Tokonang Den 10

'Cepak la! Guano mu! Nak ambek gambar ni. Oghe tok sei ready gi, dio dah siap pakai uniform!. Aziz Ha! Hang pun sama Awe jugak. Cepat le!!

That was the scene then one Sunday morning, sometime in 1970, at Green House just before the usual Sunday morning inspection. As usual, week-in week-out, every Sunday except during the school term holidays, as hostelites, dutifully and reluctantly perhaps to some, we cleaned up the hostels - the bathrooms, toilets (the one that majority of us would dread of doing), its compound and drain. By the time Mr. Sarjit Singh the warden came around to inspect, everything would have been in-placed, in tip-top condition, well at least to us!. One hardly seen Mr. Sarjit Singh smile those days. He was very disciplined and you could feel the seriousness in the manner he stared at you, the way he walked and the way he did the inspection. To have met him during the last Old Boys Weekend 2009 and chit-chatting with him, I realised that Sarjit Singh was actually a very nice person. He was merely putting up his 'act' and 'show' then just to ensure that we, as students especially Greenians, would respect him!

Everyone of us from Batch 73 in Green House were there in the picture except for the trio from Sungai Petani - Sakaf Manaf, Shoib Ismail and Radhi Majid (Arwah). Rahim Ahmad Di and Halim Shamsuddin (Dr.) were also absent. Pi mana pun tak tau!. All in all, there were 19 of us, original members of Batch 73, in Green House.

Of course, the best part on Sunday and after the inspection, for those who had extra money, was the Sunday outing. One option would be then - to most of us - going for the movies, be it cheap matinees or new shows. The favourite and most frequenting place was the Grand cinema! We were crazy on Hindustani movies then, weren't we? There were no Amitabh Bachchan or Shahrukh Khan nor Kajol or Aishwarya Rai then!. But ... yes, we were crazy like hell for Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor and Dev Anand. Even more for actresses like Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz, Babita (Awe's favourite) and Aisha Parekh (Wan Husin's favourite - I love to hear him pronouncing the name!!). Just to name a few those were the film 'stars' - better known and more closer to our hearts then than P. Ramlee or Sarimah!. We went to see and spent our pocket money on movies like Sanggam, Meera Naam Joker, Hati Mere Sathi, Yaadon Kibarat and Raja Saab - movies that made us cry - a lot I would say - enough to make us forget our folks back home. Along the way some of us even lucky enough to befriend people like the late M Shariff of the Zurah - another character who was a Hindustani maniac!.

Kyaa tum jaanate ho? Halim Shamsuddin was one, so crazy about Hindustan and Hindustani songs then - he even bought a record player and plenty of Hindustani albums!. From the dormitory - after prep, during his free time especially on weekends - one would be able to hear Hindustani songs being played - to the full volume ... Mere man ki ganga, aur tere man ki jamuna ka, Bol Radha bol, sangam hoga ke nahin..!. Could not imangine then if we have had Kuch Kuch Hota Hai!

Of course not all were crazy and fanatic about Hindustani movies or songs. People like Mutalib and Bustamam had other interests, I was sure. Even our own Shoib was into something else! I wonder what Mat Saleh or Mad Bakar and even Rostam were doing then, on Sundays that is .., sleeping or what?

----------------------------

'Sesungguhnya adalah sunat dan mendapat pahala jika seseorang itu berbuka puasa dengan buah kurma tetapi seseungguhnya akan datanglah azab dan seksanya jika seseorang itu tertelan biji kurma ketika berbuka....'

Selamat Berbuka Puasa!