Malabar to Malaya  (English, Paperback, Ravindran Raghavan)

The British rubber plantations in Malaya (now Malaysia) created a huge migration of indentured labour from India. My grandpa joined the wave to start a spice business and lost it all. That plunged my generation below the poverty line!I I was born in a plantation house (not a hospital) and my birth certificate was "processed" in a police station. That is how I arrived earth in 1965. Grew up in the rubber plantation, soon to become unpaid underaged labour helping my parents tap rubber trees starting at 04:30 in the morning amongst the mosquitoes and snakes while smacking into spider webs between the trees.Our meals starts on a perfect dining table after pay day and dwindles into lack of food by end of the month. The vicious cycle seems to never end year after year. In the years to come I became a Chemical Engineer and that changed this "fate" by placing food on our table consistently. As I set sail on my career, my life took various positive turns that brought me to being a Company Director occasionally signing cheques with six digits in them. This book shares a part my journey that took me through pain, gain, glory and gratification.