Thiruda Thiruda… Finally…

Sunday, 24 November 2013

AmCorp Mall, Malaysia

I frequently go to AmCorp Mall every Sundays because of the flea market. As I made my way through the crowds, I heard strains of "Kannum Kannum" blasting from the speakers. Immediately, I thought to myself one of the Indian sellers must be playing a copy of the "Thiruda Thiruda" CD on the CD player but was it an original CD or was it a pirated CD or from a MP3 collection?

I tracked down the CD player that was playing the song. I can see it was track 1 – 2:27 minutes have elapsed. Then I saw the original Magnasound "Thiruda Thiruda/Puthiya Mugam" CD jewel case next to the CD player on top of other CDs arranged inside a box. I was surprised at first. I was overjoyed but I kept my cool.

But the owner of the booth was not an Indian man… it was an old Chinese man. What was he doing playing "Thiruda Thiruda" CD? I asked him how much was he selling the CD for? His reply was harsh, and cruel. The Chinese man said the CD was not for sale. Is he for REAL? Oh my God…

He told me a lot of people wanted to buy the CD but he refused to sell the CD – saying that the CD was for his personal use only. I was heart broken. He was really playing hard to sell. He told he would have sold the CD a long time ago if he wanted to but he did not.

I tried to establish a rapport with him. I asked if he sold any other Indian CDs. He said he only had the "Thiruda Thiruda" CD. Now he was getting a little bit annoyed with me. He slowly pushed the "Thiruda/Puthiya Mugam" CD jewel away from me – as if asking me to leave – that I will not be able to buy the CD from him.

Desperate to get the CD – I turned around, and stood next to him – side by side – and offered him RM100 to buy the CD. Immediately, once he heard my offer, I can see that his heart gave way, and he accepted my offer. He did not try to negotiate or ask more – he just accepted my first offer.

He offered to shake my hands, and I shook his hands. He stopped the CD player, and took out the CD, and showed me the back of CD indicating that it had no scratches. He put the CD inside the jewel case, and gave it to me. He told me before I left his booth – “You are well aware of the CD’s worth and value…”. He was very happy, and I saw him talking to a young Indian seller next to his booth about his good fortune. It’s actually my good fortune to buy the CD on that day.

I just wanted to go back home. I could not believe my luck. The CD was worth the RM100 that I paid to the old Chinese man, and even more!!!  I remember the first time I saw the Magnasound "Thiruda/Puthiya Mugam" CD was in November 1993 in my cousin brother's house during Deepavali. He played the CD, and people were very impressed with "Putham Pudhu Boomi" - saying the song was very refreshing to listen to. Later, my father borrowed the CD from my cousin brother but later the CD was given back. I got my first copy of the CD from Haniffa Textiles shop in Jalan Masjid India around 1998. I remember the CD being displayed in the audio cabinet section of Haniffa Textiles. Everytime I went to the shop late in 1990s, it was always there - waiting for me to buy it. In 1998, I was accepted into Shell Malaysia as an industrial trainee, and I received a monthly allowance of RM500. This allowed me to finally buy the CD. I still remember when I wanted to purchase the CD - one of the staff working at the audio section of Haniffa Textiles asked me whether "Koncham Nilavu" can be played for a while. I lost my copy of the CD in 2006. I have never seen another copy of the CD for sale anywhere since – not even on the Internet sites.

It feels great to be finally among the privileged few to have an original copy of the Magnasound "Thiruda/Puthiya Mugam" CD. Thiruda Thiruda is one of A.R. Rahman’s best soundtracks of all time. It’s my personal favourite. Thank you to the Old Chinese Man…

On the jewel case of the CD, there was a price tag sticker pasted upside down with Chinese characters hand written on it. The price tag had "Golden Rainbow" printed underneath it. There is also the following name written on the jewel case using a black marker pen but it appears to be slowly fading away: 
Fauziah Zakariah (R2)

My first thought was that R2 stood for Radio 2 - which is a defunct national radio station in Malaysia - maybe Fauziah Zakariah was a former DJ working for the Radio 2 station. A quick search from Google highlighted there was indeed a Fauziah Zakaria (Zakariah without the "h" but close enough) who previously was a DJ with Radio 2. Was she the original owner of the CD? Wow... this is so amazing!!!

http://fauziahzakaria.blogspot.com/

Later on Tuesday, when I was back in office, I asked my Chinese colleagues what was written on the price tag pasted on the jewel case of the CD. They said it was written in Mandarin, and literally meant "self use" or "personal use". The Old Chinese Man really meant it when he told the CD was not for sale, and was for his personal use.