pond measuring 10 feet wide, 20 feet long and 10 feet deep. The circumference of this perfectly formed straight edged pond were ringed with upturned glass bottles - earliest and first form of conservation. And that was in the late 50s mind you! (I sold one or two to buy ice cream, then replaced them.) The water wasn't that breckish.
There were two "jambu cermai" trees at the entrance to complete his plaza. It was really shady. It actually shaded the pond itself - his most excellent design skills. You need not climb to pick the fruits. He actually designed the trees - training the branches with weights. The "jambu cermai" were puny ones, red in colour, a little sour - best eaten with soy sauce, sugar and chillies.
Just beside the house were rambutan trees, flanking the house. One was yellow, the other red. Then behind, there were "chiku" and "cermai buluh"
Beyond that was a "bangsal" where we cooked "dodol". Did he rear chickens? It must be the other house. The outhouse were a couple of trunks over a narrow dug out trench just behind the bangsal.
Behind this bangsal were the rubber trees segregated by a deep 3 feet wide trench.
Generally, it was a symmetrical setting or layout
Now the house itself.
Square in plan with a central water tank opened to the sky. There were glass windows to see inside and "taps" to run the water.
On the left is the entrance portico. Straight in was the dining. To the right of the entrance was the lounge. Behind the lounge was one sleeping area with a straight stairways up to 1st floor. On the left was the kitchen. The entrance portico, lounge and sleeping area was built on "concrete" whilst the dining and kitchen were on raised timber platforms. My favourite dish was squishy rice made into balls and dipped into masak asam pedas with belimbing cermai
I can't remember much what was upstairs except that the open balcony was directly above the entrance portico with ballustrades.
Everything in timber except the water tank. It used to be untreated. Then, angered by termites he smothered the timber with oil. Black as hell!
You can see the silvery moon in this tank, its light diffused through the glassed openings. Free natural lighting during moonlit, cloudless nights. And a cooler during the day!
I don't know how long he built it, the cost nor number of labourers he engaged - if at all.
I don't think he stayed there long. It was a summer house for him and a gift to his eldest son. My dad bought the land. He moved out the moment he was told that my dad gave the land to his only younger brother.
Now, nothing remains. Neither the bullock cart trail nor the pond much less the pond. It was demolished eons ago. No more rubber trees. Unkempt oil palm smallholding now.
I missed this picturesque scene. The taste of the jambu, the cool dip in the pond, the shimmering light...
He died at the age of 60 when I was still very young. He looked a lot like Charles Bronson - the face, the height, the muscles, even his tantrums.
Al-fatehah.
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