Born on 5th September 1990, I was given the name Thilip Kumar. I was the youngest in the family with two elder brothers ahead of me. Being the last one in the family makes you feel so special because I will eventually get everything that I wished. The main reason behind that situation was because of the age gap between me and my married brothers. They were born in the 70’s and 80’s while I was the 90’s baby. They were attending school when my mother gave birth to me. We do not share the same perception or thoughts in a particular matter. So, I will always have a “solid” reason compared to my brothers on the things that I am interested and the prime victim will always be my dad.
I was practically going through challenges when I was a young kid. My father had to give up his long lost stationary shop as he couldn’t manage to settle my late grandfather’s debts. I still remember we went to the extent of staying in one room in an owner’s residence as we couldn’t afford to get a house by ourselves. My parents used to only eat one meal in one day so that they can keep the remaining for dinner. But, things did not just continue such way; my father’s dedication was finally paid off when he got an offer to work with TV3 or better known as Media Prima Sdn Bhd. He was always my hero as I witness his hard work in his job so that he can provide us everything.
Throughout the years as a child, I faced different kinds (a variety) of journey and experience. We left the place and finally got ourselves a home. It was at Jalan Klang Lama and apparently it was a Malay Village or better known as “Perkampungan Melayu”. I lived in that particular house for twenty years. My parents had to send us to my Chinese nanny’s house near to my housing area because they both had to work. After some time, I began to pick up mandarin and that is how I started liking languages. I used to speak good mandarin and Bahasa because of the community. I hardly speak Tamil unless we gather within the family members. I am still struggling with my mother tongue until this very moment. Language has changed my life. I felt like a super hero because languages have become my added advantage. Besides mandarin, I am able to converse in Cantonese and a little bit of Hindi. I am planning to learn French and Swedish in the coming years. As I grow older, I started to have high level of curiosity on the “interesting” things which happened around me. I used to have a lot of Malay friends and we used to hang around the village and come back home late evening. I still remember this incident where we so curious on how is it to cook in the kitchen. I volunteer to my friends to use my house’s kitchen as the place for our “experiment” as my parents was not at home. We took out everything from the fridge and messed the entire kitchen. Knowing the risk on what will happen later, we continue in starting up the stove and preparing the necessary so that we can satisfy us. Before we can proceed in creating more mess in the kitchen, my mother appeared, she took the water tube and bashes me upside down. I was in pain but as the same time satisfied because I get to experience how to cook! That was one bizarre action that I have done in fulfilling my curiosity. I can go all out just to satisfy myself!
Growing up and going to school was a little challenging for me. My parents decided to send me to a Chinese school. I still remember that I was the only Indian boy in my class and I had to get used to the way they speak and learn. It took me 3 months to get used with the school system. The most significant part that changed my personality was my primary school teachers. I was practically “tortured” by them throughout my learning journey. I had once isolated from other classmates because the teacher claimed that I was inconsistent in my studies and placing me in front will actually give her an “opportunity” to provide me more input on a particular subject. But, things did not happen as what she stated and I do not even know why she placed me there till the end of the year. Due to all the incidents happen to me in my primary school days, I started to learn how to withstand critics from others. Till today, I am able to erase critics and move forward with my own thoughts.
Growing up becoming a teenager was another significant years for me. After getting “fair” results for my UPSR, my parents decided to send me to common secondary school. Again, I had this xenophobic epidemic because it was a whole new chapter for me. I was badly bullied by the Indian students because I couldn’t speak my “mother tongue” fluently. The only incident I remember is the incident where they locked me inside the boy’s toilet for three hours. With the withstand capabilities that I acquired from my primary schools days, I was very brave in handling those problems by myself until I was elected to become the Assistant Head Prefect for my school. Besides that, I held several important positions in my school co- curricular organisations. From all that incidents, I started to understand that I actually have good leadership skills as I continue to hold several positions till today.
Throughout my adulthood, I was practically making my decisions alone. I had the opportunity to choose my own path in terms of education. I was given the full authority to be an independent person. The main reason behind it was my dad. He was suffering from serious health issues which I couldn’t define. Things were pretty bad when I was 18 years old. I remember I had to travel from school to hospital and do that for few days because he had to undergo few procedures during that week. Looking at all these incidents, I had learned that everyone will only be given one time to live. This statement was clearly true when I lost my beloved father on 27th January 2012. The worst part is we just came back from India and we did not even share our memorable time there. From that incident, I thank god that my parents actually allow me to be independent so that I will not have trouble them in any circumstances. I took everything seriously after that incident. Looking at my life, it clearly states that I learn about myself through incidents throughout my living years.To be exact, life is just like my mother’s chicken curry, if we don’t dig in, we will not the actual taste of the curry. So, let’s dig in and rumble!
thilipkumarmoorthy 