THE CHANGE
My kampong days ended in the mid 60’s whereby land reclamation forced us to relocate to HDB flat allocated by the government. It was very difficult to adapt to the change as HDB flat comes in multiple storey and as high as 12 storey during those days. Nowadays modern HDB flats soar as high as 30 to 40 storey. We lived in a 3-room flat on 5th storey at Kempas Road. Imagine how cramp it can be with my parents, sister and 4 other brothers. Life became very much different for us not only to cope with environmental change but also the burden of monthly utility and rental bills that my parents have to sustain. It seems that all the games that I’d played in the past had became history as probably I was already 11 years of age during the relocation.

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