Tapah named after a fish that saved family

THE town of Tapah in Perak is believed to be named after ikan tapah, a fish that once saved a family, according to a travel piece carried by BH Ahad.

Apparently, cock fights were very popular there in the old days. Some people would even take bets on them.

One of its fans was Tok Tua Sakti, who was an early settler in Tapah.

He was so carried away with gambling on cock fights that he lost his house. According to local folklore, Tok Tua Sakti dreamt one night that he should go to a river where there was a huge ikan tapah with gold pieces in its stomach.

Tok Tua Sakti found the gold in the fish and redeemed his house.

Since then, his family swore never to eat ikan tapah, which had saved them.

> Actress Erra Fazira, who wears the tudung now, said that she has a more serene and happier life these days.

“This change is a shift in my life. I will not look back,” the lovely celebrity told Mingguan Malaysia.

Erra, who was once known for her fashion sense, said she hoped that the turnaround in her appearance was not merely a cosmetic change.

“I must make sure that I must change internally as well,” she said.

“We must always seek goodness in our lives,” she said, adding that she was grateful to her friends who had been supportive of her.

> Found in translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.