1969 - jaspal singh sachdev reminisces

Hi dpp,

Life under Yap Yew et al? Yap Yew was an uncut diamond with a smile as enigmatic as Mona Lisa’s. Yap Yew could solve quadratic equations mentally and perform other mathematical gymnastics effortlessly, but I remember him most for his patience as we struggled to understand the world of calculus, vector analysis and complex algebra. In a sense, his talent was in my view wasted as a teacher, for he had the makings of a brilliant CFO. Without meaning to sound boastful, it would be remiss of me not to credit Yap Yew and his influence on me for the high grades I scored in maths, both at ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. As a man, he seemed troubled all the time, for he would spend most of his time in class pacing up and down the aisles between the rows of desks muttering to himself after putting up on the blackboard problems for us to solve. We suspected women problems, but there was no evidence of this.

Bernard Koay: another gem, albeit a large and rotund one. Best English teacher one could hope for. I distinctly recall him teaching us how to write a good essay and the importance of structure, rhythm and choice of words in prose. A singular lesson that has stayed with me is the distinction between the words ‘matured’ and ‘mature’ - fruits and cheese can be described as ‘matured’ but human beings are never said to be matured, only mature. An image that has stayed with me over the years is that of Bernard rushing off in great haste around 1 pm, and I’m not sure if it was he who said so or just my sense of it, that he was rushing off to the stock exchange for the afternoon trading session…if you remember, in those days, there was no internet or Scripless trading, and the only way one could trade real time was to be at the exchange where buy / see quotes prices were continuously posted on the Big Board.. . I have often wondered if that was why he chose teaching as a vocation…for all the free afternoons…

Another teacher who left an indelible impression on my mind was our geography maestro, Dharam Prakash who joined VI in 1968 or 1969 as a fresh MU graduate armed with a Diploma in Teaching from MU. His pet was Pathma (Dr.R.Pathmanathan, Pathologist)) who displayed his latent surgical skills even then in his beautifully drawn and coloured maps of North America which we chose over Europe for our ‘O’ level Geography paper. What a mistake seeing that I am today sitting in London and knowledge of European geography would have served me more. Prakash stayed in old PJ and Pathma’s house was on his route, so used to hike a ride with him on his Lamberretta until such time as he got married whereupon Pathma was relegated to the back seat! Or so I believe. Pathma would have to verify this. Prakash and I are related in a convoluted sort of way, so I had the privilege of attending his wedding along with the rest of my family. I wonder if Pathma did likewise.

But of all teachers, the one to whom I owe the greatest debt of gratitude was a temporary teacher, Pong Kai See, who taught me Mathematics in Form 2 for a short period of time following the completion of his sixth form in 1966. Kai See was a brilliant student, a prefect and scored straight A’s in his HSC, which earned him 2 offers of scholarships, one for Naval Architecture and the other from the RRI; he chose the latter. I really do not know what became of him later on. Prior to PKS, I dreaded maths like one dreads root canal work or bumping into Murugasu unexpectedly going the wrong way. I never could get my mind around simple concepts like factorization and basic algebra. PKS showed me how easy it all was and awakened my latent talent for maths. It was a ‘Eureka-esque’ experience and from then on there was no looking back.

Hope this helps.

jaspal

Ps Jaspal was 1970 8A’s VI Rodger Scholar, 1971 Top Pure Maths Stream Student Prize Winner, 1972 S’pore Govt Scholarship Winner and among the top students in Upper Six, Joint Editor of ‘Seladang’, Committee Member of Science & Maths and Horticultural Societies, Treasurer Rodger House and cricketer. An Engineer by profession, currently he is CEO of Metroline in London. See below - 1969 4B1 class photo in post dated 17/01/10 '1969 - the truly honeymoon year (part 1).' dpp