1971-1972 PART 2 - LOWER SIX ORIENTATION WEEK & THE COUPLES

    You've Got A Friend by James Taylor      

(Unfortunately, I was unable to post some relevant class pics from the School Magazines. VI HM Somasundram cancelled the publication of class photos in the 1971 & 1972 editions, without explaining why. I have already said before that he was a philistine. I mean, of what use is a School Magazine for most of the students, if the alumni pics are not there in the respective year books?)

U6B1 1971 - CLASS MASTER LAW YING KEE

CLASS MONITOR - CHUA SWEE HONG

(Click on pic for enlarged view).

Cupid's arrows were never more more eagerly awaited than by the quaking, quivering and concupiscent male students who entered F6 in Victoria Institution. This was largely because most of us had never had to configure equal females in our midst, given 11 years of schooling in an all-male (female teachers excepting), testosterone filled environment. Barring the few who had encountered girls at non-school tuition classes and those few who had somewhat "steady" girlfriends, to the rest, say about 95% of us, co-ed education was always going to be a real challenge.

A blogger friend of mine recently posted an article that sexual repression was THE key problem in countries like Malaysia that led to many of societies' ills and perverse behaviour. CLICK HERE.

You can now imagine what a throbbing lot of sexually starved and unfulfilled boys we were, and the fantasies that crowded our thoughts, yours truly included. There was also the myth propagated by US movies that the truest of eternally lasting love was to be found in marrying your High School sweetheart. So, there were great expectations and fantasies to live up to. But to tell the truth, most were mystified, if not terrified with having to confront this new aspect of real life. We were right at the steepest part of the climb up the learning curve.

I have already recounted my running into the first girl I knew in F6, Wong Kim Lim, in Part1. But, it was fortunate that the Arts Union, Cultural Society and the Science & Maths Society had organized the 'Lower Six Orientation Week' from Monday 26 April to Saturday 1st May, 1971. It was a well thought out annual event, designed to break the ice between boys and girls as well as the newcomers in the Arts, Science and Pure Maths (Double Maths) streams. During this week, there were inter-form badminton, hockey, football and netball competitions. Badminton and hockey featured mixed teams.

Thank God we had this Lower Six Orientation Week to get the freshies going, as in my class, L6B1, there appeared to be a solid wall between the sexes. But somehow L6B3, where we had good friend like Abdul Rashid, Chong Yoo Nam, Sallehudin (Hood) and Chan Wai Ming (Rose Chan), turned out to be an exceptionally happening class where things appeared to be buzzing all the time.

I say this without any sense of ego, but it was generally accepted that L6B1 had (mostly) the brainier lot of boys and girls (at least by MCE exam results slips) in the Bio Maths stream. But L6B2 didn't appear to be the Woodstock-type partying class either. Perhaps there is an inverse co-relation between the fun and brains groups. I don't know. 

Anyway, it was during this week that I ran into two girls, one literally, and the other, in a manner of speech (or speechless as it happened).

There was this L6B1 vs L6B2/3 inter-form mixed hockey clash. Hockey was of course right up my alley, and it was my chance to show off to the girls. And sure enough I scored 3 or 4 superb goals. But I got a bit carried away, oblivious to the fact that with half the opposition comprising girls, I should have taken this amateur game easy and not too seriously. In one flowing movement upfield, L6B2's full-back Sushil Kaur stood between me and the goal, and somehow we got tangled up. Everything seemed alright as we got up. The match ended a short while later and I made off towards the field slopes with some classmates to swallow ice-orange drinks and conduct a post mortem of the game and "happenings".

As I looked down, I spotted Sushil Kaur sitting on the grass in the hockey pitch, being attended to by some girls who were all pointing at her right shin and at me. As it happened, she looked up and saw me and my mates looking down at them. She said something to her friends and there was a sour look on her face. I learnt later that she had received an accidental tap on her right shin from my hockey stick and that it had swollen and bruised up a wee bit. She had told her friends, "Look at him just standing there and looking!" She had branded me a donkey for not apologising.

I swear I had no idea I had caused her any injury. And had I known about it, I would not only have apologised, but also taken her to the Prefects' Room for first-aid treatment. But, had I been less dense, I would have realized something was not quite right, and gone down back to the field to inquire. But, that was 45 years ago when in many aspects of social behaviour, especially where it concerned girls, I was as thick as two 2-inch planks. I was blank when it came to some basic etiquettes.

I recently heard from Dato Dr. Teoh Siang Chin, Sushil's L6B2 classmate, that he had chapatti dinner with her and her family in Sydney, Australia. It's good to know there was no permanent damage to her right shin.

So, my dear Sushil Kaur, 45 years late, but better late than never, here is my unreserved apology for bad form on my part. Perhaps some day soon we can all get together and have a few glasses of beer, wine or whatever your poison might be and laugh over  my painful growing years.

What is interesting though is that despite Sushil being 18 AND very attractive, and there being at least four Sikh boys in Lower Six that I can recall -  Jaspal, Sarmukh, Balraj and Balwant - and a few more in Upper Six - Manmohan, Pritam - no one then seems to have tried to "tackle" her, which is the puerile word we boys used for trying to get to first base with a girl.

And is it not quixotic that it fell to me to "tackle" Sushil in such an unforgettable manner, that for the rest of F6, I kept a healthy, respectable distance from her, and she from me?

During that week, some of the Arts girls had been busy preparing banners, decorations and posters for the Lower Six Orientation Week Ball. This they did in a designated classroom during the school mid-morning interval#1 or free periods. Which is why I ran into Kok Po Tho (ex-BBGS) who, having worked through the interval, had snuck off to the tuck shop later for a bite and drink. I was there as prefects were allowed to have a quick snack and drink after interval duties and before heading late for their classes.

