THEN,BEFORE THEN..........

THEN , BEFORE THEN…………….

Those were the days , a very long time ago , which I remember vividly and almost forgotten , if not for the sake of this NINGAP SRENGENGE blog it will not be written but will be buried with me when my day of death comes . Birthdays and deathdays are surrounded fences controlling everything that has lives. Every living specis has its own birthday ,so is its own death ( deathday ). Quite many people don’t understand death . Some are scared about death . Some are not well-informed about it . But when you study about death you will be better understood. I have the privilege to study it from my guru ( religious guru ) , and now I understand better . When we encounter death we will have the opportunity to meet God ( we muslims call Him ,Allah ) . In this world if we have the opportunity to meet the Sultans , the Prime-Ministers or any VVIP’s ,we would have a greatest joy . But what if we can meet our God ( Allah ) ?. I will talk about it later in other articles . I want to concerntrate with THEN , BEFORE THEN…..

What about THEN ? What was BEFORE THEN ? I was then a small boy ,being brought from the very rural area to a town life to study English . I didn’t know who the human figure who selected me among so many children in the Malay School . I got through the selection committee and passed the written exams in Malay , IQ , Arithmatics , Gardening , Reading , Writing and Spelling Tests. How I did it , I didn’t know till today . I never read books , there were no books . We used slate in school . We wrote on it and rubbed it off after reading .The knowledge were accumulated in the brain . That is what I know . We learned not to forget . We also did art on the slate, then the pictures we drew were also rubbed-off . It is indeed shocking if we compare with modern education ,when children of standard one carries books double their weight .

My headteacher of the Malay School took me to my new school , where the medium of instruction was English . I knew not a word of English . I knew nothing about living in school with Chinese and Indians students .There were Sikhs too , whom I felt scared because someone told me they eat testicles . What a joke .I could laugh and laugh , when I grew older . Gurkhas also existed in that school of mine . There was a gurkha camp just right behind my school . They were great warriors employed by the British then. Their bravery greatly impressed me . They were experts in the jungle . I desired to challenge them because I was quiet an experts with the jungles . As I wrote in me previous posts , I was more or less on par with “Kunta-Kinte” .

In school I was quiet a famous figure . I too didn’t know what made me so . Everybody called me Pak Hitam . Teachers and Headmaster too called me by the name Pak Hitam . Alas ! only then when I left school ,I knew that some of my friends didn’t know my real name. Indian friends also called me Pak Hitam. To them I always asked them , “ Who is blacker ? You or me ? “ . I was naughty and mischievious , then . But I was not caught for being naughty and mischievious . I knew that I should be clever . To all friends and teachers ,I was an innocent boy . All my secret s were kept between me alone. I didn’t want to destroy my personality . Very cunning ,wasn’t it . I was more cunning . The pelanduk which was known for its cunningness , is no challenge to me .Because I could then catched them alives . Near my house there was a big jungle , and it was in that jungle that I have bullied those cunning pelandoks . I caught guiet a many for food . With my bare-hands . Sometimes I used traps and sometimes I caught with bare-hands , just by making a special sound with my palms drumming the ground . The pelandok will come dancing not knowing that I was just hiding behind a thick bush .President Bush also cannot compete me …ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,.

I now will reveal one very interesting story . We being boarders were not allowed to go out unnecessarily . Only once a week , on Saturdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Who the hell can remain in school that long . I was free to go anywhere at home . I even went into jungle alone . My father and mother never questioned me . I was free as a bird can fly . Then in school , it was like Abu Gharrib . I cannot stand being controlled in that small school compound . I had and idea to release my tension . But that idea should not be known to anybody . Not anybody, I was clever . I was not caught even though I broke the rules every week . My friends were caught every now and then. When I felt like going out to town , I would first of all stole the bike of the canteen-man ,Ah Tat. It was a big bike , with a big basket attached to the carrier behind the seat . The school then had no gate , so my mission was made possibled . I would cycled down the road to town not being recognized by anybody . I just wore trousers , my body bare without a shirt or singlet . I wrapped my head with a loin-cloth. I cycled down jolly down the lanes of the town . a free ride of course . I returned after I had had my fulfillments . On certain occassins I would be overjoyed being able to peep couples romancing in the dark at the town garden. A very clever boy .

Well only that story by now . There are many more .

It was then , before then……..