My first cigarette was on the night of sports day’s eve 1983. I helped my seniors to build the pintu gerbang for our sports house and in return I got my license to share their Gold Flakes and Rough Rider. Two brands of cigarette that is very popular towards the end of the month. Early in the month, Benson & Hedges will be the first choice.
After that, I was accepted as the honorary resident of the first floor, where the senior’s dorm situated. However, thanks to one form four fella named Azahari who threatened to report me to a brutal Prefect named Zambri, I volunteered to return to the third floor. Those days, the Prefect can be real gedebe. Zambri was known for all sorts of sadistic methods in torturing the juniors. Upon hearing that my named was already in Zambri’s black book, I quit smoking immediately.
Our Headmaster or those day was known as Che Po, short form for Principal was Cikgu Zakaria. He was also known as Pak Ya Che Bunga because he loved gardening. He was mere shadow compared to his walking tall deputy named Tengku Hamzah. The chief warden or the sheriff was Mr. Burn who must thought that he was running the Royal Military College. I used to believe that they were very sadist bunch of teachers until I join Sekolah Menengah Teknik Kuala Lumpur in 1986.
My dorm’s name was Serindit. One day after the routine roll call, Mr. Burn asked all inhabitants of Serindit to stay behind. We were told that one of us has not made up the bed and as punishment we were instructed to jalan itik all the way back to our dorm. The distance was almost 400 meters. We have to jalan itik even on the stairs. After that, none of us managed to walk properly for the next one week.
On another occasion, someone must have an unscheduled called of the big one because he managed to spill his business all the way on the floor of the third floor corridor up to the toilet at the end of the building. We woke up only to know that day will be hell for all of us upon seeing such work of art. That was a Friday. Friday was not a school day in Kelantan. Friday means Mr. Burn will be doing his routine inspection. I clearly remembered Burn took the loudhailer and asked whomever the unfortunate person to come forward. He threatened to force all of us to wipe the watery feces with our bare hand until it is no more there unless, of cause, somebody is willing to claim the crime. All of us had resigned to the fact that we will be going to have to do just that.
Suddenly, my dorm mate put up his hand and walked towards Burn. The seniors were screaming and laughing like mad upon watching Richard (not his real name) face down, bravely took each step with honour, closing in towards Burn.
Richard caught Burn by surprise. Never that day had we ever anticipated that someone was going to make such claimed. But, Richard did. I swore I saw tears in Burn’s eyes. For once, Burn had nothing to say. Burn was left speechless.
On that particular day, nobody was punished. The cleaner was later called to sanitize the corridor.
I cannot remember, if any of us actually did asked Richard whether he actually was the culprit. Deep in my heart, I doubted Richard was the guilty person. One thing for sure, Richard saved the day for us all. I cannot imagine how to suap my next meal, if Richard did not make that humiliating steps that Friday.
Richard had given hero a new name.
hi Commander…Signs of a person about to be Enlightened are one who keeps talking about his good old ichify days over and over again.
I thought I should be enlightened first. YOU ARE ACTUALLY MY STUDENT??
Gods of the trees…Gods of Darching…Gods of the camphor balls……….Not fair…..He now my Commander and Obi-Wan…..all in one??
Answer me…you good for nothing gods!!
Sheih: You like MCD?
something for you here
http://wattahack.blogspot.com/2007/03/fsa-enforcement.html
Brother Sheih, nice school story. When are you going to turn this into a movie? You earlier mentioned you were a Mass Comm student from USM. You and your other buddies jointly should give it a shot. What say you ?
I have forgotten all about it until I read it today. Was it after friday prayer? Still cannot remember it clearly. Thanks Ghoip for sharing ti. Sure brings back all those memories. And yes, the maggie in the baldi. I remembered going from one dorm to anither dorm trying to borrow the heater. The heater was illegal right?
Ingat tak, ustaz Bapoo bagi zikir panjang selepas Isyak supaya kita semua tak payah pergi Prep dan terus boleh tengok FA Cup final? Kadang-kdang Bapoo tu sporting jugak.
Anonymos, mu batch mana?
Dearest Sheih,
You must be a cute boy to be named Serindit …
Salam to Sheih and all.
Minta laluan aa…CGOPD.Serindit was the dorm’s name not sheih’s la bro.