We looked at each other and something passed. She smiled at me and the heavens opened. She had a mixed-Eurasian look. She knew she should not have been there. I knew she should not have been there. She was in blatant infringement of VI school rule no. 1,000,003 - Thou Shall Not Be In The School Tuck Shop After 10.45 a.m. I didn't care. I was prepared to throw caution to the wind. I asked her if she wanted an ice-lemonade. She said she preferred a coke. We then sat down on a bench and had the usual scintillating conversation that always follows such encounters:

What's your name?
Which class are you from?
Which school are you from? 
You Arts or Science?
You like VI?
Have you heard Led Zep?

I might well have been the guy who looked at his dream girl and knowing the lines, pathetically blurted out "You Are My Density" instead of "...Destiny", in the state that I was. (Of course, those immortal lines were uttered by George McFly in the 1985 movie classic 'Back To The Future').

I was sweating buckets by now, and blushing so much someone might have mistaken me for a Red Indian. Oops, sorry, one must be politically correct nowadays. I meant Native American. I was in so much anguish I dared not stand up. Thankfully, Po Tho got up and said she had to rush off to class and "see you around".

Of course, we all know what "see you around" means. But in my highly enlightened and excited state, I imagined it might mean we were engaged. Over the next few weeks we ran into each other at various places in school including the Orientation Ball, and had all sorts of silly, juvenile and meaningless "conversations". I also found all sorts of excuses to wander over to her Arts class in the new block, and requested prefect's secretary A. Balachandren to put me down for line-up duty in the Arts block!

But, this brief idyllic "tryst" came to an abrupt halt when someone told me she already had an "outside" boyfriend who had a car and dropped her off and picked her from school every morning and noon. This was too much competition for a bumbling amateur like me. Yes, yes, I was aware of all the cliched expressions - 'Faint Heart Never Won A Fair Lady', 'Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained', 'Carpe Diem' and all that lot. But, discretion being the better part of valour, I decided to disengage (read as chicken out).

It was not until 2011 that I discovered Kok Po Tho had later married her Arts classmate Mac Yin Tee, and that both had settled down in Perth. Mac contacted me from Perth after reading my blog post which featured him among others. CLICK HERE. Mac was another of those - like TA Mohan, Cheah Peng Keong, Mac Ken Boon, K. Balraj, Kwan Poh Woh, Sivandan, Teoh Siang Chin, Low Sek Luen etc. - who had been with me all the way from standard 1 in Pasar Road English School 1 through to VI. I do not recall that Mac and Po Tho were a pair in VI; romance must have developed post VI.

I have already written about my "dancing" efforts with freshie Hashimah at the Lower Six Orientation Week Ball in Part 1. But, all around me the eternal dance between male and female was taking place. Boys were chasing girls, and more rarely, girls were also chasing boys.

Slowly, the girls to whom all this VI tradition was probably boring, warmed up to the events of the Orientation Week. There was one football game between B1 and B2/B3 combined played in pouring rain. It had tremendous support from the girls who turned up in droves to watch us hilariously slip and slide on our backsides. And when Abdul Rashid sneakily changed the players' order in the badminton clash so that he would face me, the weaker player in the singles match, I was taken aback by Hung Ling's ferocious demand that our side too should resort to gamesmanship!

I recall how the ice between my physics lab partner (Dr) Pathmanathan (Pat) and I, and Tan Kiat Lan and her partner Tan Tui Hang, melted. For this, I have to thank my grandfather, among whose hobbies, was, carpentry. There was this physics experiment which required a ruler to be slung by two strings from a beam for hanging weights and calculating moments and centre of gravity or something. The thing is the ruler had to be suspended absolutely horizontally and the instruments provided for this was a spirit level. To even Pat this was a mystery. But, I had seen my grandfather use a spirit level to check on his planks shaven flat to perfection. 

When we had finished our experiment and tabulated the results, I noticed Kiat Lan and Tiu Hang staring at us from the adjacent bench. It cottoned on to thick as two 2-inch plank me that they were stuck because a spirit level was as alien to them as Einstein's Theory of Relativity was then. So, I was the hero for that day as I demonstrated to them and several others how real men dealt with puny matters like PHYSICS AND SPIRIT LEVELS! What a laugh!

Anyway, Kiat Lan, Tiu Hang and I became fairly good friends after this incident and we had lots of (innocent) fun during a school trip to Thailand that December. I recall a birthday party at Kiat Lan's house in Taman Seputeh where we gnoshed and danced wildly. I lost track of Kiat Lan after F6, but managed to re-establish contact with Tiu Hang a few years ago.

There were several other parties that year, none more memorable than the one at (Dr) Chew Yoong Fong's house in Jalan Inai off Jalan Imbi. Everyone from the Arts and Science classes was invited and the highlight of that night was (Dato) Yap Teong Choon (of Sin Heap Lee fame) doing the go-go on a stool. I don't recall beer being on the menu, but one never knows! Some smoked openly, not caring a hoot that prefects were about.

Wong Kim Lin also threw a great fun-filled party at her house in Jalan Cheras which even mgf (Dr) Aw Kok Teng remembers.

There was a joint Bio-Science class trip by chartered bus to Templer's Park near Rawang. Some like Hood travelled first class - they drove up in their own cars. That was one of the best ever outings. We had a picnic there, hiked up the hill and then swam in the cold waters of a shallow lake. Everyone joined in the singing and joking and ribbing. God, what innocent fun-filled days they were - Into my heart, an air that kills... - CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL POEM BY A.E. HOUSMAN

It was during that trip that I got to talk to Rozia Hanis, ex-PM Hussein Onn's daughter, and her cute friend Ruby who floored me when she said I reminded her of the great and handsome Hindi actor, Shashi Kapooor. I was head over heels in it again. Three days later, I approached her in school thinking of proposing, but she dashed my hopes saying she and Hanis would be leaving soon to further their studies in London! 

