Mother’s 86th Birthday

Today, January 7, is my mother’s birthday. She was born in 1940 in Arupukottai in Tamil Nadu, India. So that makes her 86 this year. She came to Singapore with my grandmother in 1951, when she was 11. My grandfather had come here a year before and bought an attap house in a village in Sembawang… Lorong Maha, off Jalan Ulu Sembawang.

Since my mother had been educated in India and could only speak Tamil then, my grandmother sent her to the Methodist Mission in Sembawang for schooling but they catered to students only up till they were 12. So she studied there for a year, and thereafter she, together with 3 other students from Sembawang, went to Ramakrishna Mission in Noris Road for schooling. They took a bus from Sembawang 13th mile to Tekka and then walked to Ramakrishna Mission every day.

After a couple of years there, she went to do her 3 year teacher’s training course in JB. Which was where she met my father, who was also doing his training there.

We celebrated at the Colony Restaurant at Ritz Carlton. Wishing her happy birthday and many more good years ahead!