The jalan itik is actually a good way of punishing the ‘keras kepala’ group. Alhamdulillah we in SAHC never had to do that.Our’s was to do several laps of 400m after prep at night which most enjoyed.
Richard is one brave guy.Brave to face the punishment.Brave to face ‘nak kena kutuk’ by others for spilling his waste on the floor.
Berani kerana benar!
nice blog u have here..& cantona rulz
why so fast quiting ‘sigup’ tak kerek la beb… baru kena suspect from zambri belum kena public canning lagi…. kalau dah kena canning barulah dapat lesen besar jadi gangster kat hostel otherwise nakal kecil-kecilan saje tak masuk buku laa…
Thanks for clearing a quarter century mystery for me. I always wondered why the HM was called Pak Ya Bunga.
There is still one mystery that I am curious up to today. In those days, when the taps are dry, sometimes, we would climb up into the ceiling of the dorms for Form 1 and Form 2. If we “walk” all the way to the end, on top of the toilet/bathrooms, there would be the water tanks.
There would be some water left that is not flowed down to the taps and that would be our water supply to bathe. Just before the toilet, there is a storeroom for old mattresses and beds. Passing the storeroom, I’ve seen many times, students doing the “business” through the hole in the ceiling, with the droppings falling straight down into the storeroom.
Does anyone know whether the storeroom is cleared after all these years? Or is it still a twilight zone and no one knows where the keys are? What was the reaction during the clearing. Another quarter century mystery that I hope can be solved soon.
Sheih Said: Bro, I am aware of the water tanks, however, I never climbed up there because I actually mat gayat. So I rather panjat pakar and pergi mandi dekat telaga belakang the last block where the form one classes situated. The old wooden house as had a horse and small stable. I surely remembered that store room but it is a news today to know about the business from above the ceilling. Try not to imagine it. One thing I can never tolerate was the sate of all the toilet. Huuuuhhh. I surely hope someone from SMS can solved these mystery.
I used to take bath in the water hazard at golf course (the one which you can see from girls’ hostel). In 1980’s water in the pond was still clear but now full of water lilies.
Another popular palce for bathing was the labs at Block C.
Halim;
what about this kind of punishment?
If you get caught for smoking, one of the punishment was that you were asked to stand on a bench right in the middle of the soccer field under hot sun, you had to smoke two cigars simultaneously without exhaling the smoke (both of your hands must not hold the cigars). At the same time, the warden beat you with the rubber hose. After you have fainted, you were dragged and put in the toilet until you recover.
How’s that for the punishment?
I was caught smoking in school and had to wash the toilets for one week.
Come Senior Cambridge exam time….smoked and did my papers right infront of the teacher.
He was stunt and totally helpless….hahahahahaha
I remember the smoking punishment. My friend who was in the list caught, could not stand the 5sen cigar smell. He stopped smoking, … for a week.
Man, it was sadistic!
Then my father caught me smoking at the toilet at age 12 and said….”You like smoking eh? Come smoke infront of me”
He gave me a cigar…lit it up…and asked me to smoke!. My fat mother rushed out and threw the cigar away…..giving my father a warning. Since then…he never made me smoke a cigar…even caught me smoking…just kept one eye closed..but do give me lectures on how the lungs can get burnt out …this or that on smoking and told me to do it when I grew to be an adult.
My father really respect and love my mother very much.
monsterball;
my late father taught me how to smoke when I was 6 year-old. He would give me the last inch of the “rokok segerek” (cigarette in klate speak).
Now I am a non-smoker.
inmine….you father is wise and smart for the last inch is most bitter and not smokable……..hahahahaha
I fogot to give details of my cigar experience. I was puffing away encourged by my father. Suddenly I stopped and fell from my chair. My mother rushed out and saw me vomitting…carried me to the bed. I was totally drunk and giddy stage. My father was frightened too. Changed his style of teaching me……but I am also a nightmare to him most of my childhood life. I guess I was asking for attention from my father as a child…..since he was always busy with bank matters day and night.
I can remember the horse stable, but I can’t remember if I used the well there. But I remember jumping over the fence and going that direction to buy mee from a stall near the PPH (Polis Hutan). The PPH was opposite MRSM where one of TDM’s son studied there.
