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my grandfather...
Posted 18 November 2008 @ 8:36 PM by User
this is the true story of my grandad.. really..






suppayah* my grandad..


Suppayah owed his very existence to his father, Nallan.



Then only a teenager, Suppayah was in front of a long queue awaiting registration as a prisoner-of-war to be sent to Thailand to work on the infamous Thai Death Railway that day.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, his father Nallan showed up. Tapping him on the shoulder, he told Suppayah to go home and replaced him in the queue.
They never saw each other again.



Nallan ended up in Kanchanaburi, 120km west and about two hours’ drive from Bangkok, where he perished along with an estimated 200,000 Asians who were forced to work under harsh conditions to build the bridge on the River Kwai.



While Nallan never came back, Suppayah went home, in part hiding and staying a step ahead of the Japanese occupying forces who were on the lookout for him. He evaded them and went on to live a full life himself — until he died on Nov 5, aged 82.



Suppayah lived all his adult life haunted by the memory of his father’s tap on the shoulder some 62 years ago. He was always humbled at the thought that his father, a rubber tapper, sacrificed his life for the love of his only son. Suppayah had four sisters.






During the course of his life, Suppayah several times watched with pain and grief the 1950s box-office hit movie Bridge on the River Kwai, which brought to world attention the infamous 415km Death Railway joining Thailand with Burma (now Myanmar), built by the Imperial Japanese Army in WWII with Allied PoWs and forced-labour Asians. Over 80,000 labourers, 13,000 Allied PoWs and thousands of Japanese soldiers lost their lives in the odyssey.



The bridge gained notoriety in the film starring moviedom’s great names, ironically from the nationalities involved in the saga: American William Holden, British Sir Alec Guinness and Japanese Sessue Hayakawa.



Born the third child in a family of five in Gemencheh, Negri Sembilan, Suppayah gained what little education he could under Japanese occupation at a Tamil primary school.
When barely out of his teens, he helped his parents in the transport of latex from collection centres to the processing depots. He also learnt to climb coconut trees to tap fresh toddy and then have it sent to distribution outlets.



Having survived the Japanese blitz and his miraculous escape from working on the Thai Death Railway, Suppayah hauled his life back on track working in Gan Kee Estate and later at the Regent Estate, before returning to Gemencheh where he raised his family.
He married Papathy, a Chinese adopted by a Punjabi, Puran Singh, and his Tamil wife Suppamah, on Oct 25, 1951. They had eight children — five boys: Diagan, Kobu, Subramaniam(my dad), Chandran and Regavan, and three girls: Santha, Sagunthalai and Anjelidevi.



"Although my father never had much of an education, he always encouraged and supported us in our studies. We marvelled at how our parents managed to finance our university education," said Kobu, a Bachelor of Social Science graduate from Universiti Sains Malaysia.



"There were hard times which he bore with a smile. Never did we see him lose hope and courage."



Suppayah also saw two of his younger sons, Subramaniam and Ragavan, through university. Subramaniam (MY DAD) is a Bachelor of Applied Science graduate from Universiti Sains Malaysia and Ragavan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University Malaya.
With advancing years and failing health, Suppayah developed pneumonia. He spent two months recovering at the Assunta Hospital in Petaling Jaya before returning to his home in Gemencheh Baru.



He was bedridden for the last eight months before he died, finally letting go the poignant image of his father’s act of love that pierced his heart for much of his life.
He is also survived by 33 grandchildren and a greatgrandson.