Doll house and other memories of "13th May"

I will forever associate a doll house with the 13th May episode.

I was 5 at that time; I already had 2 younger sisters; 3 and 1 years old and a brother on the way. A few times when the men were called to assemble at Dato' Harun's house in Kampung Baru, the womenfolk and kids were sent to congregate in Makcik Lela's house, which sit right in the middle of our community off Jalan Jelatek. I don't recall much detail except that I loved it because we kids got to play with my friend, Icah's doll house and Lego set. That was a big deal then, because my friend's father worked for the Korean Embassy and we heard they got nice things from the embassy.

Because of the 13th May riot, food was scarce. I remember food was delivered to us in a van or lorry and I stood in line for sardine and bread (and maybe rice too). Thankfully, we planted pokok ubi around our house.

And there were the curfews. The government or the police imposed curfews at certain hours and we were not supposed to go out in the street. Anyone who violated this order would be punished by the FRU. During one of these curfews, my father decided to shift his family to his uncle's house in Jalan Keramat Dalam 3. It was not very far from Jalan Jelatek, but the mission was quite risky. We risked being caught by the FRU. It was getting dark that time (or it could have been early dawn), the five of us sneaked and snaked our way in between houses. When we were close to our destination, we caught sight of two uniformed guys standing and watching a man climb up and down a street light pole. We didn't stop to ponder; we full-heartedly scurried along. Later when we related the incident to our relatives, they told us that's how the police punish if one was caught outside their house during curfew.

My uncles (my father's cousins) had a radiogram (equivalent to karaoke set now) and they kept us entertained by taking turns at the microphone belting covers of A. Ramli and the likes. They must have turned down the volume, otherwise the FRU would have come over and gave us a stern warning.

To this day, I don't know how many days the 13th May incident lasted but I still can recall the stillness of the air and the smell of fear and uncertainty.

The following year, I enrolled in Kindergarten Capital.