1965 - an auspicious beginning indeed!

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Indran, Balraj, Chew Yoong Fong, Cheah Peng Keong and I met at the bus stop just outside Pasar Road English School (PRES) at 7.45 a.m. This Primary School at the junction of Jalan Rusa and Jalan Pelandok still exists and stands a short distance from the ancient Pudu Wet Market and Jalan Davis. In 1965, PRES consisted of the more modern brick and mortar 4-storey building as well as the old blocks of single-storey wooden ‘shacks.’ The Headmaster (HM) was Mr. Chew Ah Kong, an avid rugby fan. PRES 1 and 2 were among the leading Government schools in Kuala Lumpur then, along with St. Johns Institution, Batu Road, Maxwell, Methodist Boys’ and Brickfields schools.

The five of us boarded a Sri Jaya bus ( fare – 10 cents) which wound its way through Jalan Imbi and Bukit Bintang before reaching the interchange near Rex Theatre and Jalan Silang at the end of Jalan Pudu. The final stop for the Sri Jaya bus on this route would be by the side of the old Central Market. KL was then serviced by the Toong Foong Bus Company as well, but its buses did not ply the Imbi-Bukit Bintang route. We alighted at the bus stand just outside Kum Leng Restaurant in Jalan Pudu (diagonally across the road from Pavilion Theatre and Cathay Cinema) about a hundred metres before what is now the Pudu Raya Bus Terminal. From here we walked the half mile to Shaw Road and to the gates of Victoria Institution (VI) after crossing over the railway tracks opposite Stadium Negara.

It was the Saturday of the week before December school holidays commenced in 1965. We had completed our primary education and had all been awarded places in Form 1 at Victoria Institution. Fortunately for us, the long-standing Standard Six Government Examination had been abolished and we were among the first to ‘graduate’ to VI without having to sit for a mandatory public examination.

We had all been together since Standard 1 except for Indran who joined us in Standard 5. We were close because of our involvement in school soccer, hockey or athletics, and were genuinely sad at having to part ways with PRES 1, having had some wonderfully memorable years there. My good friend Rosli who lived in the Govt Quarters right at the end of Cochrane Road after Jalan Shelley, was a school football left-winger and sprinter who inexplicably missed the cut and ended up in Cochrane Road (secondary) School. I missed him. But he later found his way to RMC and would appear in their 4 x 100m inter-school relay team on VI Sports Days. There were also Rashid, Narendran, Kai Tak, Chen Fan Di and Yo Keng Fook (muti-talented, shy and gracious sporstman) with whom we sadly parted ways.

Cheah, Fong, Balraj and I had older brothers already schooling at VI. But we nevertheless stood in awe and trembled in fear at the mere mention of VI and its ‘legend in his own time’ HM, Mr. V.Murugasu (Muru), the first Asian to occupy that exalted post.

I had never actually set foot in VI before that day. But famous PRES names like Zakaria (Zak) Shariff (soccer talisman and athlete), Yap Kian Fui (soccer/athletics), Wong Wei Wah, Wong Chee Seng, Chong Kwong Chin, Yap Kim Shin, Chong Kok Weng, Dave Chin Peng Hoon (football goalkeeper then, now of Dave’s Deli fame) 'Tiger' Thiagarajah (athlete) and Selvaraj (badminton) had made it there in earlier years and we took comfort that we had friends there. Once, Selvaraj had attended a badminton final at the VI school hall and rushed back to report ‘you know the VI singles player served the shuttle 40 feet high.’ I was in Standard 4 then and I tell you I could not quite grasp that and imagined VI had a school hall the size and height of an aeroplane hangar!

As we reached the VI porch at the bottom of the clock tower, I spotted the burly pear-shape challenged Syed Ali #1, my senior by a year at PRES. Ali was by then a six-footer (or so I imagined since I was on the shorter and skinnier side then) and was busy with his tuba or big drum and some School Band boys (or was he getting ready for Cadet Corps practice? My memory's a bit hazy here) in a classroom. It was astonishing to us that it was a Saturday morning and yet half the school population appeared to be present!

Ali guided us to the staircase to the right of the school hall just beyond the entrance after the porch. It led upstairs to the HM’s, Senior Assistant's and Administration offices as well as the Staff Room and upper secondary classrooms. Students were barred from using this staircase unless authorised by the HM. As we reached the bottom of the staircase, who should walk in from the other side of the long corridor? None but a serious looking VI HM, Mr.V.Murugasu, immaculately attired in a black pants and crispy long-sleeved white shirt with a red tie to boot and brilliantly polished black shoes and proper black socks. It was sharp 9 a.m.!

I can’t remember clearly, but I think all five of us took an involuntary step back as we spotted a long and dangerous looking rotan (cane) in ‘Muru’s’ right hand. Did he cast a shadow? My brother had already coached us to go prepared to meet Muru dressed in spotless white school uniforms, not to forget to wear our school badges and to use ‘Sir’ liberally when speaking to the HM. I only knew what Muru looked like from my brother’s copy of the VI school magazine, ‘The Victorian.’

I recall breaking out in sweat as I addressed Muru. As PRES 1 School Vice Captain, the spokesman’s job fell upon my shoulders. I pulled out the official letter signed by Mr.Chew from my short pants pocket, and handing it to Muru, explained that the five of us had missed the VI Entrance Examination the previous Saturday as we had been involved in the Selangor Inter Schools Under 12 Hockey Championship Final. Muru immediately shot back with ‘who won?’ It had been one of those matches where the superior and fancied team, us , lost by a freaky goal in a final against Princes Road Primary School contested at the playing field of Gurney Road Primary School. Balraj played at right wing, Indran at right half and myself at inside right. Fong and Cheah were the rocks of Gibraltar at defence and this is a position they held right through to our final year in VI in 1972!

