Raub is a small town in Pahang where I was born. I first heard about the origin of Raub's name during my primary school. I find the story very interesting and I'm never tired of telling the story again and again and again. I remembered writing about it in one of my English compositions during matriculation. And if my memory is still intact, my English teacher then, Mrs Ivy Ng, was fascinated by the story that she read the composition to the whole class (or was I imagining about it? maybe she read someone else's writing... ha ha... well, let me just gloat about it eh..)

I have also wrote an email regarding this to the members of mozac yahoogroup regardless of their interest in reading my email . I even dedicated a blog entry to this topic in my old blog. And I'm writing about it again now. Briefly, the story goes back to when Raub is famous for its gold. The gold was so abundant that one can get gold if he/she simply scoops (raub/raup) the river's bed... Scoop... and walla.... you're rich. Hey.... wiki has a similar story too...

Hmm... I would like to imagine that once a upon a time, there was a conversation which started like this:

A: Kau nak pergi mana?

B: Aku nak pergi meraub.

Imagine this conversation being repeated countless times. Tak ke last2 lekat nama Raub tu...

Then the conversation may continued like this:

A: Kat mana kau nak meraub?

B: Alaa.... kat tengah sungai yang aku dah gali semalam.

Disebabkan dia dah gali kat tengah, jadi la pulak tempat tu Kampung Gali Tengah... and that's my kampung  .

However, there's a twist to the story now. I was reacquainted, via FB, with a friend from my primary years, Balkeese. She pointed out to me a fact. There's actually a place called Raub, in Indiana, USA. This map can be obtained from here.



Cool ehh... I wonder whether there's any connection between those two Raubs despite being thousands of kilometers apart. I refused to believe the existence of any connection, coz i like the 'scoop' legend better. And, according to this site, Raub (Indiana) has got nothing to do with gold and I'm sure it is not related in any way with Raub, Pahang. Thus, I declare, the 'scoop' legend of Raub as authentic ... Chehh... Suka-suka hati declare...

This is the pic of my old school taken a few months back. I spent 1 year of kindy and 6 years of primary school here.


And, in school, I have been called as 'budak emas' by a few of my friends. Because I wore some gold accessories then, eg ear-rings and necklace. Well, being in the gold town of Raub might had something to do with it . Anyhow, the gold mines in Raub have been closed for so many years but recently mining activity has started again. Somebody struck gold I guess. Now, should I go back to Raub and go 'meraub'...?