In The Footsteps of Stamford Raffles by Nigel Barley

Author:Nigel Barley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814423328
Publisher: Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd.

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‘Rice,’ said Aneka. ‘All my childhood, my dreams were full of rice. I used to dream about Bung Karno’s rice coming every month.’

‘You were hungry?’ I pictured her, huge mouth and eyes, limbs like a stick insect.

‘No, of course not. We always had enough food. It was all my father’s fault. He scared us to death. It started with oranges.

‘Oranges?’

‘Yes. He told me that if I swallowed orange pips, orange trees would grow out of the top of my head and I’d have great branches coming through my skull. It’s impossible to eat oranges without swallowing some of the little pips. Think of the agony! I used to run round holding my head and groaning for hours, thinking I could feel them starting to grow roots. In the end I stopped eating oranges.’

‘What about the rice?’

‘He told us if we didn’t finish up our rice every day, the Rice Giant would come and get us – and we all believed it. People like you are always writing about the Rice goddess, how the people in the country worship her, though they are Muslims or Hindus. Well with us it was the Rice Giant. He said, when it was dark, the rice we left would turn into the giant and come and get us.’

She leaped to her feet, puffed out her cheeks and lumbered round the room, arms swinging in simian fashion. Out of her mouth came a great growling chant with thudding rhythms, a thud for each footfall:

‘Where’s that little girl Aneka?

Left her rice. I’ve come to take her.’

She broke off, held her head and howled – laughing at the same time in recollection of childhood pain and innocence.

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