It’s amusing watching Astro’s “Kings of Pain” stars deliberately exposing themselves to the rigours of agony by allowing themselves being bitten by various reptiles and a variety of invertebrates.
I enjoy it because I have been through many painful experiences in my 70 years of life – from the sting of a variety of catfish – both sea and freshwater, a swarm of hornets, wasps, a jelly fish and a scorpion to name a few.
My baptism of stings started when I was eight while accompanying my parents on a sea-fishing trip in Malacca and was stung by an ikan sembilang.
The pain was excruciating as I bawled like a baby!
As fishing enthusiast recently said: “The sting of an eel-tail catfish or ikan sembilang will not kill you, but the pain is so extreme that you might think you are dying!”
I cannot remember exactly how painful it was but I was told my father “enjoyed” watching me writhe in pain and who could blame him, because as a child I was a handful.
But my father laughed it off as the act of a normal kampung boy!
If I was not swinging from branch to branch like Tarzan I was running all over the roof of our colonial-type residence in Alor Star.
Needless to say, the branch of our 20-foot tree roof next to the house eventually gave in and I fell, stunned and winded.
Mum gave me a glass of water because when you are winded, you will apparently be unable to breathe normally for a while. But I survived.
Within minutes I had recovered and was up to my antics all over again.
After reading my father’s memoir “The Adventures of Johnny Ritchie” I realised that mishaps ran in the family but in the old days the antidote was different; he was forced to drink a cup of urine after his fall.
When I was stung by a jelly fish at Santubong beach in 1967, the late Datuk Ramsay Jitam urinated on my dark-reddish leg.
The dose of urine which is part acidic and alkaline, was supposed to ease the pain, but instead it was releasing more venom.
More pain and everybody had a good laugh!
One of my most painful experiences when I was stung by a swarm of orange-belted hornets when I climbed a tree with tekukur or spotted dove’s nest.
Little did I realise that the birds had deliberately built its nest next to a large bee hive for protection against nestling thieves like me.
When the bees got me, I jumped into a puddle of water, got up and sprinted for dear life.
And when I got home I got the normal dose of mother’s thrashing before my father took me to the General Hospital for my anti-tetanus jab and pain killers for the eight blue-black welts adorning my torso.
In reality, tree or ground Tebuan hornets are deadly as proven when two children – Chen Sze Ying, six, and her three-year-old brother, Chun Jie – died several hours after being stung on October 4, 2009.
Their older sister, mother and an uncle survived the attack by what is believed to be ground hornets.
On September 9, 2014 six-year-old Nor Sharian Sharizan, her mother Sharifah Norhasyiawati Wan Aribi and aunt Sharifah Esah Ebon, 42, died after being stung by between 45 and 50 hornets each at Kota Samarahan.
Back to the “Kings of Pain”, wildlife biologist Adam Thorn and professional animal handler Rob “Caveman” Alleva allowed themselves to be bitten or stung by some of the most dangerous animals and vicious stinging insects in the world.
Apparently, this is to enable them to be “guinea pigs” in comprehensive pain index which the film producers’ hope will ultimately help save lives.
And this is in keeping with entomologist Dr Justin O. Schmidt’s experiment to rank stinging insects on a scale of 1 to 4 while putting himself in harm’s way for science to create the “Schmidt sting pain index” based on his book “The Sting of the Wild”.
Now Thorn and Alleva are taking Schmidt’s pain index even further by adding venomous bites and more deadly creatures.
All of this is exciting and adds to the adventure that many a young man or woman would like to try out – an experiment which should never be emulated.
As for me, all the stings and bites I have experienced were not self-inflicted deliberately, though young people get into trouble because they ask for it.
It’s enough that other painful episodes in life; several stitches on the head, a broken shoulder which has been cobbled together by a bone orthopedic surgeon and a shattered humerus bone due to motor accidents. And that was no laughing matter!
Fortunately, I am still around to tell my stories and a little wiser about dangers of being a motor-cycle enthusiast.
In half of the accidents I was complicit in the mishaps, by carefree riding and pure bad luck due to careless and impatient motorists.
Now that I have attained three score and 10 years, it’s time for me to slow down because after this, every year is a bonus.
Wish me luck!
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
