malays, chinese , indians

spent the early hours of today after my prayers trying to reminisce as to when was it in my life that the differences between malays, indians and chinese were a factor in my life, matters to me, bothers me and when bigotry among the malays starts to surface. i could not reach any definite answer attributed to the fact that most likely the differences does not matter to me, i had led my life bliss in the assumption that we are all the same and never once has it made any difference to me, except latterly now for MAMAKS. which is another story all together. it was not until i was in secondary school(aged 13 onwards) in kota tinggi, johor that i first encountered the other races, 2 chinese boys, soh joo han and a geek whose name ended with tai or something, a sweet chinese girl of whom i had a crush on for a short while and 2 indian boys, one of whom was the headmasters son. race was never an issue between us, we were happily growing up in almost perfect harmony, each competent in something and cooperating whenever necessary, those were the days, no bigots, no dakwahs and ALL girls go to school in cute tight dresses without any headscarf. but , no mamaks that i know of, in my early years