Slowly, but surely all that orientation and inter-actions and flirtations were producing results. Cupid's arrows were striking at random. Class monitor Chua Swee Hong begged me to take a peek at the class register for the birth date of Sook Ping who was a Pure Maths girl. Recognised pairs or "couples" started emerging.

Of course, the first of them was I suppose (Dr) Chew Yoong Fong and (Dr) Yap Siew Peng about whom I have written in Part1. The couples I recall were:

1. Chew Yoong Fong (B1)&  Yap Siew Peng (BBGS/B1)
2. Sallehudin Shamsudin (B3) & Sakinah Ibrahim (BBGS/A1)
3. (Dr) Tan Kai Chah (B1) & Choo Ching Kit (BBGS/B3)
4. Abdul Rashid (B3) & Monica Chin Wylin (CBN/B3)
5. Yap Chee Keong (B5) & Aw Mong Lim (B5)
6. Kok Po Tho (BBGS/A1) & Outsider

The most unlikeliest couple was Rashid & Monica. But, this was an era where race and religion never mattered. Fong, Hood, Rashid and Yap all had driving licences and cars. I don't know how much this had to do with their confidence and success in their courtings.

Fook Poon Lih had a crush on some (BBGS) girl whose name I cannot recall, nor do I know of the exact relationship, platonic or otherwise, then between  Liung Cheong Choo and Bing Ying (BBGS/B3) or Yip Kok Keong and Sally Chong Siew Moi (Cheras/A1).

In at least four instances, romance and marriage sprang up (it would appear) after schooldays:

1. The devoutly Christian pair of (Dr) Kwan Kow (B3)& Cho Hung Ling (BBGS/B1)) who operate a well-known private maternity clinic in Kajang.
2. Low Sek Luen (B4) and Diana Ooi Hean Siak (B1) who live in Montreal, Canada. I think both of them are in the IT sector.
3. Lye Khim Loong (B4) and Hoy Chan (BBGS/B1)
4. Su Chen (B2) and Mei Yok (BBGs/B2)

In the case of N.Indran, 1972 School Captain, he was in a class all by himself. Wherever he went, a group of three girls always seemed to follow him - the lovely and energetic Dato Bo Fatimah, Datin Zaleha Ahmad and Datuk Siti Zaleha. There were at least another two girls who formed this set of fun-loving and giggly groupies, who I recently discovered still meet regularly for high-tea!

Among the other popular girls were Faridah Ahmad and (Dr/BDS) Fazah Yakin,  both from my class, B1. We all suddenly gelled at the end of a Chemistry lab period. Fazah started it by teasing T.A. Mohan about his non-VI Chinese girlfriend (Linda)  and soon a few others like Pat and Fong and Balraj joined in, and there you are, the chemistry was right!

But really, when you consider that there were about 350 of us, the success rate of under 2% is a staggeringly poor and astonishing statistic. 

So, surely, if we are expected to faithfully spend the better part of our adult lives each with one member of the opposite sex, the grounds for this engagement should be laid much earlier in life?

I think the dearth of co-education in Malaysia leads to all sorts of social and sexual problems and poor attitudes and views about women, in adult life. No doubt the priestly class has another opinion. 

Anyway, there was this pop song global mega hit that December of 1971 which played over and over in my mind, as we sat in a tour bus in Bangkok. I now dedicate it to those who shared with me the VI years from 1970-72. 'You've Got A Friend' by James Taylor is one of those few instances where the remake is better than the original (by Carole King).

E.S. Shankar

#1 Meaning recess, but we never used that word during our schooldays. It was always 'interval'.

Next Change- My Vote for Ms VI 1972

1971/72 PART 1 - AND ALL THE GIRLS WE KNEW AND LOVED IN LOWER 6 & UPPER 6

'To All The Girls I've Loved Before'

by Albert Hammond (1975)

How the years have slipped by from when we were free and carefree and making the transition from boys to semi-adults, and we stumbled and fell and got up, not really knowing where we were headed.

We sat for the Form 5 Malaysian Certificate of Education examination (MCE) papers in mid-November to early December 1970, and then went on vacation for three months till early March 1971 when we received our results. The MCE examinations were the equivalent of the UK 'O' Level examinations. I believe we were the first or second batch of students to sit for the MCE examinations, which replaced the Senior Cambridge Certificate and Cambridge Certificate examinations. Our papers were marked and graded at Cambridge in UK.

The students had been divided between the Arts (A1 & A2) and Science (B1 & B2) streams in 1969, the honeymoon year. As for the Arts students, they had been further split into Pure Arts, and Additional (Add) Science or Double Credit classes, where they replaced History and Accounts with Add Science and Add Maths. This enabled some students to keep their options open to join the Pure Science stream in Form 6 and pursue medicine, dentistry, engineering etc, at tertiary level. Among those who chose Add Science were Sivandan (Dr., MBBS), Thayalaraja (Engineer), Shubon (Dr., BDS) and Abdul Jalil (Senior Manager, Hospitality Industry), while 'Cuts' Sivakumaran (right arm leg-spin/ left hand batsman cricketer, PhD Biz Studies), Hajit Singh Hullon (legendary TV newscaster/journalist), Prem Sagar (S'pore Police Trainer) and Darwis (Businessman) plonked for Pure Arts.

