Pitter Patter in the Past
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I met a good friend from primary school today, over a very informal gathering that one of us organized. Secondary school reunions are common, hey, we do primary school reunions where I'm at. N. T. P. S (2), Simpang Lima, Kelang, Selangor. The "High School". Yup, a primary school that is called "High School".
Shamsuddin and me constituted half of the 4 x 400 metres relay in primary school. Ariffin would run the first leg. I was second, Shamsuddin was third and Prabakaran would run the anchor leg. Mr. Ngoh, my class teacher, was the athletics master then. I remember him repeatedly asking me not to look back while running. After the second or third race, he finally asked me why I kept look back repeatedly at the other runners behind me.
“I want to know where they are, how close are they to me.”
“Why?”, Mr. Ngoh would ask.
“So that if they are closing in, I’d run faster.”
“Then why don’t you just run as fast as you could all the way?”, he’d say again.
“Don’t want to get so tired la, Mr. Ngoh.....”
I guess there was just enough sanity in that reasoning, coming from an eleven year old that he simply could not do or say anything else. The most plausible reason I get to do that was because Ariffin was such a good runner that he’d leave most of the competition behind. I was the weak link actually. I was always fourth in most of the races in school then, let it be the 100, 200 or 400 metres. So, in my final year of primary school, I didn’t win any individual medals but between the four of us we did win a few relay medals in races that we participated in, usually during other schools’ sports day. Most of the time we came in third but that was good enough for a medal placing and to an eleven year old, that is all that counts. We’d run barefooted then and somehow I have this impression that all of the races were held in wet soggy school fields. All except one. I was sure about that one race because when I handed the baton over to Shamsuddin, he kicked up so much dust on the well-worn track that I remember ending up coughing and choking. In the beginning, I was supposed to run the first leg but because I insisted on closing my ears with my fingers to avoid listening to the starter’s gun, we’d lose a few yards or so at the start of each race. Those few yards could be important later so Mr. Ngoh put Ariffin as the first runner instead. He was braver than me, he didn’t have to close his ears as the gun went “BOOOOM!!!” It did go “BOOOOM!!!”. Honest. At least it did to me……
I still have photos from then. In one of them, Mr. Jeyaraman and Mr. Ngoh were flanking us on either side. There were the four of us plus Jeyaraj – he usually takes over from me in the 4 x 100 metres relay. He’s faster than me in the 100 metres but I beat him over the longer distance. Kneeling in front were the team from the lower primary classes. I remember the names of only two of them, Khair and Mohan. I can’t recall the names of the other two guys. I guess we looked mean then to the other primary schoolers then. Looking at the photo again, we simply looked cute.
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I met a good friend from primary school today, over a very informal gathering that one of us organized. Secondary school reunions are common, hey, we do primary school reunions where I'm at. N. T. P. S (2), Simpang Lima, Kelang, Selangor. The "High School". Yup, a primary school that is called "High School".
Shamsuddin and me constituted half of the 4 x 400 metres relay in primary school. Ariffin would run the first leg. I was second, Shamsuddin was third and Prabakaran would run the anchor leg. Mr. Ngoh, my class teacher, was the athletics master then. I remember him repeatedly asking me not to look back while running. After the second or third race, he finally asked me why I kept look back repeatedly at the other runners behind me.
“I want to know where they are, how close are they to me.”
“Why?”, Mr. Ngoh would ask.
“So that if they are closing in, I’d run faster.”
“Then why don’t you just run as fast as you could all the way?”, he’d say again.
“Don’t want to get so tired la, Mr. Ngoh.....”
I guess there was just enough sanity in that reasoning, coming from an eleven year old that he simply could not do or say anything else. The most plausible reason I get to do that was because Ariffin was such a good runner that he’d leave most of the competition behind. I was the weak link actually. I was always fourth in most of the races in school then, let it be the 100, 200 or 400 metres. So, in my final year of primary school, I didn’t win any individual medals but between the four of us we did win a few relay medals in races that we participated in, usually during other schools’ sports day. Most of the time we came in third but that was good enough for a medal placing and to an eleven year old, that is all that counts. We’d run barefooted then and somehow I have this impression that all of the races were held in wet soggy school fields. All except one. I was sure about that one race because when I handed the baton over to Shamsuddin, he kicked up so much dust on the well-worn track that I remember ending up coughing and choking. In the beginning, I was supposed to run the first leg but because I insisted on closing my ears with my fingers to avoid listening to the starter’s gun, we’d lose a few yards or so at the start of each race. Those few yards could be important later so Mr. Ngoh put Ariffin as the first runner instead. He was braver than me, he didn’t have to close his ears as the gun went “BOOOOM!!!” It did go “BOOOOM!!!”. Honest. At least it did to me……
I still have photos from then. In one of them, Mr. Jeyaraman and Mr. Ngoh were flanking us on either side. There were the four of us plus Jeyaraj – he usually takes over from me in the 4 x 100 metres relay. He’s faster than me in the 100 metres but I beat him over the longer distance. Kneeling in front were the team from the lower primary classes. I remember the names of only two of them, Khair and Mohan. I can’t recall the names of the other two guys. I guess we looked mean then to the other primary schoolers then. Looking at the photo again, we simply looked cute.
.
posted by dudae_simboyo at 23:09
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