My grandparents

 My paternal grandfather moved from India to Africa, and thereafter to the then Malaya. 

In the process my father lost contact with two of his siblings. Ava (my mother) and I have not seen them. I did inquire my dad all he could remember was they are still in then Malaya, they were Telugu teachers teaching in a Telugu School in Sitiawan a small town in Perak. I believe their offspring are in Malaysia happily speaking Telugu and are not aware they have distant cousins who can't speak the Telugu dialect. This is what happens when we migrate forgetting our roots. My mother could speak a smattering of Telugu which she she only spoke when she quarreled with my dad. My dad and his mum spoke Telugu well as well as Tamil. They switched over to Telugu when they did not want my mum to know what they were speaking. 

My maternal grandmother is also Telugu hailing from Pondicherry India. Unlike the Indians who came into Malaya as estate laborers both my grandparents migrated to the towns. My maternal grand father was a Telugu teacher while my paternal grandfather was in the printing trade and he taught my father the art of book binding which became his future vocation. Book binding must have been an unusual occupation as when I told my Form Teacher my father was a book binder the Form Teacher had a good laugh as he had not heard of that occupation before this. Unlike most Malaysian Indians my grandfathers were affluent compared to our neighbors. My paternal grandmother had 20 head of cattle while my maternal grandmother had a few dozen goats. We lived in a row of three wooden terrace houses at Silibin Ipoh. While we lived in the first house the second house was for the cattle and the third one was for the goats. We lost this wealth because of an irresponsible uncle (my mother's brother) who was known to squander the family wealth all his life. Even I was cheated of some savings. My father left his meagre EPF Savings to me. My uncle knew it and wanted to grab it. I naturally resisted but gave in when Ava told me to help him out as her brother was in difficulty. I had no choice but to visit the Post Office where my savings were. I took out the money, gave it to my uncle and that was the end of it. Fortunately for our family my uncle managed to rent a big house in what is now known as Lim Gardens. I was friendly with the landlord as he was pleased to see my progress up the social ladder. He admitted that my uncle never paid even a single month's rent but their family was doing well and the non payment was tolerated. We were there for a few years until I landed a job in the Post Office and we and our uncle went our separate ways.