BUANASENI

1947 CHINESE HORSE RACING CALENDAR

By Jo Haq

11 March 2024

4:35 am

I just woke up to a very weird dream. I was an accidental time traveller back to 1947 in Malaya. I saw a Malaysian Chinese horse racing calendar somewhere while I was there, or when I was then. Funny, the clothing was more like 1957 because I saw women wearing mini skirts and police wearing shorts.

I checked my wallet and saw that I still have some 2024 Malaysian currency notes, my Malaysian national registered identification card and all. I figured that those stuff shall be my evidence. So, I went for a quest to identify someone whom I can give, maybe a 2024 fifty Ringgit note with my signature on it and my 2024 telephone number, that is 0179881185. That someone would look for me in 2024. 

Say if he or she is twenty years old, in 1947, then in 2024 he or she would be 77 years old. So, he or she would have to look for me earlier, say in 2014, at his or her age of 67. To be safe, I thought to myself, 67 is too old. He or she might be dead already. So, I resorted to give my phone number used earlier then 2013, that is 0172508811.

And there, or then, begun my adventure of identifying that person. But every time I was about to utter the words that I suspect the person will not believe, some obstacle will happen to stop me from continuing. This happened many times.

Oh! Ya! I forgot to mention. I was not alone. I had my friend, Riza, whom used to be the successor CEO to me for MyCreative. So, we both encountered the same obtacles together. One of the obstacle was a police raid due to fear of communism spreading. Riza got captured for God knows whatever reason. He does not look like a communist. So, I was left alone.

I was tired and had given up in my attempt to give the marked fifty Ringgit note because even if I did not attempt to utter any words, the act of pulling out that note with the attention to show what was written on it would trigger some sort of obstacle.

Soon I realised, every person that I got closed to would be out of my life. I became lonely. So, I think, or thought, rather, I should just retire from my intention and just live 1947. I looked for a job as an office boy. I met a twenty year old Malay lady by the name Sofia. She looks like Zaleha from the P. Ramlee film, Antara Dua Darjat. We became good friends, but not lovers.

Despite my effort to avoid telling her or showing her where, or when, I come from, an obstacle happened anyway. She did not want to continue our friendship and refused to see me. In fact, I couldn't even find her as I suspect she may have left town or moved away. I was alone, yet again. 

What could have happened? Did she try to look into my Bally wallet? Maybe she did see my Malaysian national registration identification card. Maybe she did see my fifty Ringgit note that had my signature coupled with a written date of 10 March 1947 as well as a written declaration scribbled as, "I am Johan bin Mohamed Ishak. I was born on 29 August 1975. Call me at 0172508811 in the year 2003". 

I was so sad that that sadness had awoken me from my sleep at 4:24 am on 11 March 2024. The funny thing is, normally I would not remember the details of my dreams. This dream, however, stays vivid in my mind down to the colour of clothes worn by people in the dream, their faces, as well as stuff like the Malaysian Chinese horse racing calendar. Oh well, I am just going to have a smoke and then back to sleep. Who knows I might end up in 2047?