when hotel new world collapsed in march 1986, i remembered watching the rescue operations from across the road, from serangoon plaza. i think mustafa samsudin had moved into serangoon plaza about six months before the catastrophic incident in which 33 persons died.
before it made the big move to serangoon plaza, i used to see its two retail stores also along serangoon road, just after buffalo lane. it was already into clothing and some electrical goods business. i was told by a friend who has lived in that area that mustafa samsudin had its beginning as a push-cart stall along campbell lane.
then in 1995, its extension - the mustafa centre - along syed alwi road came up. not long after, it also acquired the adjacent piece of land across the road. yesterday, when i was at syed alwi road, i discovered that it had acquired more land and was extending more towards jalan besar. i will not be surprised if, in time to come, it occupies the whole stretch of syed alwi road between serangoon road and jalan besar.
incidentally, when i was teaching at monk's hill secondary, one of the daughters of the boss of mustafa was a student there. she kept a low profile and very few then knew about her connection with the big shopping complex in serangoon road. her chauffer would let her alight along bukit timah road and she would walk the stretch of winstedt road to the school.
2 comments:
You should also blog about how Monk's Hill got its name and whether the hill is still in existence. Is (or was) there a monastery in the area?
I was disappointed as I didn't get to see any pictures of an old house similar to this one in this article.
And don't forget to tell us whether you met any heavy chested Indian woman in Syed Alwi Road.
YG, I drove up and down the whole stretch of Syed Alwi Road twice today but I didn't see any old house similar to the one at 681 Geylang. However, I did see many heavy-chested Indian women.
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