A Journey traveled with Yoges - 2008

A journey traveled with Yoges

This was published in The Malay Mail in January 2009

I bought my apartment- C 26, Riverdale Park, Bukit Antarabangsa in 1991. It was the very first apartment that I viewed when I wanted to ‘invest’ in a property. I fell in love with it immediately- it was bright, airy, spacious and nestled in a beautiful area called Bukit Antarabangsa. There was an avenue of trees that lined the road going up the hill to the houses/apartments and a forest reserve on the hill with small pockets of development here and there.

Thana and Yoges moved in soon after as newly weds. He an engineer and she a veterinarian. They bought Apartment C1 in Riverdale park. All the residents in Block C were new property owners and we got to know each other with our pot-luck luncheons, tea, B-B-Q’s at the car park area, our ‘gotong royong’ sessions of cutting the grass, painting the letter-box pillars, cleaning and painting the garbage area, sweeping the common stairways etc, since very early on, the management /developer (ZED ENTERPRISE) washed their hands from looking after the property. So we, the residents, took on the task of keeping our Block C clean.

Yoges became our ‘resident’ vet for those of us who had pets. Although we did take our cats to the clinic she was working in which was just down the hill, she used to bring home vaccines to save our cats from being traumatized with car rides.

Chakrapon was one of the privileged ones who got ‘home visits’ whenever it was his time to get vaccinated. She had a very gentle manner with animals so he used to ‘tolerate’ being prodded and poked.

One incident that comes to mind - I was visiting Yoges one afternoon and soon after there was loud mewing at the front door. It was Chakrapon. He wanted to visit as well. Yoges let him in and he did his usual greeting of rubbing against her legs and disappeared into the kitchen. It was a bit too quiet in there so I went in to see what he was up to. There he was, UP on the counter munching away at some sausages that she had left to thaw. Needless to say he got very ill and Yoges had to treat him a few hours later.  She never held that against him and allowed him to visit her often even when I wasn’t there.

On more than one occasion I have gone running to her door with my kittens/cats who were at death’s door as many of them were attacked by wild dogs and she nursed them back to health. She attended to them ‘outside of clinic hours’ even after a tiring day. She was a friend who saw me through the trauma of ‘Princess’ dying in my arms. She sat quietly with me at the stairs and just held my hand until I ran out of tears and believe me it took a while because I had loads to shed.

Yoges gave birth to Avinesh May 08^th 1997. Five months and eight days later I had Hariharan. Our friendship took another course. We were both first time mothers and we shared our joy and frustration of motherhood. Very soon after, her second son Thivesh was born. Even though she had a tough time caring for two very young boys and juggling a career she always had a smiling face and a very cheerful personality.

I also found out that we had mutual contacts. Geetha, my cousin was her very close friend as they studied together and were room-mates at one point. Another was Pauline- Hari’s first piano teacher who became her neighbor. Sharmini P, whom I became friends with because our sons went to the same school, was her University mate.

Our children’s birthdays, festivals and other celebrations saw us getting together more and more.

THINGS CHANGE: soon residents at Block C started moving out. Thana and Yoges were one of them as their family of four and one maid found the apartment a little cramped. They decided to rent out the apartment and move to a house. They still dropped by Riverdale to visit Hari and me from time to time since their new residence was close by. We kept the birthday and festival get-togethers still going.

3 ½ years ago she called to say that she expecting another child. I could feel the joy in her voice  because her wish had come true….a baby girl- Priyankka.

THINGS CHANGE: with Hari and me moving out of Bkt Antarabangsa to Brickfields a year and a half ago and both families just getting on with our respective lives, (through no fault of either party) we didn’t meet up. The last time I saw Yoges was Oct 2007 when I bummed into her when I went up to Bkt Antarabangsa. The last contact I had with her was when we spoke to each other during 2008 Deepavali.

Dec 5^th 2008- Friday 1.30 pm. I was in Bukit Antarabangsa handling some affairs for the sale of my apartment. I drove around and was amazed at all the development that I saw.

I guess while I was living there I didn’t ‘SEE’  all that was happening to the area but now after 13 months of not having lived there I suddenly ‘SAW’ those newly and partly finished construction sites; the numerous billboards all screaming some silly slogan…one of them being….“Purify your lives with hill top living” (?)

I thought to myself…” do we really need more? WHEN will it be enough?”

Dec 6^th 2008- Saturday 8.00am. I get a call from my former neighbour, Rose. She was sobbing uncontrollably and said  “Shanthini, Yoges dah mati”  I couldn’t understand what she was saying and got her to repeat. This time I HEARD her – I was in shock! “Yoges? What? How?” was all that came out. She said that around 3.30 am the electricity was cut off. Most of the residents in the area awoke and very soon it became known why. A landslide had occurred about 150 meters from Riverdale Park on the main road. Rose went on to say…”her body is in front of our guard house”. It still all didn’t make sense to me because I had been to their house behind Club Ukay and that was no where near Riverdale, so I told her that it is not possible that it was her body. Rose informed me that the family had moved to the ‘Little Sydney’ bungalow lots earlier in the year. After I put the phone down….still not quite believing what I had just been told, I decided to call Pauline since I knew she was Yoges’s neighbour. Pauline confirmed my worst suspicion and said that she was at the hospital with Thana and the boys for a medical examination. Feeling helpless and not knowing what to do, I did what I do best. Inform others whom I knew who might not have heard about the tragedy yet.

Dec 13^th 2008 – Saturday 1.00pm – a week has now passed…..it feels like a year!!!

Went for Yoges’s funeral on Sunday the 7^th of Dec. Tears were flowing when I saw a note written by the children placed in her casket. …. It said that they would try to get on with their lives without her ……and the last line read “Our family will never be whole again”

Nobody’s lives will be ‘whole again’ after this tragedy…..especially the ones who lost their loved ones and the others who had to evacuate their homes now that ‘THEY’ claim it is no longer safe to live in hillside sites. Where were ‘THEY’ when we were buying our properties? Why were the plans for these developments even approved if THEY knew it was unsafe since now engineers are coming out of the woodworks claiming that in general the soil in most parts of Malaysia is ‘soft soil’? Sigh! I truly hope THIS TIME AROUND the authorities will STOP pussy-footing and STOP blaming one another and DO something that will help those who lives have been turned upside down in a matter of minutes.

BUKIT ANTARABANGSA- a once luscious green hill that led me to share a journey with a beautiful soul and who took that soul away to remind us not to be greedy, ungrateful, selfish, corrupted human beings!