Detention Class

There was this one prefect, a from 3 fierce no nonsense short very unfriendly prefect; his name was, Haridas, I think. Most students are worried of being picked by this particular prefect, for he has no mercy and would not listen to any of your explanation to get off from whatever wrong he 'thought' that you have done. At that time the rule was - nobody should ride their bicycle in the school compound. Some friends and me were pushing the bicycle along the school building; and at one point we stopped. All of us got on the seat, just to rest our butts on the bicycles. Out of nowhere, came this Haridas and took all our names down - offence - riding the bicycle in the school compound. Much as we tried to explain to him, he just walked away.

So, the whole group (5 or us) were sent for 'detention class' which was held the next Saturday. The detention class was managed by the prefects, the head was then David. We were asked to do silly things on the field, run here, run there. Came back to the building, clean this, clean that and a host of other silly things that we have to go through, as the sentence to the offence and being sent to detention class. At the end of the session; which was for about 4 hours; our names were called one by one. And all our names (the 5 of us) were not in the list. Nevertheless, the detention class have already been served.

Since our names were not in the list the last week, we had to undergo the detention class again the next week. During that time, nobody would listen to your appeal, neither would they be compassion enough to listen to you. The prefects were king then; and that's why Haridas acted the way he was then! All 5 of us had to go through the detention class again the next week, albeit not that much work forced on us; since some prefects (who happened to have compassion then) knew that we had undergone the same thing last week.

Jerat Burung Wak Wak (Trapping Padi Birds)

There are a lot of birds in the padi field. Most birds would feed on the padi. We were particularly interested in the long legged brown bird which is normally found near waters, like the padi fields. We would used small stones on elastics to shoot at those birds; which is normally a far cry from hitting any. Our best choice to catch these birds is to trap them. These birds would normally walk on the edges of the padi fields and fly off whenever danger approach them. We would then try to identify on the normal walking tracks of these birds, so that we could lay our traps.

The traps are made up of strings to catch the birds; normally attached to the end of the pole; the pole of which are bent down to lay the trap on the ground. When the birds walked over it, it will trigger the 'catch' and by normal nature's way, will stretched back the pole into position or kick back to it's original position and thus will trap the bird's leg within the string attached to the pole.The poles could be small trees from shrubs growing on the sides of the padi fields.

Normally we do not catch any; but when we catch one or two of these 'wak wak' birds, we would slaughter them, take their feathers off; and with some salt cooked them over a small fire. Since they are normally 3 or 4 of us, we share to eat what we catch. Sometimes, while fishing we would lay the traps and check on it once in a while. Never know what the actual name are these birds, but they sure are tasty; grilled with some salt over s small fire!

Football Team Selection

Being big sized, athletic and tall, it was my dream to play football for my school. When we were in Standard 6, our Class Teacher was Mr Chen Chee Ting. The football team was taken care of by Mr Baskaran; during that time, he played for the Negri Sembilan State football team. He was my Class Teacher when I was in Standard 1. Early in the year, the football team will be selected; mostly from the senior boys who are already in Standard 6 as they are taller and bigger. All those interested to play for the school are requested to line up and kick the ball into the goal. Affendy was already selected as the goal keeper. Didn't know why or how!

I lined up with the rest of my friends, hoping madly to get selected into the football team; as it was my dream; but so was everyone else's anyway. When my turn came to kick the ball into the goal, I miskicked the ball; the ball just rolled down the field into Affendy's hand; and thus I was waved away by Mr Baskaran as I do not have the quality to be a footballer. Adamant and eager as I am to join the team, I lined up once again to get another chance to show that I 'can' kick the ball and have the quality to become a footballer.

During my 2nd attempt, hard as I could I kicked the ball; right smack at the right place; whoosh it went towards the goal; alas also into Affendy's hand. But I was waved into the selected boys. There were 20 of us. As Mr Baskaran was a state football player, he knows and practice his football knowledge well. We were trained hard and followed the proper football training method. It pays off; for that year, our school team; Tunku Munawir School managed to go to the Kuala Pilah District Football Tournament final which was held at the Kuala Pilah Padang. We lost 2-0 to Sekolah Kebangsaan Serting Hilir; all because they have 2 huge tall players; 1 centre forward and 1 centre half! But I played in the school team!