I was a Science Class (5B2) student which meant that for the MCE examinations, I sat for 9 subjects plus 3 practical examinations for Physics, Chemistry and Biology, as follows (The Arts option are stated side by side):

SCIENCE                            ARTS                        ADD SCIENCE

1. Physics                             General Science          General Science 

2. Chemistry                         Commerce                  Commerce

3. Biology                             Accounts                     Add Science

4. General Maths                  General Maths            General Maths

5. Add Maths                        History                        Add Maths

6. English                              English                       English 

7. English Lit                        English Lit                  English Lit 

8. Geography                        Geography                  Geography

9. BM                                    BM                             BM

Gruelling is an understatement. Almost every subject had a Paper 1 comprising 50 objective questions and a multiple-choice Paper 2 comprising essay-style questions, as well as Topography for Geography. English Language and Bahasa Malaysia had essay papers and comprehension & grammar papers. To cap it all, there was an English Language Oral Test as well which contributed 20% of the marks for English Language.

In order to pass the MCE examination you had to secure at least 24 points or less, calculated on the basis of the scores achieved for your best six subjects, where distinction A1 =1 point, A2 =2 , then Credit = C3-6, Pass = P7-8, and Fail = F9. We referred to F9 as extinction. A pass in Grade 1 was achieved with a score of 16 points and under for the best 6 subjects.

But, securing a place in F6 VI was a lot tougher. There were only about 300 places for the 2 Arts classes (A1, A2), 3 Bio-Science classes (B1, B2, B3) and 1 Pure Maths class (B4 & B5). There is a debate going on among us - the Class of 1970 - as to whether it was 5 or 6 points from the best 3 subjects or 8 from 6? If anyone knows for sure, please post it in the comments section here.

What was really unfair was that you could not move to Form 6 without a pass in BM, which accounted for some of our best pals, who I note, have nevertheless done well-to-brilliant in later life. Dr.Shubon, for example, not only won an Athletics Blue in 1970, but also the prize for General and Additional Science at Speech Day, yet could not progress to F6!!

Others either moved to private colleges like Taylor's, departed for studies overseas to UK and Australia or joined the employment scene. AR Ramachandran was one of those who, having had the benefit of the VI Cadet Corps experience as Cadet Sargeant, opted for the Army. Suffice to say he had a stellar career in serving his country with honour. This included a stint in dangerous Bosnia. I recall going with him to meet Sallehudin (Hood) at his flat in Baker Street in London in 1979. Rama had bunked in my flat for a few week-ends when the Army sent him to UK for advanced officers' training at the Larkhill Royal School of Artillery situated on the Salisbury Plains, not far from where the mysterious and eerie Stonehenge monument lies.

When I went to the school office to pick up my results slip, I was dressed in plain clothes, since technically, the 1970 F5 batch was deemed to have ended schooling after the MCE examinations. At the office, I met up with several of my then close buddies - Indran, Balraj, Chew Yoong Fong and Cheah Peng Keong who all graduated to F6. This was the same bunch which had trudged its way back in the December of 1965 to VI to sit for the entrance test about which I had written in detail in 2009. CLICK HERE.

It was a super joyful occasion indeed with much back-slapping and laughter. However, it was not yet the era of high-fives, and no one, but no one, would greet each other by hugging, for fear of being labelled 'homo'! Nowadays, it seems that 7-year old school friends can't run into each other without a prolonged WWF (World Wrestling Federation) mauling!

By this time, Indran, Balraj, Hiew Heng Foo and I had already been informed that we would be appointed prefects in March at the first school assembly which included the new batch of Lower 6 (L6) students. Balraj and I had spent Dec-Feb 1970 training with the school U20 hockey squad. While I was understandably proud of having been appointed prefect, I had some reservations since many prefects were not very popular with the students, despite the sacrifices they had to make.

The first girl I knew in L6 was Wong Kim Lin, who I met inside the school gates while walking towards the office that day. She was from the Bukit Bintang Girls' School (BBGS was insulted as Big Backside Girls' School by the boys. In turn, VI students were taunted as Vagabond Idiots!). She politely asked me for the directions to the office as she had secured a place in VI and wanted to register as a student. 

BBGS only had classes for Forms 1-5, and so after their MCE exams, the successful students would move on to VI or St. Johns for their Form 6 education. It's disgraceful and shameful that an outstanding school like BBGS which produced some of the most outstanding students in the country, should have fallen victim to Mahathir's evil machinations. The historic schools was sadly demolished in 2000 to eventually make way for that monstrosity called the Pavilion Shopping Mall in Jalan Bukit Bintang, KL!!

I accompanied Kim to the office with some trepidation, as up till that point in time, the only girls I knew were my sister, cousins and the odd sisters of close friends from whom I, like most of my colleagues of that time did within their spheres, kept a respectable distance. It transpired later that Kim became my classmate for about 3 months in L6B1 (Bio-Science) after which she switched to the Arts stream. She was also a member of Hepponstall House, as was I.

After a couple of months, I too had misgivings about Bio-Science and had thought deeply about switching to the Arts. But I feared my parents would not approve, and besides, I would have had to grapple with Geography which I hated like the plague, and also Economics, about which I knew as much as I did brain surgery. A big mistake!

Despite Kim moving to the Arts, we ran into each other at House activities. I also accompanied her a few times to Friday afternoon Christian Union meetings (not to know her in the Biblical way, but for knowledge's sake) at the VIOBA hall. We were also both members of the School Debating Team, which included R.Pathmanathan, Sally Chong Siew Moi (ex-Cheras Road School) and Kok Chew Leng (ex-BBGS).

Another girl whom I briefly met and had a dance with at the Freshies' Ball that year was Hashimah (Hepponstall House. My apologies for forgetting her full name). A couple of years ago when a group of us from the Class of 1970-72 had lunch at an eatery in Sentral, Brickfield, KL, with Raja Nong Chik (VI 1966-68, 71-72) who was then the Federal Territory Minister, I was gobsmacked when Bo Fatimah told me that Hashimah was unable to attend the function, but sent me her regards!!

