Deadpoet’s Cave

Pada hari Isnin, saya bertemu Edwin, kawan sedarjah dari Sekolah Lelaki St. Anthony’s.

Ok, I give up.

On Monday, I met my St. Anthony’s Boys’ School classmate, Edwin.

I asked him to bring our one-and-only school annual produced during our six years there. I confess, I believe I threw away my copy. I can’t recall if it was deliberate or accidental. Either way, it was plain stupidity.

Thankfully, he has his copy and willingly lent it to me. The annual covered 1984 to 1986, which was our first three years in primary school.

I showed my colleagues the annual, asking them to guess where I was in my class photo, as it wasn’t labelled. The ladies in my department got it right the first time round. My male colleague took two guesses!

What I didn’t count on was my boss flipping through the entire annual.

She came across something I did not remember at all.

One of my Malay compositions - karangan - was published!

I was surprised because I was hopeless in Bahasa Melayu.

Immediate reaction: They must have got the name wrong! It must have been someone else’s. After all, one of the Malay Language teacher’s sons was in my class. Another confession: I copied answers from him. (How this was possible in a tiny classroom remains a mystery.)

So, another colleague challenged me to write a blog post in Malay. It’s truly beyond me now. One line was all it took to make my head ache.

For readers who understand Malay, take a look at what allegedly wrote when I was in Primary 3. I’m very sure I had significant help.

Nasib Seorang Penjual Sate

Pak Kasim seorang penjual sate. Dia mesti pergi ke bandar untuk menjual sate. Pak Kasim membawa banyak barang. Barang itu berat.

Pak Kasim berangan-angan hendak membeli basikal roda tiga. Dia pun berjimat. Dia simpan duitnya dalam tabung.

Apabila tabung itu penuh dengan duit, Pak Kasim menggali lubang dan menanam duitnya. Nasib Pak Kasim tidak baik. Seorang budak nakal nampak apa Pak Kasim buat.

Lepas satu minggu dia hendak ambil duitnya. Dia mengorek lubangnya. Tabung itu pun tidak ada duit lagi.

P.S. The gist of the story is: A satay seller wants to save up to buy a tricycle (don’t ask) but saves his money by burying it in the ground. He loses the money because a boy spots him doing this, and (this part is implied) the boy steals the cash.

P.P.S. I will be scanning the annual and uploading to Flickr.

• Primary School at Victoria Street
• Singapore 3 Uzbekistan 7
• The Singapore Art Musuem a.k.a. former Saint Joseph’s Institution building
• Heritage Tree Nomination