Chapter 1: Cameron Highlands, Malaya

I LEFT SINGAPORE for Cameron Highlands in early March 1942 after seeing my English father before he went into internment during the Japanese Occupation. I returned to Cameron Highlands to be with my Indian mother and younger brother Leonard. My sister Margaret had left earlier for India. My father owned a small estate of about 60 acres (24 ha), a quiet retreat about a mile (1.6 km) from the main road and bounded by the mountain stream, Sungei Habu, which he had kept clean of weeds and whose banks he had reinforced by rock walls at the bends, made of stones taken out of the stream. All day and night, the sound of the stream fell on one's ears, a pleasant lullaby along with the jungle noises of the night. My father, who found social intercourse invariably difficult, found peace in the tranquil atmosphere of the green forested hills of Cameron Highlands…