Reports of my having danced with Hashimah have been greatly exaggerated. Again, like most of my colleagues, we knew in theory what disco dancing was like. We had seen the teenage Michael Jackson ooze around on TV like a whippet in heat. But, the gap between theory and our practical performance was like the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Nevertheless we jerked around like the zombies in 'Thriller' (which was only released many years later) oblivious to the fact that we looked like the southern view of north bound donkeys. I had clung on to dear Hashimah in desperation less I toppled over from my quivering jellied knees. For the life of me, I cannot recall what the music was or the few words I said to her where I had mumbled like Brando in Godfather!

Well, there were many outstanding girls in the 1971-72 batch about whom I shall write in greater detail in Part 2. However, the names of the girls who readily spring to my mind in no particular order are:

1. Wong Kim Lin (BBGS, A1)
2. Sally Chong Siew Moi (Cheras Road School A1)
3. Monica Chin Wylin (Assunta, Head Girl, B3)
4. Lee Yuet Mui (BBGS, Deputy Head Girl A1)
5. Kok Chew Leng (BBGS, B2)
6. Cho Hung Ling (BBGS, B1)
7. Bo Fatimah (CBN, A1)
8. Zaleha Ahmad (CBN, A1)
9. Fazah Yakin (BBGS, B1)
10. Faridah Harun (Ahmad?) (CBN, B1)
12. Yap Siew Peng (BBGS, B1)
13. Tan Tui Hang (St. Mary's, B1)
14. Teh Siew Heng (BBGS, B3)
15. Bing Ying (BBGS, B3)
16. Leong Kwan Pheng (L6A1, top Arts student)
17. Kok Po Tho (BBGS, A1)
18. Diana Ooi (BBGS, B1)
19. Sakinah (BBGS, A1)
20. Gloria Tan (St. Mary's, B2)
21. Ng Fook Neong (Assunta, B3)
22. Hamidah Ali (CBN, B3)
23. Ruby Hussein (CBN, B3)
24. Rozia Hanis THN (CBN, B3) - ex-PM Hussien Onn's daughter.
25. Aw Mong Lim (SMK Yahya Petra, Kota Bahru, B5)
26. Choo Ching Kit (BBGS, B3)
27. Tan Kiat Lan (BBGS, B1)
28. Sushil Kaur (BBGS, B2)
29. Hashimah (CBN, A2)
30. Siti Zaleha (CBN, A2)

There were of course many others, but their paths did not cross mine much. So, please do not take offence at being omitted because it's also been 45 years. But others may remember who they were and hopefully write in with fond memories and some great anecdotes. Note that there is not a single Indian girl in this list. My recollection is that there was only one Indian girl in our batch, maximum two!

Besides those in the list above, all of us who were in VI from 1966-72 also remember the following girls for various juvenile reasons:

1. Josephine Lee
2. Kim Fernando
3. Ristina Majid
4. Penny Chang (Michael Nettleton, where are you?)

But, I shall end this part with a recollection about mgf Dr. Chew Yoong Fong who left VI for London in late March 1971. His family (his father was a tin mine owner) had been uprooted from a bungalow house at the junction of Princess Road and Jalan Tun Razak (Circular Road) at the height of the 1969 riots. They later moved to a bungalow house in Jalan Inai in Imbi Road, which is where most of those  who knew him between 1970-72 would identify him with.

Fong was an extremely popular guy with most of his classmates. Many would gather at his house to listen to vinyl LP pop records and shoot the breeze, and occasionally also smoke cigarettes. How much things had to do with the fact that he had a very good-looking younger sister, is anybody's guess!

He also played right full back for both his primary school (Pasar Road English School 1) all the way through to the VI U20 Hockey Team in 1972. In his earlier days, he was also a sprinter and fine footballer (right wing) whom Mokhtar Dahari used to consult in F3 to improve his thunderkicks at the football wall at the far end of the school field.

Sometime in late April 1971, I walked into our L6B1 classroom which was the second-last room on the upper right wing as one faced the school clock tower, and was stunned to see Fong in school uniform and sitting with my classmates. This was a laboratory room and so we only had three rows of long benches and work tops with stools for the 45-odd students. I gave a wtf look at him to which he smiled back. I learnt later from him that he found the London school style difficult to cope with and decided to return to KL and VI. But, I suspect that was not the only reason.

A few weeks later, Indran passed me  a sealed envelope containing a letter. It was from his friend, a (non-VI) footballer from Imbi Road, a Eurasian-Chinese-mix guy.  I cannot recall his name, so I shall refer to him as Joe, whom I knew only vaguely from the Imbi Postals Club grounds. The envelope was addressed to my new classmate in L6B1, Yap Siew Peng, who both in 1971 and 1972 was among the top students in Bio Science. He wanted me to hand it to her. Anyone should be able to guess what the letter said. I was surprised at being asked to do courier service, but would not let a buddy down.

I did as I was asked and handed that envelope to an even more astonished Siew Peng. We were as familiar with each other like Cleopatra and Bill Clinton. I stared at my shoes as I told her I was only doing the post office routine. A few days later she handed me a different sealed envelope with a letter in it which I passed on to Indran. That was the last I ever heard or saw of Joe.

Well, the short and the long of it was that, for the rest of F6 , Yoong Fong and Siew Peng became a pair. So much so that some years later they got married and have been living happily together for some 30-over years. Both are doctors. I also understand Yap Siew Peng is the great grand daughter of one of VI's patrons, Yap Kwan Seng? This is an amazing piece of information, if true. Can Siew Peng or Fong confirm this?

But what Fong may have forgotten is that shortly before leaving for London, he mentioned to me that he and Siew Peng had been tuition students at the same centre in their lower secondary school days. And when he said that, he had a glint in his eyes that spoke volumes. He could correct me, but my instincts tell me that the real reason he cut short his stay to London had more to do with a certain besotted look than finding London difficult to adjust to!

