Last monday my automatic gate refused to open when I pressed the remote after a heavy downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning. I smelt something like a burnt plastic coming from the control box and guessed that it had been knocked out by the lightning which was followed by a booming thunder which caused my circuit breaker to trip and all my electrical lights went off.
Of late the Klang Valley has seen a lot of thunderstorms which caused havoc in certain parts like Subang Jaya being hit by hailstones and strong winds which caused trees to be uprooted and falling on a few vehicles. I attended a wedding function recently in my neighbourhood and commented to the guy who was seated at the same table with me that the day looks bright as it was midday, but he cautioned me that it would change very fast soon, and sure enough by 3.30 pm a heavy downpour came as usual. So the pattern is that a bright sunny first half would be followed by a heavy thunderstorm by the afternoon. Recent warnings by the Meteorological Department has been issued to residents that flash floods and strong winds are to be expected from now until March next year. The whole country is bracing up for the bad weather which has caused flooding in neighbouring Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. We are told that the supply of rice would be curtailed as many areas which have been the suppliers of our rice have suffered greatly from the overflowing rivers straddling those countries. Not only that we are now facing shortages of vegetables and greens and the price of red chillies has sky rocketed to RM20.00 a kilogram.
Hence I pen down a haiku as follows;
Thunder and lightning
Light up the sky and booming
Sign of Almighty
It is a small village in the kecamatan of Tambusai, Kabupaten Rokan Hulu in the Province of Riau, Sumatra. During the Padri Wars of 1830's , Tuanku Tambusai (aka known as Fakeh Hj Muhammad Salleh ) fought the Dutch forces together with Imam Bonjol and Tuanku Rao in West Sumatra and in Northern Sumatra .The last defence was in Benteng 7 Lapis,Daludalu which fell in 1838. He escaped capture and came to Malaya. He was buried in Rasah in 1882.
4 comments:
I have never owned an automatic gate. Just imagine the number of times I manually push open and shut the gate over the many years. So I have had no problem. But my house in KL, now occupied by one of my children , is fitted with one. It was not installed for convenience, but, of all things, or safety. There have been a number of cases a driver, especially a lady, is assaulted fro robbery when she steps out of her car to open the gate.
In Terengganu I hate the thought of damage caused by salty sea air and the unreliable emerrgency service when the gate refuses to open.
As for the storm and rain, we are now experiencing the beginning of monsoon. Somehow, monsoon rain does not normally carry lightenings as the case with normal convectional rains at the end of very hot days.
Dear Pakcik,
This is my second autogate installed less than two years ago when the first one kept breaking down much too often.My area is one of the worst in terms of lightning strikes. Probably there are too many devils in Kelana Jaya, those which are seen as well as unseen.
Dear Hal,
Automatic gates
Can be a bother no doubt
Convenience prevails
Great 2nd haiku you've done. You have that uncanny knack of pitting your haiku to current events. That is remarkable!
Hank
Dear Hank,
The credit must be given to you for the persistent shoving to my fluctuating interest in updating my blog. I found the advice very useful indeed. A thousand thanks.
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