A reflection and sharing
The participants at the BGIS First Reunion Fellowship
Saturday 10
March 2018 was a historic day for us, the residents of the small village once
called Indian Settlement in Changkat of Batu
Gajah,Perak. It was a day when about 50 us,past and present members of Indian
Settlement(IS) came together in our first ever reunion fellowship, meeting very
old friends many of whom we could not even recognise.
We gathered
in the Gopeng Hall of Riverfront Hotel, Ipoh to celebrate our humble origins
from a small village called Indian Settlement (IS) in Changkat, Batu Gajah. Today
it is renamed Desa Changkat,a name that does not reflect the true greatness of the
IS where we grew up spending much of our childhood.
Our origins
may be humble but the products of that simple origin may be seen all over not
only Malaysia but the world and Dr Francis Jayaraj from the US, who was with us, is just one
example of that greatness. In fact, IS has produced many illustrious sons and
dayghters who have done pride to all of us.
Our parents
were just poor illiterate farmers, peasants, and cowherds but they were men and
women of steel. By their hard work, resilience, dedication and sacrifice they produced
illustrious citizens in us in almost every field. Today we are the testimony of
the success stories of our poor but far-sighted and wisdom of our parents
decades ago. Many of them are not here anymore but we take this opportunity to
salute them for all they have done for us.
As old
residents we are extremely saddened and disheartened to see the pathetic state
of our once vibrant kampong that used to be a hive of activities for us as,
children and adults. We excelled in almost everything, academic and sports. We
were a name to be reckoned in hockey, athletics and cricket. In the field of
academic excellence we had many outstanding people heading almost all the
government departments.
We may not
be able to return our IS to the days of its past glory but we hope our children
and grandchildren will understand our great past and continue to carry on with
the legacy of our village and what it stood for in the history and development
of our nation. We can describe the motto of IS as:
“Humble in origin, proud in achievements”
Let’s
reignite the flame of our comradeship of the past and make special efforts to
organise many more reunion fellowships and
activities for the underprivileged people of Desa Changkat.
