TBC2

A house becomes a home once it is inhabited. With old houses and buildings, they’ve somehow retained residue energies left behind by former inhabitants from another epoch. Sadly, the days of these structures especially those from the colonial era, are numbered. Dilapidated and unappreciated, their owners mostly of the second and third generation who inherited these properties are counting the days to dispose of something now deemed burdensome and devoid of sentimental value for a handsome profit.

In a span of 2 decades, I’ve moved four times, two of them into old buildings. The first was a prewar double storey house (near Jalan Tallala, now demolished) without a fully working plumbing located just opposite of the historic Stadium Merdeka and currently, the top unit in a row of three-story buildings constructed in 1965 (also without a fully working plumbing) located next to the notorious Pekeliling Flats (again demolished). The rents cheap and the neighbors are mostly made up of lower-class locals, working class foreigners and the elderly retirees.

Living in old buildings with its surrounding neighborhoods are of course, not without its challenges. The fourth and current place that I am renting with my long-suffering wife leaks when there is a thunderstorm. Some of the power switches are not working anymore while paint is slowly peeling off the ceiling and kitchen walls, which are full of patches of stains. On one side of the toilet wall, plant roots have penetrated deeply and begun spreading. The makeshift roof at the end of the unit had one of its thin aluminum sheets blown off. It sometimes reek of the rubbish (or something worse) that the inhabitants here habitually throws out to the back of the units causing the drains to clog and the resident pests include rats, roaches, flies, mosquitoes, monitor lizards, musang pandan and ants (the black, red and white variety). Oh, did I mention that this area is full of junkies, drifters, aging street walkers and the occasional crazies?

What can I say,  its been a wonderful 13 years ‘sojourn’ as far as I’m concerned.

The songs in the following pages served as a private eulogy for these people and places that we’ve known so well, which in a few months, will be spoken and thought of in the past tense once we relocate to a new place slightly removed from the city center.

 

GOODBYE TALLALA STREET

 

These four walls were my four seasons,

you can shoot the weatherman cos I don’t need em

A storm has blown everything away

My pockets are empty but i feel alright,

I’ve got these dreams to keep me alive

These days I’m walking with pride

 

She’s got the cheek to ask me if I’ve seen the light

while the brightest lights I ve seen  tonight

are billboard signs with the faces of politicians

 

Can you feel the anger out on the streets,

could we even bring the powers to be

down on its knees, just wait and see she said

Friends may come and friends may go,

some grew bitter but most grew cold, tired of the revolution that never came

 

(Bridge)

But now that the storm has subside,

I’ve got nothing to show for my life

All the things that was said and done,

Everything I hate, I’ve become

 

(chorus)

Goodbye Tallala street,

no love lost, no more promises to keep

Goodbye Tallala street,

packed my bags, I’ll be taking my leave