Cendol Seller during Hungry Ghost Month

Cendol Seller during Hungry Ghost Month

A Cendo street seller on Hungry Ghost Month meets an unforgettable and frightening encounter with a ghost.

Kalimuthu is  Cendol street vendor for over 25 years and he travels to different places in Butterworth in Penang where he sells to his take-away customers. Kalimuthu makes cendol strips by personally by hand (actually by his wife… ha!ha!) and together with the red beans, sweet corn, shaved iced and of course with ‘gula melaka’(yeah!), it provides a unique flavor to the cendol which he sells to his customers.

A Bowl of Cendol

On that particular evening, he was in a field around Assumption school where some school boys had finished with the football game and after the game, some of them had gather to drink from his stall. They were gathered drinking, chatting busily about the game and it was getting late when they left. 

Kalimuthu was gathering the used plastic bowls and spoons when he noticed a small boy (around 7 to 8 years old) standing faced to the back of Kalimuthu. The other boys who were drinking were around 14 to 15 years and this boy was much younger. Thinking it must be a younger brother to one of the boys, he asked “Are you done?” while clearing the used bowls and spoons. 

The younger boy did not answer and Kalimuthu asked again, “Are you lost?” while walking to the little boy.

Kalimuthu was shocked when he reached the little boy, the boy was faceless, no eyes, no nose, no mouth… no facial features!…and he was just standing by himself. Kalimuthu was so horrified that he fell on his back, trying to back away with his legs scrambling desperately backwards from the little boy. Luckily the little boy just walked away in the opposite direction towards an old tree and simply disappeared. 

Kalimuthu stared at the empty tree and was still shocked senseless over the whole incident, got up to his legs, scrambled to his stall and left immediately dashed for home.

Later when recounting to his wife he just realized that the incident occurred during the Chinese Ghost Month and maybe the little boy wanted to join the older boys in a game of soccer or may be the little boy just wanted a bowl of cendol.