TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library

TRIBUTE TO TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
dictation lesson; the wonderful sound of it when it rang to announce
the respite for fifteen minutes or the break for lunch and finally the
welcoming last toll which told you that your worry for the day
was over.
I wonder if you still have that bell.
It is a wonderful bell to which the teachers and the boys
alike pay the highest respect. Your school hours have also changed
and so have the methods of teaching.
Gone are the old ice-carts with familiar faces of the men
behind them. Gone is the face of the old Mamak who used to
prepare the best mee I have ever tasted at the price of five cents a
plate with eggs thrown in and with his constant notes of warning
when disturbed "Nanti, Nanti" used to add to our pangs of hunger;
gone is the rice and fish curry stall that used to serve our hunger for
the price of 10 cents; gone is the satay that used to sell 1 cent a stick.
Everything is new to me here. The building itself is modern,
big and imposing and in the place of those ice-carts, mee-stall and
rickety rice-stall, you have a modern tuck-shop and nicely arranged
foodstalls.
The hawkers of the old days too used to count their profits in
cents and were happy to get their return after a hard day's work
if they could hear the tinkling of the coins. The hawkers of today
would bemoan their ill-fortune if they got their day's takings in
less than the $10 denominations only.
The boys of my days were older than the boys of to-day in their
respective classes. They were too less bent on their work than the
boys of to-day.
There were some boys who failed continuously in their classes
and further chances were given to them.
Pocket money never used to exceed on the average 5 cents per
day. Nevertheless we were able to get what we wanted with it.
Boys of the old days, more so than are the boys of today, built
up their reputations on the playing fields rather than in
theirclass-rooms.
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