Kuala Lampur, Sept. 15 -- SEPTEMBER 15 - Long before smartphones, WhatsApp and secret likes on TikTok and Threads reposts, there was a time when conversations had to pass through someone else first.

If you called someone's home, there was no guarantee that the person you wanted to speak to would answer the telephone.

More often than not, a parent or (faster) sibling picked it up first, and only after a brief exchange would they call the intended person to the phone. It was simply how conversations began.

One particular memory takes me back to November 1999, during Malaysia's 10th general election.

At that time, voting still required many university students to return to their hometowns, and I was among those making the journey back to...