East Coast people really got it goin' on
My mum's childhood recollections can sometimes really crack me up in their incongruity with that region's current reputation of Islamic piety, but before I can even think that deep, I'm just cracking up at how free-and-easy the people were. I mean, we're talking about the East Coast of the Peninsula, where Kota Bharu used to be known as 'Paris of the East' and there was Pantai Cinta Berahi, or the Beach of Passionate Love, before the initials were repurposed to be Pantai Cahaya Bulan or the Beach of Moonlight.
Sometimes her recollections are just plain wu--uh ("yeah, we had a neighbour who had a horse, and once it chased after us girls" "... WHY WAS THERE A HORSE IN YOUR VILLAGE?")
But really, mostly I think I just fall prey into thinking Parents Come Fully Formed Into Boring Consciousness. I guess we're all toddler-shaped in the brain when it comes to parents. It's too bad I wasn't in the habit of journalling about other people back in my teens, when my late father was around -- his stories were often something else. But my memory is crap, so what can you do.
Back to this post! My mum was showing me a postcard from her trip to Chiang Mai, where apparently her tour group were brought into the Thai side of the Golden Triangle, and the visited the Hall of Opium. She pointed to the illustration of the plantation workers in the poppy field and went, "they used to plant these when I was a kid, amongst the tobacco plants."
"...really..."
"Yes, it was supposed to make the tobacco more kaya'. I didn't realise later that it was supposed to be 'khayal'".
She was referring to the differences in her home dialect and the standard Malay. She gave me a grin. 'Khayal' in one sense means 'to be dreaming'.
Yes, she meant that the old tobacco farmers would plant poppies amongst the tobacco so that the tobacco leaves would get you high better.
"We called it ganja."
"Ganja? Are you sure?" Ganja is standard Malay for marijuana. So I looked up Google image search for marijuana plant.
She took a look. "Oh no, those we used to plant for the decor."
MY PEOPLE, EVERYONE.
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Sometimes her recollections are just plain wu--uh ("yeah, we had a neighbour who had a horse, and once it chased after us girls" "... WHY WAS THERE A HORSE IN YOUR VILLAGE?")
But really, mostly I think I just fall prey into thinking Parents Come Fully Formed Into Boring Consciousness. I guess we're all toddler-shaped in the brain when it comes to parents. It's too bad I wasn't in the habit of journalling about other people back in my teens, when my late father was around -- his stories were often something else. But my memory is crap, so what can you do.
Back to this post! My mum was showing me a postcard from her trip to Chiang Mai, where apparently her tour group were brought into the Thai side of the Golden Triangle, and the visited the Hall of Opium. She pointed to the illustration of the plantation workers in the poppy field and went, "they used to plant these when I was a kid, amongst the tobacco plants."
"...really..."
"Yes, it was supposed to make the tobacco more kaya'. I didn't realise later that it was supposed to be 'khayal'".
She was referring to the differences in her home dialect and the standard Malay. She gave me a grin. 'Khayal' in one sense means 'to be dreaming'.
Yes, she meant that the old tobacco farmers would plant poppies amongst the tobacco so that the tobacco leaves would get you high better.
"We called it ganja."
"Ganja? Are you sure?" Ganja is standard Malay for marijuana. So I looked up Google image search for marijuana plant.
She took a look. "Oh no, those we used to plant for the decor."
MY PEOPLE, EVERYONE.
This entry was originally posted at http://horusporus.dreamwidth.org/67542.html. (
comments; view comments) Please comment there using OpenID.