KING-KONG THE GREAT
Fifty years ago, there were two entertainment parks in Penang - Great World Park and New World Park. There will be daily carnivals. It is in these parks that the wrestling matches would take place.
On one occassion, I and my elder brother went with my friends who were older than me. They were Tamil scholars - Kalaidasan and Kalaimani.
I was in the secondary school at that time.
At that time, a main feature in the wrestling matches were the fights between King Kong and Dara Singh.
King Kong was actually a Hungarian who had emigrated to Australia. His real name was something else. But he adopted the name - King Kong. Dara Singh and his younger brother Randawa were Punjabis. Dara Singh later on, had a successful film career. His favourite role was, as Beema Senan in stories derived from MahaBharatha.
When the 'King Kong-Dara Singh' match was on, King Kong played foul so many times. The crowd was wild.
My friend Kalaimani lost control of himself. He took off his chappal and pelted King Kong with it. It hit squarely smack on King Kong's chest.
At that very moment, King Kong turned and caught a glimpse of Kalaimani.
After that match, Randawa was fighting with a Pakistani wrestler - forgot his name. Clean fight that.
After the matches were over, we joined the throng of crowd which was jostling through the only entrance out of the wrestling ring.
At the entrance was King Kong.
And he had Kalaimani's chappal in his right hand.
There was no running away anywhere.
Meekly Kalaimani went through the entrance, hoping that King Kong would not notice him.
But notice him, he did.
King Kong nodded at him and said very politely,
"Excuse me! This is yours".
He grabbed Kalaimani's palm and put the chappal within it. Then he smiled, waved his hand and went off.
I was just two feet away from King Kong.
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