I do not know if in those days I had a huge sign at the back of my shirt saying 'Serial Post Office Server', DHL or UPS in bold letters or what. But, a few months later another guy asked me to do him a favour. This time, it was Liung Cheong Poh, fellow VIPB (senior) member who handed me a long envelope for my classmate, petite and cute Tan Tiu Hang (ex-St. Mary's) with whom I had hardly exchanged two words in those few months. I reluctantly complied. She insisted on knowing who the envelope was from. Cheong Poh had not revealed his name. I reluctantly told her and at the same time decided this was too stressful for me and I was not going to do this anymore.

Tiu Hang recently told me the envelope contained a single red rose, her first ever from a prospecting wooer! Whoa, what a Romeo LCP was. But nothing came of what I suspect was LCP's short-lived infatuation. But, Tiu Hang and I re-connected some 5 years ago and keep in touch via Facebook. She's been an inspiring supporter of my writings and endeavours. She retired a few years ago as Senior Chemistry Teacher at Catholic High School in Section 5, Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya.

So, I dedicate Albert Hammond's 1975 hit 'To All The Girl's I've Loved' to all the girls in the VI Class of 1971-72. Thanks for the memories and for teaching us how to grow up!

(Unfortunately, I am overseas and do not have access to class photographs etc. which would have brightened up this blog post. I will rectify that as soon as possible).

To be continued, especially about who I had a crush on, more couples and my vote, if my life depended on it, for the most outstanding girl in U6 1972, Ms VI 1971-72!

E.S. Shankar 

CRICKET - PART 2

There is no other game like cricket, played by schoolboys and clubs over a full-day, out in the open, and by national professional Test Match teams over 5 days in tailor-made stadia. The demands on players for super skills and techniques, fitness, stamina, concentration and perseverance, are unimaginable to the uninformed. But when you factor in that the outcome of a match, notwithstanding paper predictions, can be affected by any or all of the type of pitch prepared, venue, change of weather, type of ball, ageing of ball, bat used, captain's and batsmens' tactics and, umpires' calls, the you have a truly fascinating and intriguing sport like no other. (Umpires' mistakes are nowadays minimised by the use of CCTV camera and and computer program systems called 'Hawkeye').

In no other world sport do the players battle it out over 5 consecutive days with 8-9 hours play a day, for supremacy. In no other sport in the world do the combatants play to win, and yet after 5 days, find there is no clear winner. This is of course anathema to, for example the Americans, whose national psyche cannot grapple with the concept of an honourable draw, but which to the British and other cricket playing nations like Australia, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, has much merit in that, mere chance does not rule the day.

The game has expanded from Test Matches to include One Day Internationals (ODI played over 50 six-ball overs per team) and T20 (played over 20 six-ball overs per team). These demand new skills, tactics and innovations, such as the scoop shot, upper cut and reverse sweep. These games favour the young as they demand fitness and fielding skills of the highest standards. In the old days of the 5-day Test Match, pot-bellied Test stars could get away with Boycott-like stubborn blocking defence and farming the strike, but the ODIs and T20s will pension them off rapidly in the modern variations of the game.

One day in early 1966, when in Form 1 North, my maths teacher T.Rajaratnam announced to the class a list of boys, among whom I was one, "who will turn up for cricket practice at 4 this afternoon." There was no "do any of you know how to play cricket" or "are you interested in cricket?" It was an order you ignored at peril. I had written about T.Rajaratnam before. CLICK HERE. Raja as he was "affectionately" known, died of cancer in 1967.

The school had a new Sports Master, 'Lenny' De Vries, a M'sian Eurasian who was outstanding throughout his tenure in VI as teacher, disciplinarian, mentor and especially as cricket and hockey coach. I have written about Lenny before. CLICK HERE FOR EARLIER BLOG POST ON LENNY & HOCKEY.

In 1970, he left for Canada to earn his PhD in Sports Science. He commanded the respect of every student who came into contact with him. Lenny coached our victorious 1968 U15 Hockey Team and taught us strategic team play such as 'attacking in triangular formations in either flank' and 'kasi makan defensive feints'.

More than that, Lenny led the VI Cricket team to its 1st ever Navaratnam Shield semi-finals, after HM Murugasu and the Board of Governors successfully secured a court order to force the Selangor Cricket Association (SCA) to reverse their decision to disqualify VI who had given a strategic walkover to Selangor Eurasians a day or two before May 13th 1969! 

Eventually, VI lost the semi-finals played at the PWD Cheras grounds despite a fluent top score of 20-odd runs by Lenny which included a classic cover drive that just failed to go for 4 through a soggy outfield. I know because I was one of the many VI students who had gone there that Saturday morning, hoping for an epic win.

'Billy' Achen Balachandren (VIPB and Cricket Captain 1971) tells me that there were several contentious decisions made by umpires like Christie Sheperdson of NEB that day, including a crucial one against Terence Jayatilaka (bowler), who with Lenny and Bain Saurajan were the 3 teachers in the VI team. There was much acrimony in the cricketing circles in Selangor then, that a team of mere schoolboys in short pants should have gone to court and advanced to the semi-finals of one of the most prestigious Club cricket competitions in Malaysia.

Notwithstanding the loss, it was an incredible performance by a team comprising mainly schoolboys pitted against the might of teams like National Electricity Board (NEB, the forerunner to TNB), Tamilian Physical and Cultural Association (TPCA), Rubber Research Institute (RRI), Selangor Club (The Dog) etc., who all had a sprinkling of past and present National cricketers! The stylish Terence Jayatilaka taught us English Literature in F4 (1969).

Dr.Leonard De Vries was at one time attached to the Sports Science Faculty of USM Penang and is now President of the Malaysian Association of Sports Education, Sports Science and Fitness as well. He also consults for the National Sports Council (NSC).

