Block2Blog

  PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM THE weekend suddenly turned grey and gloomy when shock news arrived from Melbourne, Australia, that cancer-stricken Sam Quah lost his battle and faded away…and within minutes even the local air-waves were filled with multiple obituaries as deejay extraordinary Brian Richmond saluted him over Sunday’s ‘Vintage Showcase’. Sam was simply a happy-go-lucky lad, multi-talented in music, sports and was like a jack-of-all-trades during his early teenagerhood days as the football-famous Quah family from the Sembawang Naval Base created island-wide headlines. For four decades, there was at least one of the Quah brothers in the national team, from second brother Kim Beng in 1954 to Kim Song, who played for the country from 1968 to 1983. Sisters Theresa, Doreen and Rosa also played for the national women's team in the 1960s. But Sam looked on to greener pastures and migrated to Australia, in the mid-1990s, with wife Kui Lan Theng and three teenage kids, Cain, Cassie and Ni...

 Bargadi to Brisbane - Part 3 of 3 3: THE JAPANESEOCCUPATION (1942-1945)   The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. The Japanese landed in Malaya on December 8 and made a rapid progress to Johore from where they planned the push to Singapore. General Yamashita was their commander. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore. The Occupation was to become a major turning point in the history of several nations, including that of Japan, Britain and the then-colonial state of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in South-East Asia and was the key to British imperial interwar defence planning for South-East Asia and the South-West Pacific. The fighting in Singapore lasted from 8 to 15 February 1942, after the two months during which Japanese forces ...

 Bargadi to Brisbane - Part 2 2  :INDIA TO SINGAPORE (1937-41)   My father Hakam Singh (1908-1997) was born in India in a farming family in a small village in the state of Punjab, called Sukhanand, which is in the district of Moga. That is where he grew up and got married to my mother Harnam Kaur. He did not have much of an education as education was not a priority during the time when he was growing up. Most villages did not even have schools.  Farming was the primary source of income back then in the Punjab, as it is even until today. My father quickly realised that the little land that he would inherit would hardly be enough to generate enough income for him to raise a family.   He began to look for opportunities to give his family a better life and soon came to know that the British were looking for individuals who were willing to work for them in the army or police in British colonies. Fortunately he had a sister who was already in living in Singa...