Category: General

Yesterday when I was in KL, l learnt that K Bhagyaraj had passed away suddenly as a result of a massive heart attack. He was 73.

Again I never knew him personally but he was a massive figure in the Tamil film industry in the late 1970s and 1980s.

He started off as an assistant director in 16 Vayathinilae to Barthiraja, who passed away just 2 weeks. He wrote some of the script for that movie and had a cameo role in that movie. He likewise did that for Sigappu Rogakkal. He then came out on his own and wrote stories, scripts, screen plays and directed and starred in many movies during the 1980s period. Too many to mention.

I always looked forward to watching his movies because of the good storylines, witty dialogues and good acting.

Another passing of an era.

Zooming of to KL for a short trip. Just 3 days but am hoping to see if I can progress with the building of my Anyara Hills. That is the primary focus of this trip. Also Harish will be in KL. Hoping to see if I can catch up with him for a meal.

Am now in the lounge in Colombo waiting to board my flight back to Singapore.

A very short but productive trip. Managed to complete the transaction,visited my apartments in Altair and Twin Peaks, visited my NDB branch and met the manager, banked in the bank drafts at NDB, visited SC bank, bought Sri Lankan cashews, met Shanil and finally had dinner at a wonderful newly opened Indian restaurant, called Charcoal Grill, on the 50th floor of Twin Peaks with Shanil and Shane.

Sri Lanka is always a good place to visit. Wonderful people, good food, good weather and peaceful. Glad that it is doing well and the economy is growing. I see more Chinese living in Colombo. That can only be a good thing for the economy?

Today I had lunch with Steven. I last had lunch with him in April 2024. And I last met him at Patrick Ang’s wake exactly a year ago.

So I was pleasantly surprised when he messaged me on Sunday and asked if I was free for lunch this week and fortunately he picked today, which is just as well as I am flying off tonight.

We met at Violet Oon restaurant at Dempsey. We had a very long lunch till past 3pm. We spoke of many things; Patrick, the firm, the report just released today on why young lawyers are leaving the profession and on the impending changes to the courts and his retirement.

I am glad we caught up. Nice to exchange views and here insights from someone who has been a judge and attorney general.

I am now at the airport waiting to catch my flight to Colombo.

I need to be there to sign some documents at the bank for the sale of a property. I was hoping that I didn’t have to be physically present for the signing and that either a scanned or notorized document would suffice. But of course this being Sri Lanka, I was told I need to be there.

So it will be a very short trip for me. I am there Wednesday to sign the papers and I fly back on Thursday morning.

I do wish I had more time there though. I haven’t been there since Covid and am sure much has changed. There are many people I would like to catch up with again and also a few properties I would have liked to visit. If I had more time I would certainly have wanted to go to the Willows. But that’s a 4 hour journey into the mountains and I would need a week to do that properly. So I shall plan another trip soon!

The last time I had lunch with Ashwani, I suggested we try the black pepper crab at Long Beach before he finished his Singapore posting. He had told me that his 3 year term was up and he should be getting his new posting out anytime soon.

So we met yesterday. He hasn’t received his posting yet but he thinks it would be anytime soon. Well I am not sure either one of us would find a common time once he receives his notice to catch up again, so this was my farewell lunch for him.

As always, we spoke about many things, india-china relations, us-india relations, racial matters in Singapore etc. It is always good to get the perspective of an intelligent and keen observer of events to see a different point of view.

He enjoyed the black pepper crab and hopefully our paths cross again someday!

I was informed last week that the celebrity chef Alvin Leung, the owner of Forbidden Duck, would be in Singapore yesterday during lunch.

I have always liked the Peking duck there and since he was going to be there as well, I had to go. Managed to get a table for the second sitting. Enjoyed my duck and a quick conversation with him.

Yesterday I booked my ticket for this musical in Singapore for this August under some rather strange circumstances.

I have known the music from this musical since 1976 when our school band played excerpts. I loved the music and of course I didn’t know who the composers were or the storyline and it’s surrounding controversies then. Soon after playing this piece in the band, a friend from the band took me to Sungei Road to buy a pirated cassette of this musical for $2. I must confess that I didn’t appreciate the rock nature of the singing then.

Years later of course I was reintroduced to this musical via the movie soundtrack and I learnt about Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and what this musical was about.

This musical came out in 1973. The movie version came out soon thereafter and was shown here in the 1970s. So I couldn’t understand the noise in social media by some religious groups calling for a ban on the musical here and expressing concerns about the governments’ decision to allow it this here. Weird. This is not a new work. It has been around some 50 years and has been shown here and the movie has always been freely available here. Why the concern now? In any case, I have seen nothing controversial in the musical. If a religion is fearful of what a book or movie would do to the foundations of the religion, then surely something is wrong? Faith must be based on firmer foundation.

I purchased my ticket immediately after reading the concerns by the religious groups. Strange that they ended up encouraging me to go when under normal circumstances I may not have gone.

On Thursday, through my Facebook feed, I found out that Bharthiraja had passed away aged 84.

I don’t know him personally and have never met him. But he was a legendary Tamil movie director who burst onto the scene in 1977 with his first movie 16 Vayathinilae. He completely changed the tamil film industry by focusing on rural outdoor shooting and portraying the people as they were in real life in the rural areas, the way they talked and dressed and behaved.

I will always remember Sigappu Rogakkal, which I watched with my parents at the Naval Base cinema when it came out sometime in 1978. Such a well done and scary movie.

The other 2 that I will always remember are Kilakae Poogum Rail and Mudhal Mariyadai. He, of course, had many more movies to his name.

He became famous at the same time as Illayaraja and Gangai Amaran, All around the 1976 and 1977. Out of the blue. They were all friends growing up in their village, playing music and singing to audiences, with visions of making it big in Tamil cinema. With no formal education or training.

They all came to Madras in 1967 and struggled to find work. They worked hard and learnt their craft and all 3 of them became successful in their own different ways.

Most of Bharthiraja’s movies featured the amazing music of Illayaraja. Theirs was an amazing combination during that period and it is now slowly reaching the end of an era.

Last Tuesday we met again for dinner. This time at Shousin Izakaya at Boat Quay. Vincent Chong was the host and he picked this place. A smallish japanese restaurant but the food was good and fresh and the prices were reasonable.

So good catching up again. Strangely we didn’t talk at all about politicians or current politics or community issues, something that usually dominates our conversation. Perhaps it is because of our lesser involvement in the community activities nowadays. Much of the conversation was on healthcare concerns, medical tests and costs of living in Singapore.

We ended early this time as both San and Dr Teo had to attend other matters thereafter.