One time I went with a senior and was given a surprise by a fellow student. We thought it was a warden and I remember running like Carl Lewis. Lost my slipper on the way. Anyway, my senior went on in his life to win half a million on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. That’s life!
On that matter, I think I need to put the record straight. The school is actually fun and students still do what they need to do too. A guy few years my senior, even managed to ace the SAT and got into MIT (the US one, not the local one). I was told that in my year for SRP, our school came out as the second best in the whole country (or was it 3rd, anyway, it’s way up there)! I saw the same a few years ago for SPM. Obviously, the pursuit for excellence is still there. Keep it up!
As for me, only managed to get 3rd place in SPM. Rugi, one more A1 would have put my name on the top student plaque forever.
Now let me part to you all smoker about cigarettes.
There are basically two types…virginian and toasted.
All cigarettes such as Dunhill…Benson & Hedges…555 are virginians. Somehow when one smoke virginian cigarettes…the smoker can switch from one brand to another quite easily.
Malboro…Lucky Strikes…Camel..Peterstyvesen{hope got spelling right!] are all TOASTED cigarettes and related to all USA brands. Once you get used to one brand…difficult to change and certainly a toasted cigarette smoker cannot enjoy a virginian type….but a virgianian can switch to toasted quite easily.
Both are proven dangerous to health and can cause cancer…. because they are not pure tobacco leaves…mixed with their secret formula….which health people suspect…a touch of forbidden drug to get the smoker hooked to smoking that brand… although I think many other thiings can cause cancer or danger to kill a person….even breathing open air nowadays.
Then in Indonesia…they have the keretek cigarettes……made from clover leaves and supposedly cancer free…which is quite true…but world still love toasted and virginians.
Finally …you have the pipe and cigars smokers. Both arec smoking pure tobacco leaves……..again supposedly cancer free.
LEARN SOMETHING FOLKS??
LKO;
Let me guess, I think you are one year my junior (Zambri’s a.k.a Abu’s batch). I think the best student for SPM was from my batch, gemullah Zailan Mat Amin. Zailan was actually from the same primary school with Azmiral from Sek. Keb. Laki-Laki, Pasir Puteh (SKLPP), I was from the primary school which menumpang at SKLPP.
Ahh… the kedai bbucu. I used to wake them up at 2 or 3am in the morning to buy cigarettes. My favorite cigarette was Marlboro and kretek Gudang Garam.
Rumah hantu (the house just behind the bengkel seni perusahaan) is not there any more. A new bungalow is under construction at that location.
Yeah… it was fun time (second in my list, right up there with my 6 years of college life in Miami – there were quite a number of us ended up in Miami).
Ab-bu (abbrevation for Abang Buncit) was actually in my class. He was in line for head prefect until Zailan dropped a year due to illness. Zailan got it and I think he was disappointed.
Yeah, some did quite well from my class, including Mat Mentol who is now a Deputy Public Procecutor, high flyer the last I heard.
Yeah, it’s fun but I doubt it is like that nowadays, right inmine? Too much control in schools nowadays, don’t help students to experience and think for themselves.
And I doubt that teachers today can be as sadistic.
Abu also has a daughter in SMSTMFP. I met Abu in early January 2007 (during korban at the school) and he does not changed much.
Now the students are manja and the teachers are nice… every month get to go home for overnight stay (that is the reason why I have to make a monthly trip there).
SMS days yg torture sekali. ingat lagi masa gemullah Cikgu Fuad mati mengejut? cikgu Rahim baggy, cikgu Mat Noor? Us Abdul Illah? Cikgu Ab Rahman system. Cikgu Saripudin tu suka cubit perut aku. Pengetua Dato’ Shafii yg ganti Pokya Bunga? cikgu Hamdi? taukeh kantin Brahim botol, Cikgu Subri ju*uri. And mandi guna paip dari lab chemisry… Kemasukan abg2 & Kakak2 matrix medic UKM. Kak JBD? Atlit jemputan dari SM Zainab? Tukar arah kiblat di musolla dari asal straight ke menyerong ke kiri. budak Form 1 kena masuk usrah masa yg lain sedap tengok wayang KungFu kat dewan. best student juga kena public canning. ada sorang saja Prefect yg sporting. Yes, jln itik memang lenguh sungguh. Last word… Skendo?
