This is the story of an ordinary person caught in the Charybdis of extraordinary situations- the brutal Japanese regime in Malaysia, communal killings in Sri Lanka, tribal warfare in Sierra Leone, coup d' tat in Liberia; leaping through time, colliding with different cultures, crossing oceans and continents and, in the twister of all the turbulence all the while in the hunt for jobs to keep the home fires burning.
Mining My Own Life
This Much I Remember And This Is How I Remember It
By K. B. Chandra RajTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2014 K. B. Chandra Raj
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-3324-1Contents
Dedication, ix,
Acknowledgements, xi,
Author's Note, xiii,
Countries I have lived in, 1,
Countries visited as accountant, 4,
How I came to write this book, 5,
The purpose of this book, 8,
I begin with a handicap, 13,
Choice of format, 15,
The Daily Journal, 17,
How do I feel about life lived so far?, 18,
The Trap, 20,
The title, 22,
My Story, 24,
My regret, 27,
My father comes to school, 29,
Sayonara to Sentul, 31,
Victor and I, 32,
The Barber of Sentul, 33,
My visit to Kuala Lumpur, 35,
The swamis next door, 36,
The Japanese are here, 39,
No sense of direction, 43,
The British retake Malaysia, 44,
Subhash Chandra Bose, 46,
Post World War, 47,
The War on Me, 49,
Me and exams, 51,
In Ceylon, 53,
Memories of Jaffna College, 55,
Into sports, 57,
Escaped a beating, 58,
My uncle in Vavuniya, 59,
Concerning my birth, 61,
Representing Ceylon in India, 63,
My visit to the hospital, 66,
The riots of 1958, 68,
My uncle and I, 70,
My days at Aquinas, 72,
Me my mother and the movies, 74,
My father in tears, 76,
How I came to do Accountancy, 77,
In this inn there always was room, 79,
My first job, 82,
Neela and Deeran: How I met your grandmother, 85,
The two incidents, 87,
The other woman, 89,
My olden, golden days, my purple years in sports, 90,
On my grand- parents, 92,
Threw discretion to the winds, 94,
On my parents, 97,
Letter to our grand-daughter, 99,
Letter to our grand-son, 102,
Permission to stay in the U.S. denied, 103,
Dreams, 105,
Arrival in London, 108,
Opening my first bank account in London, 109,
The little dreams that came true, 111,
Some dreams turn out pipe dreams, 113,
My first job in Liberia, 117,
My second job in Liberia, 119,
My third job in Liberia, 121,
We leave Liberia chop-chop, 126,
Kan Kam appears to me, 128,
In Sierra Leone: (West Africa), 129,
Jalloh our watchman, 132,
The plums of office, 133,
Et tu Brute, 135,
Inside Track, 138,
In search of a job in Sri Lanka, 140,
Leaving Sri Lanka second time - 1982, 142,
Accountant General, 144,
My visit to the State House, 146,
Left to stew, 148,
Mums the word, 150,
On crying, 152,
Beat me kick me don't touch my child, 154,
My first job in the United States, 155,
My second job in the United States, 164,
My third job in the United States, 166,
Attributes of a good boss, 168,
A fair question, 170,
I have been asked numerous times, 171,
Summing up, 175,
End Notes, 177,
CHAPTER 1
Countries I have lived in
In Asia
Malaysia
Born in Sentul, Malaysia
By land the country borders Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei and by sea Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Malaysia (known before as Federated Malay States) is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations of which the Queen of England is the titular head.
Capital: Kuala Lumpur
Population: Around 29 million
Major racial breakdown: Malays, Chinese, Indians
The constitution declares Islam the state religion while protecting the freedom to practice one's own faith.
Official language: Bahasa Malaysia
Climate: Tropical
Ceylon
The country is now known as Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka became independent of the United Kingdom in 1948. It is an island republic in the Indian Ocean, south of India.
Sri Lanka is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations of which the Queen of England is the titular head.
Capital: Colombo
Population: Around 19 million
Major racial breakdown: Sinhalese and Tamils
Official language: Sinhala and Tamil
Climate: Tropical
In Africa
Sierra Leone
The Republic of Sierra Leone in West Africa is bordered by Guinea to the north east, Liberia to the south east and the Atlantic Ocean to the south west
Sierra Leone is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations of which the Queen of England is the titular head.
Capital: Freetown
Population: Around 6 million
Major racial breakdown: Temne and Mende
Official language: English
Climate: Tropical, not humid
Liberia
Situated in West Africa is bordered by Sierra Leone to its west, Guinea to its north and the Ivory Coast to its east
Capital: Monrovia. Named eponymously after James Monroe the 5th president of the United States of America
Population: Around 4 million
Major racial breakdown: Mande, Kru, Mel, Mandigo and Fanti. About 3% of the population is "Americo-Liberians" descendants of freed slaves from the United States of America
Official language: English
Climate: Tropical
Countries visited as accountant
In South America
Suriname
Situated in the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America, Suriname is bordered by French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west and Brazil to the south.
Capital: Paramaribo
Official language: Dutch
In the Horn of Africa
Eritrea
Bordered by Sudan to the west, Ethiopia in the south and Djibouti to the east
Capital: Asmara
Official language: The country has no official language. The constitution affirms the equality of all Eritrean languages. English serves as a working language. Italian is understood by most people.
How I came to write this book
Soon after my book, "Your Sense of Humor – Don't Leave Home Without It" was published my wife planted a chip in my brain which kept buzzing, "You should write about your experiences – you should write about your experiences." While I was kicking the tires about, very reluctant to get into the driver's seat, Mooly, friend from my early accounting years e-mailed me from Toronto, "You should write about your experiences"
I enjoy reading. I can spend hours on end in the company of a book. Poorly tutored in English literature, not in possession of even a piddling knowledge in the art of writing, the woeful want of a university education (the joy of flipping the tassel and tossing the cap in the air eluded me) that would have given me the confidence and cache, the prospect of writing therefore becomes for me a daunting exercise. I take comfort, sustenance, some oxygen from the words of the great Robert Louis Stevenson and move on regardless.
"I think" R.L. Stevenson states, "it improbable that I shall ever write like Shakespeare, conduct an army like Hannibal or distinguish myself like Marcus Aurelius in the paths of virtue." and may I add dribble and shoot goals in soccer like Beckham.
Writing on a particular subject also demands a torrent of reading often not entirely to your liking. Macaulay the renowned scholar reads twenty books to write a sentence; he travels a hundred miles to make a line of description and Samuel Johnson posits that "the greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. He believes "a man will turn over half a library to make a book."
I will be imposing myself...