 I was also told by my Cricket and Biology Master, young Anandakrishnan (Andy), that he had recommended me to 1972 Head Master Soma for full colours in cricket. I had only represented the school cricket 1st eleven team in 1971 and 1972. However, prior to that, I had represented my house (Hepponstall) from Form 1 onwards. I took special pride of place that in the five years between 1968-72, I bowled (medium pace/swing) out some of the top school 1st eleven batsmen and also scored a few fifties in the inter-house fixtures. So, half-colours at least, was not unreasonable. CLICK HERE FOR VI HEAD MASTERS.

TO BE CONTINUED

CRICKET - PART 1

This is by way of an introduction to the intriguing chess-like sport of cricket (the game of 'the flannelled fool'), and my recollection of events during the two years I represented VI in cricket - 1971 & 1972 - which will follow in Part 2.

just another game?

“With those little pals of mine,

Ramadhin and Valentine!”

These are the most memorable lines of a lovely little ditty titled ‘Cricket, Lovely Cricket.’ Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), a West Indian, had composed it on the day of a famous victory. Thus were immortalised two West Indian cricket bowlers, unplayable spinners Ramadhin and Valentine. On 29 June 1950 the duo spun their team to an emphatic first ever victory over England in Test Cricket, in England. The extraordinary celebrations by the Caribbean fans on that day continued to Piccadilly Circus, giving birth to the legend of the Calypso Cricketers from West Indies.

If success in cricket was to be determined merely by exotic and flamboyant names, then none could possibly best the West Indians. They had Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell, Clyde Leopold Walcott and Everton de Courcey Weekes who were the famous 3W’s. Then there were George Headley, Garfield St. Auburn Sobers, (CLICK HERE for his six 6's) Rohan Bholalall Kanhai, Wesley Winfield Hall, Charles Christopher Griffith, Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge, Roy Clifton Fredericks, Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, Lawrence George Rowe, Alvin Isaac Kallicharan, Anderson Montgomery Everton Roberts, Michael Anthony Holding, Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose, and more, all outstanding, brilliant cricketers. The West Indians brought with them a brand of cricket never seen before. Macho, style, panache, power and flamboyance were added to pure unadulterated passion and joy for the game. Elquemodo Tonito Willet was not quite in the same class of test cricketers as the others but deserved to be knighted just for that name!

Before this, much of cricket centered around an Australian batting genius, Sir Donald Bradman. CLICK HERE for a You Tube video on him. ‘The Don’ retired from cricket with an incredible batting average of 99.94 from a mere eighty innings. In 1948, age forty, Bradman stepped out on to the Oval pitch in London for his last Test innings. He needed to score only four runs to achieve a perfect 100 Test batting average, but was undone for a score of nought, out to a magical googly, the ‘wrong un’ bowled by an Englishmen, Eric Hollies. God knew what he was doing mate! Some years later, Bradman, a man of impeccable honesty, great stature and integrity, set the record straight. He credited Hollies with a very fine piece of bowling effort. Bradman scotched speculation that he had been temporarily blinded by his own tears from the standing ovation he had been given by the largely English crowd.

English cricketing pride was eclipsed for many a year until the emergence of the un-English batting styles of Ted Dexter, Tom Graveny, Tony Grieg and David Gower. But few could match the combative, never-say-die talismanic Ian Terence Botham. ‘Beefy Botham’ single-handedly destroyed Australia at Headingley and Edgbaston in 1981. But you should not forget lefty Eddie Paynter in that infamous body-line series in Australia in 1932/33. Paynter, hospitalised in Brisbane with high fever, was recalled and forced to bat and managed to score the winning run with a six!

From South Africa came the 1948 story of ‘Cometh the hour, Cometh the man.’ Last man Cliff Gladwin, a bowler, came in to bat when all seemed lost.  Gladwin exhibited a degree of coolness and gutsiness not often seen in tail-enders. He managed to stick around to see the last of twelve runs scored as England achieved an unlikely victory.

Cricket was given a shot in the arm with the emergence of the wristy stylish batsmen and cunning bowlers from Pakistan and India. Test cricket became a truly international sport. The spin quartet of Eripalli Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi, Srinivasa Raghavan Venkataraghavan and Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar was legendary. But public imagination was captivated by the googly spinning genius of Chandrasekhar and his polio-withered right arm. Chandra brought a new dimension to the art of spin bowling delivered at fast-medium pace! As great a batsman as IVA Richards spoke of his fear of Chandra.

No less a wily foxy than Oz captain Ian Chappell reckoned Prasanna was the best off -spin bowler he had ever faced. Prasanna was reputed to have employed black-magic to ‘pull back’ a ball in full flight. Sunil Gavaskar was the greatest ever opening batsman in the history of cricket. His portly brother-in-law Gundappa Vishwanath’s wristy elegance and crunching square cuts were unmatched anywhere.

Pakistan brought with them the mystique of the magical Mussulman. Was there ever a group of masterclass batsmen of the calibre of the ‘Little Master’ Hanif Mohammad, Mushtaq Mohammad, the explosive Majid Khan or all rounder Asif Iqbal. But for sheer style, panache, verve, grace, artistry and elegance there was Zaheer Abbas, the ‘Asian Don Bradman.’ Then there was the spin wizardry of the goateed Abdul Qadir who looked every inch a magician. He did pull bunnies - googlies, sliders, leg spin, drifters - out of the back of his hand.

But our story really begins with the 2W’s from Pakistan, Waqar Younis and Waseem Akram. Neither had the pace of  legends Dennis Lillee or Michael Holding. Yet they were the main protagonists in defeating England 2-1 in the 1992 test series. There are only four priorities for Indians and Pakistanis when playing a cricket test match against England. First and second were to make at least one appearance at the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) grounds at Lords in St. John’s Woods, London, considered the home of cricket and score a hundred there. Third, to snatch five wickets in an innings. And fourth, to defeat England in a test series in England.