Don’t count the years – count the memories!
inmine, if I am not mistaken, the cigar smoking punishment was not on the soccer field. It was in between the classroom blocks, before the basketball court. The soccer field was too far away to make an impact. And they used confiscated cigarettes when the cigars ran out.
Fooooh! Under the hot sun, on the bench, smelly cigars, and the shame of everyone you know staring at you.
If I am not mistaken, in 1982 they punished Form 5 guys at that time to collect cigarette butts behind the block. Filled up a few wheelbarrows!
Salam to sheih.Minta laluan aa…
Monty sir, I had a cigar experience too.
When I was 10 some distance relative visited us. The husband must have forgotten his fag(Rothman)when they wanted to go home.There was 2-3 sticks left in the pack.When mom saw the pack she picked it up and ‘simpan belakang pintu’. The next day she had to go to her school for some gotong royong(on a saturday) and left us kids at home.Dad went to work.
I saw the pack behind the door took it and asked by younger brother to take the matches from our kitchen. i took a stick out and lighted it.Put the ‘sigaret’ to my lips and inhaled deeply( thats how I saw the pakcik smoked yesterday.Dad was a non-smoker).My brother tried too and before long both of us became dizzy like mabuk toddy and was coughing.My sister saw us and threatened to tell mom when she gets back.
And she did told mom. Mom was furious and started to membebel.She then gave me 10sen and ask me to go and buy a stick of Curut Cap Ikan Emas. Out of fear and guilt I went to the kedai runcit and started thinking what will mom do.Will she tell Dad?Will I be canned?
After giving her the Curut Cap Ikan Emas,mom asked me and my bro to sit infront of her.Gave me back the cigar and asked me to light it up.
“Hisap curut ni sampai habih!Hang ngan adik hang!Amboih!Kecik-kecik dah pandai nak isap rokok noo..!!”
After 2 puffs my head began to spin like a gasing and that awful taste of curut cap ikan Emas was too much for both of us. We threw up but the spinning did not go off.After a few more rounds f verbal assaults from mak, she took minyak cap kapak and apllied to ur foreheads and asked us to lie down. When we woke up in the evening, she had prepared Bubur Kacang for us.
I never touch another rokok sigaret until I went to MU.
LKO;
I used creative license. Change the setting from an “open space between Block C and Block B” to “soccer field” (physically it was only 100 meters away between the the actual location to the ) to let the readers (non-SMSTMFP) imagine how hot it was.
hi kickdefella…. damn sure you have avery ‘nice time’ at teknik cheras…. my super duper trooper junior… (i studied at teknik cheras too 1979-1981)……………
Those days, where i came from, most grandmothers smoke cigar (cap teko) or cigarrettes or rokok daun. Huh, talk about being daring and sophiticated.
hahahaha…tokasid…quite an experience you had. Thanks for sharing with us.
TIKL 86-87?
You missed me by 2 years LOL. Which means I am you super-super senior lah. And also means you were there when ‘someone’ declared our school the most ‘teruk’ in the country??? Hmm at least there’s ‘our’ connection in life. Wonder where’s Jibaok now (if they uses that gelaran during your years). See you in T-Square (i would have liked it if the still have the White House around)
Congratulations to FATIMAH ZAHRA UBAIDILLAH – 10 1A – SM SAINS TENGKU MOHD FARIS PETRA, KOTA BARU!
That’s the way to go! Wowow!
Ghoip..If you still at SMSK in 1985, remember geng Semangat 46 -> 46 members was punished by 2x rotan + 1x penampar coz balik rumah without permission after SRP
For SMSK/STMFP batch 1983~87. let celebrate 2o years anniversary after leaving the school
oh.. ex TIKLers! was one myself.. i think it was 92/93 batch if i counted my age right..
and SMTKL is launching its alumni at the end of this month.. wonder if any of u guys are going..
and i wonder if any of you guys’ name/nick was etched in memory under the double decker bed i slept in ….
I was your school mate (batch 83-87) and I hated the school. All you story of jalan itik , Zambri and Mr Burn sure bring some bad taste to my mouth. What a bad way to discipline teenagers. Will never send any of my children to a boarding school, especially not in Kelantan.