The Pota Pata tale

Pota Pata thanked the author profusely for having taken care of him. The three ships left Penang the next morning, for the return passage to India. Pota Pata was well on his way to recovery. However the story did not finish here.

Pota Pata thanked the author profusely for having taken care of him.
The three ships left Penang the next morning, for the return passage to India. Pota Pata was well on his way to recovery. However the story did not finish here.

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Four years later, Naval ships proceeded to Trincomalee on a visit.

On board one of the ships was the same Army PRO. On the evening after arrival, this gentleman was roaming around town looking for a glass of beer when suddenly he noted a bar named “Pota Pata”. The name clicked on memories of Penang so far away and so just for the sake of the name he decided to enter. At the bar was a 15-year-old boy cleaning glasses.

The PRO ordered a beer.

The boy went to get the beer. It was at this point that his eyes fell on the counter and to his utter surprise and shock he noted a series of photographs under the glass- in fact the very same that he had given the Burmese castaway. He yelled for the boy,

“Where did you get these pictures? I had taken these pictures and given them to a man who had been saved by the Indian navy four years ago at Penang. And the man’s name was Pota Pata.”

The boy returned with a beer and placed it on the counter.

He sighed as he picked up a cloth and continued wiping glasses, “Pota Pata is my father. Four years ago my mother and me gave him up for dead, but one day he suddenly returned with his story. He spoke in glowing terms about the Indian Navy and how they saved his life and he gave me these pictures.”

“My father received some compensation but something had changed in him. He did not want to live in Rangoon any more and so we emigrated to Trincomalee and with all our savings we set up this bar. My father gave up fishing.”

“So where is he? Can I meet him? It will be such a pleasure catching up.”

“I truly wish you could. He is not here. My father’s call towards the sea overcame his resolution not to fish again. A month ago, much against my mother’s wishes, Pota Pata returned to sea. He has not been seen since.”

“I am sorry”. The PRO said, “I understand the draw of the sea is very strong, just as strong as the pull of mountains. I am really sorry.”

He gulped down his beer, paid up and left. The story of Pota Pata a Burmese castaway had finally ended.

Epilogue: The author was commended by the Malaysian authorities and particularly so by the late Tunku Abdul Rehman, for saving the life of Pota Pata, who has been rescued by the Indian Navy after clinging to a raft for 25 harrowing days.