Announcement

Tokonang Den ( 4 )

This photograph was taken in 1970. We were in Form One then, having graqduated and liberated ourselves from that one year 'confinement' period!- i.e one year in the Remove Class!. It was taken during the school annual ' Speech Day'. Being juniors then, we had our seats reserved - in the garage next to the school hall!. (actually the school hall was too small to accomodate us all!) Most of us (Batch '73) were there in the picture including yours truly! We were much, ehem.., handsome then!... aah yezzir., those good old days!

The school hall reminded me of the place where we spent our time almost every week, watching the wayang! At that time, movies were shown using projectors (ya loh, no DVD or CD players ma!) For that reason, I guessed the school had a cinema club. A few of us from Batch '73 were members of this club. Those that I can recalled being cinema club members then were Mail Gebang, Omar Suhaimi AH, Saiful Bahari, Wan Husin, Omar Dollah, Mohamad Saleh, Aziz Ha and Kamarshah Harun ( I might have missed a few names here., my apologies!). I envied these guys actually. They were the priviledged few. Apart from having the chance to operate the projectors, on screening days (Friday nites), they could have had their dinner early! To be a member of this 'prestigous' club, you need to apply for one. And part of the requirement would be for potential candidates to write an essay -in English - on why one would like to be a member of the club! These guys - Mail Gebang, Mohamad Saleh and the rest - must have passed with flying colours i.e. written bloody good essays then!! Or was it becaused of their 'connection' or 'networking' with the then President of the cinema club, the late Che Ani Deraman?

So, every Friday nites then (wayang time), and just about time we finished our dinner, you could see a few guys moving towards the door and ready for their weekly run! Yes, running and dashing, through the field between Red and Black House, across the football field and out into the school hall. The catch was actually the chairs at the hall- limited in number - i.e. save them from having to go up the classrooms and bring down the chairs for the wayang. (Some smart alecs preferred to hide those chairs in secrets hideouts behind the school hall rather than having to dash for the chairs after dinner). Anyway, one guy whom I recalled was very constant and committed in doing this, week in week out without failed and opting for the weekly run, was our very own Nari Ansari. I did try to follow him several times but Nariwas so good, so fast and very nippy. Nari must have studied the tract then for he could whizzed through the football field at eased.

I wonder whether they still have such show at Tiger Lane anymore. One thing for sure though, that memory of Nari dashingg through the field still lingers in my mind and I can still recalled those 'encouraging' words ... cepat Nari cepat!!. And I wonder, where about is Nari now? Nari Ansari dimana kau?!

End of Part 4 . (To be continued)....

Announcement

One For The Road

A husband and wife were watching ‘ Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ while they were in bed.
The husband turned to his wife and asked, "Do you want to have sex?"
"No," she answered.
The husband then asked, "Is that your final answer?"
Without even looking at her husband, the wife answered, "Yes."
So the husband said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."


And that's when the fight started…

Happy Father's Day

We had to sit for the special exam then to win a place and study in a boarding school. When the results were eventually out, and I was among the successful candidates, my father called and asked me which one would I choose - to go to Tanjung Malim or Ipoh. Since my Geography was not good at that time (never was), I asked him where about these places were. I remembered my father telling me all about Tanjung Malim - the shops where he used to frequent as a student (he studied at Sultan Idris Training College (now Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris). And he told me that Ipoh was the capital town of Perak and it was slightly further up north. Okay, I told him, I made up my mind., it was Ipoh then - Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh and not sekolah Dato Abdul Razak, in Tanjung Malim. My father had this 'connection' in Seremban (present terminolgy - networking' lah!) and told me that he could fixed and sent me to whichever school that I chose.

Together with Ajoi and his father, we rented a cab and made our way to Ipoh. Of course both my father and Ajoi's insisted on stopping over and had our break and lunch in Tanjung Malim - the then R&R!!. And of course, lunch was to be followed with that special Tanjung Malim's dessert - kueh pau!!.

It was the longest journey and the first time ever that I shared with my father. When it was time for him to leave for home, deep inside I konow that he had made the right decission of sending me over to Ipoh.

Abah is no longer around. He died in 1998. I am a father now. And I hope that I will make the right decission on my children's future just as my father did.

To all you guys out there..., Happy Father's Day!.