"Either You Survive or..."

"Either you survive or you persih".

These words still ring in my ears until today. They were uttered by my first boss when I reported for duty on my first day. He was the famous RC Evans , the Sepang Estate Manager, a highly regarded man in the plantations industry.

I was just a skinny 22 year old kid. Just graduated from college ... Universiti Pertanian Malaysia to be exact. Today that UPM is Universiti Putra Malaysia. It was the oldest univeristy in the country, beginning as School of Agriculture in 1920's, College of Agriculture, and University of Agriculture Malaysia (UPM) before they changed the name to University Putra. A days ago I read in newspaper that Perak State wants goverment to build Universiti Pertanian (Malaysia???) in Perak. How irony...????

Anyway, back to my plantation story, I was driven to the estate by my dear friend Zainal Jaal from his house in Seremban where I put up a night before. Zainal was my classmate in UPM.

I was told by RC Evans to stay with an Assistant named Hashim Abu Bakar in a wooden bungalow at Sungei Linau Division. Hashim is a big sized guy. He hailed from Kelantan. He attended College of Ag but completed his Diploma in Plantations Industry at ITM.

He is a very kind man at heart. He speaks very softly and very cool even in trying circumtances. He is very relaxed and do things at his pace. When he was about to get married to Tengku Zahibah, a beautiful lady from Seremban, he asked me to see the Kadhi of Sepang to get the letter of certification that he is still single. It was at the last minute and Hashim got to time to see the Kadhi. So it ended that I was the one interviewed by the Kadhi. Anyway I got the letter from Kadhi as he knows me as we prayed together at Sepang mosque on Friday.