By Maya Green
THE first major barter trade I made was when I was in lower primary school. Idris (yes, that Datuk Seri Idris Jala) had a tricycle that his father had bought for him, which we shared after school, taking turns racing it down the hill near his home.
I had a new pair of shoes, probably only my second pair in my entire early life.
As you can imagine, mine was largely an idyllic shoeless existence. Walking around barefoot like Adam and Eve was nothing unusual; it was the norm.
There were no mobile phones or computer games then – those came much later.
One day, we decided to exchange what we had.
I suppose Idris fancied my new shoes, and since we were best friends, I thought I would simply give them to him.
So Idris got my new pair of shoes, and I got his tricycle in return.
We were both happy.
After the trade, we continued playing with the tricycle on the slope near his house, taking turns and holding firmly to the principle of sharing for the common good.
I can still recall my fast and exhilarating descent down the slope, only to end up at the bottom of the hill with half my head buried in the drain. Idris would come running down to pull me out, and we would have a good laugh before climbing back up the hill and doing it all over again.
We were in it for the fun, quite oblivious to the risks involved.
Two village boys making do with whatever little we had.
We could easily have broken our necks or a bone or two, but somehow the thought never crossed our minds.
Perhaps that was how we learnt to take big, calculated risks.
We also came to realise that there is something far more powerful watching over all things.
Years later, towards the tail end of my career, I was entrusted, among other responsibilities, with supervising and managing PETRONAS’ investments in motorsports, including branding through Formula One racing and superbikes.
Looking back, I suppose I had an early immersion in the exhilarating world of fast wheels, which provided useful software for the decades that followed.
Those formative years also prepared me mentally to put my neck on the line in championing some dangerous missions into challenging geographies – this time out of necessity and for the greater good.
But that is a tale for another day, a far cry from the innocent days of a jungle boy growing up deep in the interior of Borneo.
Note: Maya Green is the pseudonym and alter ego of Datuk Medan Abdullah, a regular contributor to Sarawak Tribune.
