' V-,yi\YiV ; ;‘v ‘’7 , 'Y
Page 6B/The Battalion/Thursday, January 26, 1984
4
Malaysia provides splendor, isolation for planters <
United Press International
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
— “We never talk about our lives
here,” said the planter’s wife, a
bird-like Scottish woman, as she
watched the red sun slip away in
the haze of a tropic evening.
“If I told folks back home
we’d entertained Lord Jellicoe
or Lady Barbara Anderson or
we lived in a big hous with ser
vants, they wouldn’t believe us.
They’d think we werejust boast
ing,” she said.
The planter and his wife live
in isolated splendor on an ex
pansive oil palm estate outside
the Malaysian capital. The estate
is owned by a Malaysian com-
g any — and a British company
efore that — but the Scottish
couple has managed it for 20
years.
The gabled, Tudor-style
company house, the size of a
small hotel, rises incongruously
above coconut and banana
palms and the smoke of an oil
mill.
Inside, polished teak floors
squeak under foot, the silver
gleams and droning mosquitoes
seldom dare invade the security
of netting or the chilly blast of air
conditioners.
The furnishings are homey
r
Vaccine Study Screening Samples
$5.00
We will be taking blood samples to select for
future vaccine studies as follows, Jan. 24-26:
Health Center, Basement
Rm 03: Tues, Wed, Thurs.
9:30am-4:00pm
Commons Lounge: Tues, Wed-9:30am-7:30pm
Thursday 9:30am-6pm
Come to these locations for more information
or to give your sample.
Dr. John Quarles
845-3678
and comfortable. There are few
pictures but an abundance of
hand-embroidered English
hunting scenes decorate the
paneled walls.
The acres of garden facing
the sea are filled with the heavy
scent of orchids, magnolias and
jasmine and the incessant
sounds of crickets, lizards and
multi-hued birds.
From the dawn until the last
glint of sunlight the planter
works, his routine broken only
by an occasional visitor or a “nui
sance day” of rain that forces the
cancellation of harvesting, trim
ming, weeding or pest control.
Most estate planters arrived
in Malaysia in response to news
paper advertisements asking for
strong young men to work in an
exotic place. They knew they
would never be able to buy their
own farms if they stayed in Scot
land.
Some got into planting after
leaving the British civil service
or the army after serving in
Malaysia. They started at a pal
try wage as an assistant and, if
they enjoyed it, worked their
way up to the envied position of
estate manager, staying 20 years
or more.
Wednesday evenings are
spent at the club, another mock
Tudor mansion with a velvet
golf course and an aqua swim
ming pool, where a handful of
company men and their wives
meet for a quiet drink or a game
of bridge.
Every other Sunday it’s back
to the club — two minutes by car
from the house — for curry tif
fin, an English liquor — laden
lunch that is an almost forgotten
planters’ tradition.
“Most planters are reclusives
and not interested in the cocktail
lines,” said another Scottish
planter who also asked not to be
named.“We always used to have
a Sunday curry tiffin. We’d go
around at 11 in the morning to
tank up with whiskey ‘til the cur
ry turned up and then we’d go
home tanked up.
“But that was the old days.
Either we’ve grown up or there’s
not many of us left,” said the
Scotsman, who after 34 years as
a planter will soon leave with his
Malaysian wife to buy his dream
farm in the Scottish highlands.
Most planters’ memories re
volve around the club — or
rather, their adventures after
leaving the smoky sanctuary of
the club’s bar.
“We’d gone down to Kuala
Krai to collect the pay. It all had
to be in silver coins so our sacks
were very heavy,” said an elderly
English planter.
“We’d popped in at the club
for a tipple or two and then set
off in fine spirits upriver in a
motorized prow.
“Well, one chap had to answer
the call to nature. We moored at
the bank and he went off into the
jungle.
“We waited 15 minutes and
there was absolutely no sign of
him. It was then we saw the fresh
tracks.
“A tiger had carted him off,
poor blighter. He never was
seen again,” he said, sending his
audience off into fresh gales of
oft-told “do you remember”
stories.
For all the big houses, private
clubs and paid holidays home
for the wife and children, it is a
hard life for the handful of ex
patriate planter needs to be a
walking encyclopedia,” the
November 1920 edition of the
monthly magazine “The Plan
ter” said. “He will have to ac
quire some knowledge of agri
culture, botany, chemistry,
hygiene, sanitary engineering,
surveying, et cetera.”
Today the “et cetera” includes
a working knowledge of compu
ters, quality control, labor rela
tions, power generation and
productivity boosting techni
ques.
Despite a large labor force,
mechanization and computer
ization, the planter still spends
much of his time walking his vast
fields.
“I love my work. It’s almost
the same as owning your own
land,” the planter said.
He pointed to a bristling
clump of trees, heavy with waxy
red fruits.
ings. Besides, we seem tojust J
to know someone and it’stiniti
say goodbye.”
Her days are spent baking
writing to her children atboaii
ing school in Scotland.
"I find enough todo.ltryn
to sleep in the afternoons.Soul
tiring but it’s not. Welikeitiij
way.’’Her husband noddedi-
agreement.
The ferry or four-whes
drive Land-Rover brings
fresh supplies of import fej
Kuala Lumpur’s well-stocltj
supermarkets. The newspa|l
arrive by motorbike and thedi
th en can always telephone. |
“See that oil palm there? That
used to be a mangrove swamp. I
get terrific satisfaction from
seeing jungle converted into
such rich land.”
