The Penghulu’s house was located between the shop houses and the Penghulu’s office in the south. Chikus then had a row of dilapidated wooden shop houses. Today that train service has been disbanded. I enjoyed the train ride with the soothes to our new home. There was no station at Chikus, just a halt sign denoting that the train would stop on request. The Penghulu’s office and resident was at Chikus along the railway line between Tapah Road and Telok Anson.
In 1947 Bapak got the transfer order to be Penghulu of Sungai Manik in the District of Lower Perak. Haji Ghazali was the first Imam Besar of Mesjid Negara, who then was appointed the Mufti of Selangor before moving on to his home state. Arrangements have been made earlier by Baba, Bapak’s first cousin, Dato’ Haji Ghazali Abdullah, the then Mufti of Perak. There were big crowd of relatives and friends. The remain would be buried at the local burial ground nearby beside the mosque the next day. It was early evening when I boarded the jeep that was to take the remain to our grandfather’s house in Padang Tenggala, Bota Kanan, Perak, the family home.
On reaching the hospital I was greeted by many concerned relatives and friends. Then I headed home and did a slow drive to Telok Anson, with only one thought, to arrive safely. I left a note to my boss requesting for emergency leave, that I’ll be away from office to attend to the funeral arrangement. I called my sister who told me that Bapak had just passed away. The telephone operator got the emergency message from my sister Haslah. I was working in my office (Voice of Malaysia) at the time of the incident and was having lunch at the canteen.
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