KUALA LUMPUR: He has endured many torrid episodes in the past nine decades.
In fact, Amar Singh has virtually done and seen it all – surviving World War II (1939-45) and the subsequent Japanese Occupation, the communist insurgency, the two Emergencies (1948-60 and 1968-89), the Confrontation with Indonesia (1963-66), the 'May 13' 1969 racial riots and Kuala Lumpur's great floods in 1971, to name a few.
Yet, it is the global Covid-19 pandemic that is the most challenging period in the life of Amar, who turns 96 on Feb 13.
"Never have I experienced such a lockdown the past one year.
"You can say it feels like being in Alcatraz (the infamous penal island off San Francisco)," said the 'grand old man' of Sentul Bahagia, who is also probably the most senior living Punjabi in the country.
Despite his age, Amar remains sprightly by cycling regularly, can move about without aid, speaks the Queen's English coherently and has good hearing and eye-sight.
Amar is, however, grateful to be living in a 'kampung house' that offers plenty of greenery, thanks to his fruit orchard and vegetable garden complete with hens and cockerel.
"The village-like surrounding gives me some sort of breakaway from a concrete jungle in a city with sprawling bungalows, flats, apartments and high-rise buildings.
"Before the recent lockdown, I was able to take my Raleigh bicycle for a spin around my neighbourhood, which gives me the much needed exercise, especially for my knees.
"In those days 80 years ago, I used to cycle to work on my old faithful The Seven-Up brand bicycle.
"Occasionally today, I will take my Honda cub for a ride to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital to get my medication," said Amar, who retired permanently in 2013 after working for nearly 72 years.
Amar's working journey began on May 15, 1941 soon after finishing his education with Loyola School and then Maxwell School in Kuala Lumpur.
At 16, he sought employment with Malayan Railways as a lathe machine apprentice at its Sentul central workshop.
He said his late father Sunder Singh, also a Malayan Railways employee, had encouraged him to work.
Sunder, who was also a bugler with the British Army, had arrived in Malaya from India in 1920.
"I remember my supervisor advising me: "Master the machining job and you will never go hungry!"
"I was later paid a salary of 92 cents a day, a reasonable sum in those days," said Amar, who on Dec 11, 1946 joined the British Army's Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corps as a civilian Class One turner and fitter at the Batu Cantonment camp in Jalan Ipoh.
He was tasked with machining parts for Army motor-vehicles.
Amar resigned from the corps on April 14, 1949 to travel to Punjab, India to get married to Amrit Kaur in February the following year. She died in 1979.
Upon returning to Malaya, he re-joined the corps on May 30, 1950 and worked there until Dec 5, 1960.
Thereafter, Amar worked two years with the Eastern Mining and Metal Co Ltd in Rompin, Pahang until May 6, 1962.
Amar then worked for industrial rubber manufacturer Linatex in the same trade until attaining the compulsory retirement age of 60 in 1985.
"I still had the vigour in me to continue working. Besides, I had acquired a great deal of skills as a specialist turner-cum-fitter.
"Hence, I went to work on contract for Apex Steelcon until 2013 when age caught up with me," said Amar, who lives with his astrologer son Braim Singh and daughter-in-law Biro Kaur.
Amar's other children are son lawyer Pritam Singh and daughters Jaswant Kaur and Harjit Kaur.
Amar recounted how he and his family had endured the difficult times during the war in his younger days.
"Food was hard to come by. We were just waiting for the war to end," said Amar, who whiles his hours away by doing some handy-work at his makeshift workshop at home.