For the planter’s wife, life has
few surprises and few rewards,
but also few complaints.
“I don’t think about being
lonely. I’ve got used to it. We
don’t like the hoity-toity,” she
said over morning tea on her
plant-bedecked veranda, a ceil
ing fan gentl'Td say we don’t
really have any friends. I’ve nev
er been one for coffee morn-
Servants move sileni
polishing silver and alw«i
ready to please the “mem'll
they call their mistress.
The table is set with frtj I
flowers and starched, embrj |
tiered napkins for the [
breakfast at 10:30 a.m.,ag
four hours after he has bep
the day’s work.Along will)!*;
steaming pots of tea a|
I >( >a< bed eggs on toast comesij
mail.
“We have to accept we’ren
going to be here forever. Wi
just waiting for the letlertosS
it’s over,” the planter sa»j
speaking of the day hew
asked to retire.
“We’ll pack up and goba
Scotland. We won’t be all
comf ortably off but 10 yean
we bought a wee house wi
barn near Loch Lomond."
“There are not manyoll
lef t,” the planter’s wife said
guess we are the lastofadtn
breed.”
Rewrite
Author Pauley says rewriting is key to success
H Fres
ilway s<
■ the :
night to
behind
the Te.\
1 Th
broket;
South'
Society
General meeting to announce
spring semester dance class schedules.
THURSDAY, JAN. 26
7 p.m.
268 E. Kyle
New Members are welcome!
United Press International
ANNISQUAM, Mass. —
Writing, says author Barbara
Pauley, depends on rewriting,
whether it’s a novel or a sexual
case study.
“The best writing depends on
rewriting and rewriting. If
you’re not willing to rewrite, you
shouldn’t write,” she says.
That’s the advice she gives
students in a writers’ workshop
she formed. And it worked so
well, she says, that she and two of
them co-authored a graphic sex
book called “If You Love Me,
Show Me How.”
They believe the book, on
how to improve sexual com
munication, will be a best seller.
“It’s not the kind of material
I’ve worked on before,” she ex
plained. “When it was pre
sented, one member was upset.
It’s very graphic and deals with
sex problems in getting and giv
ing sexual pleasure.”
But the approach — to writ
ing — is the same, she says.
“Writing is very difficult. The
more I write, the slower it gets,
which makes me unhappy. I feel
very strongly the tools for learn
ing to write can and should be
learned.
“The tools of the trade can be
taught but what eventually be
comes literature comes from the
imagination, which can’t be
taught. You can compare it to
other arts. Anyone can be taught
to play the piano because it’s
mechanical, but to play like a
concert pianist is something dif
ferent.”
Pauley, 58, has written two ro
mantic and suspense novels that
were published, “Blood Kin,” in
1972 and “Voices Long
Hushed,” in 1975, but had a
third book rejected, resulting in
a feeling of despair which the
two successes did not dampen.
Her co-authors for the sex
manual are Barbara Esrniol, a
couples therapist, and Sandra
Dodd, a registered nurse, who
surveyed the publications mar
ket to see what was selling before
formulating their idea for the
book.
But Pauley says they still had
to turn that premise into some
thing marketable, and that took
structure and writing, and re
writing.
last Sal
Dodd has since sold het 1
novel, a murder mystery setnB 11 ', < r.
Boston hospital, to a publishj^^
company and hopes to spinf ^ (ll < < j
sequels based on the samepi:| 11
(agonist, a hospital adminin
trator.
I
Bi
something
for
everyone
in the
Battalion
Classified
845-2611
1981 PULITZER PRIZE
N.Y. DRAMA CRITICS' CIRCLE AWARD
Pauley says her worksi
hard work, giving tips on ml
keting, contacts with agentsil
editors and lets other meinM
cross check the work andprf
ress of their peers. L
“The workshop is thereto® ^ ‘ le
better writing and be consra^ 38 ^ 6 ^
live so the members canleaitr 31
and that sometimes meansbd|!l 3tl0ri s
very critical, she said. 1; e f 11
S looking for more memra Longho
for the workshop in WenhiT"”* 1 ^ ^
Mass., where members 1
asked for a description ofapEpSS les -
ject and a sample of thr *j le l
writing. |P ut ‘ lvv f
“The fact you’ve wrrf navera
something that gets publrf a,n . e
and people read and like issPP 11011
ting on a library shelf gives yoi . Ihe
wonderful connection withilf 11 '
world.” Pauley said. “Ifsafij-PP'
tastic feeling.” J s ^ ets
t hey’re
CRI
Warn*, Thaatra ProOucttoo. Inc fClaka MtchMrn
CRIMES OF THE HEART
Presented by MSC
Town Hall/Broadway
Texas A&M University
Rudder Auditorium
February 2 8:00p.m.
Tickets $13.00, $12.50, $11.50
MSC Box Office
Visa&Mastercard Call 845-1234
c ompari<
Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity
Played.
And t
( like
Lloyd, vv
''found:
high 2(3
^ggies.
6 §iith, w.
Horr
hut th
} [ight sp
m Lam
Vv uh 24 p
Spring Rush ’84
Jan. 26, Thursday No theme
Jan. 28, Saturday “Cabbage Patch Doll’
Party
>•••*
Feb. 3, Friday No theme
All Parties At T.K.E. House
102 S. Parker
PARTIES BEGIN AT 8:30
e
3
TKE
House
Texas
4 miles
-5
vO
CM
Parker
for more information, call 696-9412 or 823-7359