AH Boon has the right height, good looks and a better physique and you would think how lucky he is to have them all. His left cheek makes way for a deep dimple as he speaks and there is not a sign of scar on his fair face but all these belies his predicament.
Ah Boon is sightless, regardless, he is a happy man living his days with his a clear Vision lighting up his path.
As I wait my turn for a reflexology session at my favourite Blind Massage haunt in Brickfields, Ah Boon enters the room, with his stick leading the way, speaks and waits for my response to assess my location. He then seats himself, expertly on the low stool and starts working deftly on my toes first. I have had such a tiring day and was beginning to let myself go and at the same time I was dying to know the story behind this guy who looks normal in every way, exuding such charming charisma.
It appeared to me that he was just waiting to start and this conversation about his life journey kept me silently occupied for the next half hour.
Ah Boon was exceptionally naughty as a child and he grew immune to beatings he received from his father. At 15 after SRP, he was a school dropout and needless to say, he was a delinquent. In Taiping, where he lived, he earned his living as a cook and he knew and had connections with gangsters and kingpins in his area. He thought he had everything he wanted and with an inflated ego, he paid no heed to his parents and siblings.
"I would return home at odd hours and when my father questioned me, I would yell obscenities at my father and run away in my motorcycle to prove that I was in control," he recalls vividly.
Dead tree the last thing he saw
Speaking in fluent Malay, he recounts that fateful day, quite unusually, he left home that morning without any row. Close to finishing at the restaurant where he worked, he received a call from home that his father needed cough drops. It was pitch dark, and recollects that fateful day up to the minute detail and he swears that he was not speeding. A fallen tree which had claimed two other victims days before was hungry for another and it ( the dead tree) was the last thing he ever saw in his life.
He was rushed to the Taiping hospital with blood oozing from his eyes and ears. He was transferred to the Ipoh Hospital by ambulance but there was no doctor in attendance and it was five hours later that he was seen by a doctor.
At the ICU, he fought for life, with four other patients sharing similar predicament and doctors had given up hope on Ah Boon. "God must have loved me a bit too much as I was the only survivor from the ICU and on the fifth day I was transferred to the normal wad".
Due to delayed medical treatment, he lost his eyes and his condition was irreversible. For a month he became a resident at the hospital and he picked up his pieces from scratch, as a 'normal' human being.
For the six weeks he was in the hospital, his girl friend of four years left him and his friends were nowhere near him. "My father whom I shouted at and cursed countless times for driving sense into me was there, my mother whom I exchanged harsh words three times a day without fail was next to me, and my grandmother, at 76 kept vigil at my bedside, running from my left to right each time I turned, fearing I might fall," remembers Ah Boon.
The period in the hospital was the real eye opener for Ah Boon as he repented his follies and realised that the family he had had could never be compensated.
A mission in life
An expert at reflexology now, Ah Boon is not bitter or angry with the local council for not clearing the fallen tree, the hospital for not having a doctor on emergency, his girlfriend for not calling on him or his friends who left him. He is at peace with himself and more importantly with the people around him.
"I know there is God now. I was flying high on the wrong side of things and this is His way of putting the brakes. I am contended now and my family and I are closer than we ever were," he quips.
Ah Boon has a bigger mission in life, he spreads his story to every client of his with a simple message and that is, in times of needs, only family stays with us. Ah Boon, who has had misgivings with his father from childhood, now yearn for his father and the feeling is mutual and they on best of terms.
"We speak to each other every other day and if I had not called for more that two days, my father calls to enquire if I am alright and this is despite all the terrible things I had said to him during those year," says Ah Boon.
The talking clock announced the end of session and Ah Boon departs without looking back, but muttering "Please come again" and I leave, totally dazed with empathy and admiration for Ah Boon.
Like Ah Boon, each and everyone at the blind massage has a story to tell but once in a while a tale or two tugs at our heart and sharing it with readers is the least I can do for Ah Boon.
BHAVANI KRISHNA IYER has a queer vocation which is watching people. It provides her the interlude she sorely needs and keeps her supply of ideas fresh, for rambling.
