On The Third Day Of Christmas

On this memorable day of my birth, I received two calls when I was enjoying my morning laksa at Amy's in Bedok South. The first was from my daughter, who's on a visit to Hong Kong, her favourite haunt. She likes places which still retain old houses. Hence her love for Hong Kong, Macao and Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur and her annual pilgrimage to at least one of these places.
A few minutes after she conveyed her pleasant wishes, another call came in, this time from a faithful ex-listener, CA, from Kuala Lumpur itself. I received his call with glee, consoled by the fact that I've made a friend out of a fan in that far-off stretch north of my hometown. There I've found more than a handful of ardent listeners who have a relentless love for songs popular in an era so distant and, yes, so discarded, like old buildings, by the young and commanding generation of our own island nation. They dutifully tuned in to my half-hour oldies programme and have made their presence felt by first writing to and then meeting the person behind the turntable through the decade and a half the programme was on air right till last August when the whole station was brought to an involuntary halt by people who have the power to do so.
CA came into the picture in the middle of the show. He started writing letters to me, giving me comments on the songs I've played and making requests for songs I've not. He impressed me with his knowledge on oldies. Songs translated from the English medium are especially his favourites. But, very significantly, I usually failed to get hold of records requested by him. I used to get very annoyed by this as I tried very hard to please my listeners, especially those who took the trouble to write exhaustively to me. It shows the wide repertoire he has in his memory and in contrast, the limits of the collection I have on hand.
It was only about two years ago that I came to meet CA face to face in the annual September gathering of the Malaysian Oldies Club at Lumut. The mutual sincerity was felt. A bond has been established with oldies at the core. The distance between my ex-listeners and me did not suffer despite the rather sudden closure of the station. CA is one of the only few across the Causeway to know my birthday which I 've always kept as a guarded secret. I did not want precious airtime wasted with a chain of names read out for my sake.
Just as I'm about to draw this train of thoughts to a close, I noticed several messages in my mobile phone, containing birthday wishes from Klang's CS and my neighbour, Darren. I thank them all, not the least my daughter, Olivia. It's great to have someone think about you in the midst of her vacation. I would never have thought of calling up someone in the morning of a foreign land. My heartfelt thanks, Daughter. From a pre-septuagenarian dad.