The Kopitiam

The Kopitiam

Saturday mornings were usually one time of the week we looked forward to because it was a time when we could get together with the kids for a leisurely breakfast and look back over the week gone by. As a family, we would talk about our joys and frustrations during the week and it meant a time of bonding with the kids as well.

Sometimes in the evenings, I would get Kathryn out just to spend some time with her or to discuss anything that was troubling and she would oblige all the time. It was those precious times that we could share our deepest thoughts or sometimes it was just plain bread and coffee time.

Some of our favourite joints were the many kopitiams (coffee shops) around the neighbourhood of Subang Jaya where we lived. Sometimes it was the more upmarket 'yuppy' corners and at other times it was the old traditional kopitiam 'hainan' style that we love to gather in. Other times were spent at the mamak stalls (food stalls generally run by Indians and Indian Muslims) where we dug into roti canai (a type of Indian flatbread eaten with curry) despite not feeling at all hungry. Like most times when we get to go out together it was not about the food nor the ambience but the time we could spend together and the fellowship that we had that meant a lot to us.

For Kathryn and me, the humble kopitiam was meant to be our place to hang out and relax even our greying years. We used to share about the things that we could do together even after the kids were grown and had families of their own. It was something I looked forward to continuing because it was a place of memories of family times and it has brought us so much bonding together as a family. It is now something that I will greatly miss doing with her.

These days I still take the kids out to the kopitiams whenever I can. They know that I needed these times to get away to gather my feelings and thoughts together. For me perhaps, the kopitiam is one place to put an anchor down in the sea of change that is taking place now.

Mark Teh
14 September 2010