Autobiography - Part 4: Early Life and Strength Training

Q: Welcome to the fourth clip of your life history. You mentioned previously that you were boxing while under British rule. What happened after that period?

A: Thank you for interviewing me again. I'm recollecting my memories from after the British left, around the early 1960s. We gained independence around 1961, but they remained for a few years. As a young kid, I used to work at their residences, doing gardening work to earn pocket money. I even polished the boots of these British people while they were still there, earning about $5 Malaysian per house, which was a significant amount at the time. I had about 10 houses, earning about 50 Malaysian ringgits a week. A normal worker might earn about 100 ringgits at that time.

I wasn't ashamed to do what some might consider "dirty work," like cleaning drains or cutting grass with a small knife by hand. I used that money to support myself and pay for my expenses. I never took a single cent from my parents.

Q: How old were you at that time?

A: I was nearly 13 years old, born in 1949. I started these jobs when I was about 12 to support my interest in Indian martial arts, boxing, and other things.

When the British were still around, I saved a lot of money. Before I could afford real weights, I used large milk tins, "Lactogen" I remember, filled with stones, cement, and water pipes. I used these as weights because I couldn't afford to buy proper weight training equipment. I had no experience and didn't know if I was doing it correctly.

Later, I used the money I earned to buy weights, make dumbbells, and long barbells. I learned about incline benches from bodybuilding magazines and asked a carpenter to make one for me. Sometimes we even built our own. That's how I started weight training. I wanted to look like the movie stars from films like Hercules and Gladiators. My favorite bodybuilders were Steve Reeves and Reg Park. I remember others like Mark Forest and Gordon Scott. Seeing their physiques fascinated me, and I wanted to train to that level, though I never quite reached it. This was when I was around 13 or 14 years old. After my boxing ended, I focused on weight training.

Unfortunately, this weight training came to a sudden end when we had to move and no longer had a space to keep my weights. So, bodybuilding was put on hold for a while. It was only a short period in my young life.

Q: Very interesting. And you were very creative in how you found ways to train.

A: Yes, because I didn't have financial support. My father would even challenge me to see who could lift more weight, and I often lifted more than him. I was strong, but I didn't know how to train properly. Later, I met some good friends who taught me more.

After the British left, I got a job as an office boy. It was a step up from cleaning drains. I financed my studies in night school with that job. Through this job, I met some good friends who were bodybuilders. One of them was a great bodybuilder, and I learned a bit from him about how to train. He eventually stopped bodybuilding and became a Taekwondo practitioner. I also wanted to study Taekwondo. I'll tell you more about that in the next chapter.

Q: In the next chapter. Thank you very much.

A: You're most welcome. See you all in the next chapter on coming to martial arts. Bye.