(If I could have pulled out the envelope in mint condition 'from my short pants pocket' you have a fair idea of the elephantine FMS (Federation of Malaya Shorts) pants we wore in the '60's).

Muru beckoned us to follow him up the stairs to his office from where he summoned one of the Temporary Prefects (TP) with instructions to escort us to the classroom at the end of the corridor after the last science lab in the right wing of the main school E-shaped block. The TP, Chan Tak Kwong, a school swimmer, water polo as well as rugby player and 1st KL Asst. Scout Master was appointed to the permanent Prefects' Board in 1967. I remember him as he later emerged as my House Captain i.e. Hepponstall House. Tak Kwong had picked up the 2-hours test papers comprising general science, mathematics, history, geography and general knowledge questions and laid it out on desk tops for us to sweat it out. I can only recall one question from those papers – 'A group of planets is called (a) cosmos (b) galaxy (c) solar system (d) constellation (e) universe?'

When we finished, the TP collected our papers and told us we could go home. He also informed us that we would be advised which class in Form 1 we would be placed in when school re-opened in January 1966 (I ended up in Form 1 North). Not knowing our way around and out, we headed in the direction of Muru’s office and the staircase.And that’s when it happened!
As we passed Muru’s, the adjoining Senior Assistant’s and Chief Clerk’s offices along the upper corridor, suddenly we heard a shout of “Stop right there you bloody buggers! What the devil do you think you are doing?”

We statuised like deer caught in the beams of a car’s headlights, not much unlike the privates when Sergeant Ernest Bilko, looking for volunteers for some hilariously unsavoury con scheme, would order, "Freeze, my heroes!"

“Do you think this is your grandfather’s school and you can walk about chit-chatting like you own this school? Which Form are you all in and who is your class teacher?” demanded a well dressed and presentable man who had his hair neatly combed in place and looked, well, trim, athletic and handsome. He was presumably a teacher since he had a bunch of school exercise books under one arm and some other text book in his right hand. His charming looks belied his fiery and hot-tempered nature!

‘No sir, we are from Pasar Road English School sir, and we came to sit for the Entrance Exam, sir. We have already seen Mr. Murugasu, sir,” I blurted out in a broken voice, already melting into a puddle on the floor.

“Line up, line up in a straight line! The leader in front, the rest behind him in a straight line. Now! Move it! Faster, faster! My grandmother could beat you lot in the 100 metres dash, you idiots,” bellowed this teacher whom I shall only identify for obvious reasons as 'Mr. Sawn-off Broomstick Handle.'

Lightning could not have moved faster than us that time excepting some frisky, coltish grandmothers.

Sawn-off Broomstick Handle then proceeded to pull each of us in turn by our ears and administered two tight slaps on each cheek. ('Don't let me give you two tight slaps' was a favourite expression then among teachers).

“Line up when walking in groups along the school corridor. Learn the school rules. No chatting. You all understand that? This is not some half past six school you know. This is the best school in Malaysia, Victoria Institution! You are lucky I am in a good mood or else I might have taken you to meet up with the HM again. Now buzz off,” boomed Sawn-off Broomstick Handle who the following year turned out as our feared class swimming coach in Form 1.

“Thank you sir, thank you sir,” all five bleated as we bolted down the staircase and out beyond the VI school gates. We stormed in fury down to the bottom of the steep Stadium Negara road. On the right side of it, across the road and separated by a fence, stood the VI School Hostel. There we paused as I cursed, swore and screamed, “How dare he slap us, that bastard! We are not from VI yet. When I get home I’m going to complain to my grandfather who works in the Hill Court and knows the Chief Justice well. Make sure he goes to jail for life!”

How we flung four letter words and vile obscenities about and cast aspersions over Sawn-off Broomstick Handle's parentage that morning as we walked the two miles or so to the Central Market where we boarded another Sri Jaya bus for home. And swore oaths in memory of our ancestors in India and China to feed Sawn-off Broomstick Handle's goolies to the mangy pariah dogs in Pasar Road and his willy to the crocodiles in the Klang River after having his tortured and mutilated carcass drawn, quartered and salted!

As we reminisced over that incident on the last day of school in 1972, we laughed till our sides split.

“Dei, don't play puks with us you know! Remember you were going to cut off Sawn-off Broomstick Handle's member? And when is your grandfather’s complaint going to be heard by the Chief Justice of Malaysia? Muahaha!”

By then we were 3 School Prefects (should have been all five), 1 School Captain, 1 School Football Captain, 1 Malaysia Under 18 Football Captain, 1 School Hockey Captain, 1 School Rugby Captain, 1 School Athletics Captain, 3 School Hockey Players, 2 Athletes, 1 School Cricketer, 1 Victor Ludorum, 1 Civics Society Chairman, 1 School Debater, 1 Seladang Sports Editor and 1 School Magazine Joint Editor.

Humble beginnings indeed!

by donplaypuks®

#1 I recently ran into Syed Ali at a VIOBA Annual Dinner and boy had he slimmed down and looked positively statesman-like!! Syed's family used to live in the Govt Quarters in Jalan Selatan across the famous 'drain' off Jalan Imbi as did Indran's, Zakaria's and Selvaraj's. After the 1969 riots, Fong's family moved from Gurney Road where Limkokwing Inst. now stands opposite Balai Dato Harun, to a bungalow house in Jalan Inai, off Imbi Road. Syed had a very tall elder brother who had movie-star good looks and would appear every year on PRES Sports Day to take part (and get a placing too) in the 100m dash for old 'boys'.

ps Victorians, do write in with your unique entrance exam experience or 1st day experience in VI.