Oh, What A Life!

By
George Das: I’m sitting alone in the Merdeka Stadium Press box.  A lonely figure left to my jangled thoughts.    Trying hard to put together Selangor’s victory in the 1974 Malaysia Cup competition. That deafening roar from the Selangor fans has ceased.  The spectators have long gone and the arena is all quiet.

Even before I can complete my match report, the stadium lights are turned off.  One tower after another shuts down.

I’m left in total darkness as an eerie silence creeps in.  There’s still a few more paragraphs to the story but I decide to leave.

I hurry to find a telephone booth to call the Star sports desk in Penang. Forget the public phones in the stadium; they never work.

So I rush to Sultan Street, only to find to my dismay the telephone hanging limp and out of order.

I make a quick dash to the Klang bus stand where there are a few phone booths.

Two are out and the only other telephone is being used.  It seems mighty long before the chap hangs up.

I heave a sigh of relief as I’m connected to the sports desk.  R.D. Selva, the sports editor, comes on the line and as I relate my ‘masterpiece’, he bangs it out on his typewriter in record time.

That’s another day’s work done and I can feel the mental and em- otional strain ebb. Suddenly I realise I’ve got to make it real quick to catch the last bus home to Peel Road or it’s going to be a long walk back.

What a life! But I loved every moment of it.