My Home at Ganges Avenue

If you pass by Ganges Avenue now, you will see new HDB flats and some private apartments. There are 7 blocks of high-rise HDB flats when before that it had several blocks of 4-storey Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) flats. I stayed in Block 60 Ganges Avenue since I was born. For nearly 30 years, I lived in Ganges Avenue. I left this home after I was married and moved out in 1986. My parents moved to Jalan Bukit Ho Swee rental flats after the government wanted to demolish all the SIT flats along this stretch of road.

Layout of SIT flat

This SIT flat was a three-room flat. When you stepped through the door, you were in the living room. The window faced a small side road running parallel to Ganges Avenue. When you moved further into the flat, there were 2 bedrooms on the left. Both windows faced Ganges Avenue. At the end of the flat was the kitchen. The kitchen had a window where you hanged out your laundry on a bamboo pole. In between the kitchen and the living room was the shower room and toilet separated by a wall. What was unique in those days was that there was a chimney above the cooking area.

Fright of my life

My mother used to hang out wet laundry to dry on bamboo poles. There was a technique to push out the bamboo pole filled with clothes through the kitchen window and then insert the bamboo pole into a holder fixed to the external wall. When retrieving the bamboo pole, there was another technique.

There was this one time, when the rain came suddenly. I was about 12 -13 years then (cannot recall the exact year). I remember I rushed to the kitchen and tried to bring in the bamboo pole. I had done it a few times before without incident. But for this one time, I lost my footing and I suddenly felt that I was going to fall over through the window. My hands were still gripping the bamboo pole and did not had the presence of mind to release the pole from my hands. I felt the tilt of my body over the window. I stared death for a very brief moment and panicked. Fortunately, I forced myself back and withdrew from the window with the bamboo pole still in my hand. I heard of maids falling over from flats and I still felt the same fear so many years ago.

I shared the same bedroom with my mother. We partitioned this room into two halves. My part of the room had the window view. It was to be my study area as well. I remember I was able to afford an Akai Hifi audio system with turntable, tuner, cassette player and two speakers. I enjoyed listening to Barry White, the Supremes, Diana Ross, Nana Mouskouri, to name a few.

First Black and White TV

When Singapore started to broadcast black and white TV programmes in 1963, our family bought a black and white TV. I was just 6 years old. One wonders how we could afford a TV and be the first to catch TV broadcasts. My parents told me that the money came from my second older brother who had a cash award for doing well in his academic studies.

I remember we opened our door to allow our neighbours to watch these TV programmes. That was the neighbourliness in our community back then.

My Siblings

Talking about my siblings. I am the youngest in the family. I have three older brothers and one older sister. My mother is a homemaker. My father was the sole breadwinner. My brothers and sister moved out of Ganges Avenue flat when they got married. I did the same. My mother believed that we should move out and set up our own homes. She knew that staying under the same roof can result in frictions and relationships could sour. She rather stayed on her own instead of moving in with us despite of her age.