Why is Kuantan, Pahang looking like the planet Mars these days? Why is it now a red planet with a Red Sea with the Kuantan folk living in fear of a red scare of dying en masse from contamination if not from cancer? Who are the culprits responsible for turning the town into a red river valley with red streets producing red dust, as if the city is a place for the next shooting of a sequel to Hollywood’s ‘Interstellar’?

I love the town. ‘Kuatagh’ as it is called by the folks. A slangish way to call this now reddening town which does not even have a single brunette/redhead walking around Jalan Alor Akar, for example. Yes, part of my teenage years were spent there. I went to school there. It was a lovely place with lovely people and back in the mid-70s, only kids like me and my friends were responsible for painting the town red.