Surprisingly the 2W’s were not congratulated for their fine efforts by the normally sporting English. Instead, they were greeted with such hostility and acrimony as they could never have imagined.

The 2 W’s had perfected a new style of bowling which few had encountered before - the fine art of ‘Reverse Swing’ bowling.  Before them, the demon pace bowler Imran Khan had experimented with it, but success was sporadic. The bowler would first dampen one side of a fairly well-used cricket ball with sweat from his forehead. The other side of the ball would be polished smooth by rubbing it vigorously on cricket pants. These two actions are perfectly legal in cricket. When speared in with a well-disguised bowling action, the well-primed ball would move alarmingly towards the batsmen and stumps after pitching. Even the very best Test batsmen found it difficult to cope with Reverse Swing bowling. Many of the best in cricket could not bowl it!

The entire English establishment, players, officials and the Press then decided the Pakistanis had done something that was ‘not quite cricket.’ This was only just so short of calling the Pakistanis cheats to their face. And many did openly call them that. Waseem Akram, a genuine all-rounder with over four hundreds Test wickets to his credit was of course the greater of the 2W’s. But Waqar Younis was the genius at reverse swing.

For many years prior to this, Australian and English teams would return from defeats in India and Pakistan claiming that sub-continent umpires, as a matter of culture, cheated. I watched an English test umpire give the last man out in a crucial Pakistan vs England test match circa 1983. The bat had been nowhere near the ball. Although the faux pas was noted in the national dailies no one accused the English umpire of cheating!

The frightening success of the 2W’s was often met with cocked eyebrows, winking of eyes and shaking of heads by the English establishment.

The 2005-2006 Ashes series between Australia and England produced some of the most scintillating, pulsating and competitive test cricket in the history of the game. It had everything you could ask for in sports. I had watched what was compulsive viewing on Astro pay-TV channel from Kuala Lumpur.

On paper, man for man, Australia should have white-washed England 5-0 in the series. This they only managed later in the return series in Australia in 2006.  Of sportsmanship, Michael Vaughan, Freddy Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard from England were outstanding. They were a great credit to the game. The Aussies looked shocked and bitter in defeat. In bowling Damien Martyn, Ashley Giles bowled the ball of the series which had swung left-right-left as though possessed by spirits. This was the left-hander’s equivalent of Shane Warne’s ‘Gatting Ball' for which there is no known defence! CLICK HERE for the 'Gatting Ball of the Century' and HERE for the 'Giles Ball.'

As expected, the Australians steam-rolled the English in the first match. The series was actually won and lost during the second test match. Three factors emerged as the main reasons England then went on to win the series 2-1.

First, Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and made the unpardonable and biggest mistake of his career by asking England to bat. Second, Michael Vaughan’s captaincy then and throughout the series was outstanding. His field placing, change of bowlers and over-all game strategy made Ponting look amateurish and clueless. Ponting retired from all forms of cricket in 2013, and is one of the greatest run accumulators in the history of the game. The 2005-2006 Ashes series would have been a defining moment in his career. 

But it was the third factor that made all the difference. Suddenly the English fast bowlers, mainly Simon Jones, but Hoggard and Flintoff too, started to produce a bit of Abracadabra, magic. The cricket ball began to Reverse Swing! The Australians were unable to cope with this mumbo-jumbo voodoo trickery for the rest of the series and capitulated like a pack of cards.

Did we hear of English bowlers illegally unpicking the seam of the ball or the establishment accuse their fellow countrymen of cheating? Nary a word. Overnight, the ‘Art of Pakistani 2W’s Cheating’ metamorphosed into a very respectable and honoured skill, an English science!

An encore to this strange story of ‘Reverse Swing’ bowling was enacted in England later in 2006 when they played Pakistan in a test series. Shockingly, the fourth test match at the Oval in London was for the first time in the history of the game, awarded by default to England. The Pakistan team had refused to take the field after being docked five runs for alleged ‘ball tampering’ by a ‘neutral’ umpire from Australian, Darrel Hair. He made it look as though the Pakistanis were once again up to their old didgeridoo tricks of laying the grounds for "cheating" with Reverse Swing bowling.

Hair was also involved in another controversy some years earlier. He had faulted Sri Lankan Muralitharan for an illegal bowling action. Embarrassingly for Hair, the international governing board of cricket had just before that match given Murali the all clear. Whether intended or not, this enabled Shane Warne, an Australian, to take the lead in the league of most wickets taken by a test bowler in his career.

An inquiry was held by the world’s cricket governing board. The Pakistan captain was fined for failing to take the field. But it was that other finding that one should appreciate, for the conspicuous deafening silence that followed it. Independent Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle concluded that the condition of the ball was as could be expected of one that had been used for the duration of that game. The Pakistanis were absolutely exonerated of any and all charges of  ball tampering or cheating!

So, what then prompted umpire Darrel Hair to call as he did? None of the distinguished panel of live match commentators had picked up any untoward behaviour by the Pakistan players. Frame by frame replay of events recorded by several cameras dotted around the stadium revealed nothing illegal taking place. Hair’s conduct after the event when it turned internationally acrimonious became questionable. He wrote in offering to tender his resignation for compensation of US$ 500,000 and then withdrew that letter.

If you think cricket is just a sport, then think again. Think back to the 1932/33 ‘Bodyline Series.’ England captain Douglas Jardine was possessed of a ruthless streak, a no-holds-barred ambition to win. The English were accused of bowling beamers and bouncers with the deliberate intention of causing serious injury to the Australian batsmen. Jardine was ordered to rein in his ‘quickies’ like Harold Larwood who had targeted Don Bradman’s head.

Australia threatened to pull out of the Commonwealth!