Pakcik reminisces (Pt 21) – Hujan ditengah hari

More than 70 years ago a sweet sixteen was married to a young teacher, and two years later the couple was blessed with a baby girl. So much adored, being the very first, the baby was given a pet named, Ning. Following that came two baby boys.

When Ning was nine, the family of five moved to England where the father was appointed a lecturer at a Teachers’ training college. Ning continued her primary education at a primary school with local English children.

Leaving for England - for a better future

Three years later the young lecturer left England and became a lecturer at a university in Singapore.

Everything was seen to go well with the family who, by then, had a second daughter.

But it was not all sunshine and rainbows.

At the age of 39, barely one year after taking up his new post, and a few months before celebrating the Merdeka of Tanah Melayu in 1957, the lecturer passed away.

__________________________

So at 34, the lady, Ning’s loving mother became a single mother and was left alone to raise the four young kids. The loss of her father affected Ning’s progress in education. She had to work soon after finishing school. And the mother chose to remain faithful to the memory of her deceased husband, remaining a single mother all her life. Her first real reward was when her adored Ning was married and, a year later, gave birth to three children, who in turn had ten children who were,naturally, the old lady’s great-grandchildren – a new generation.

_____________________

So life went on for good many years. The once sweet sixteen was now 88, a great-grand-mother. In April this year she fell ill, but life went on for Ning who has now taken over the role of a grand lady – or should I say the ‘first lady’!

Before the 30th day of last month, the very special month of August, Ning’s three children had planned a special gathering to be held at our home, Nuri, in Terengganu. There was something special about August 2011; firstly, there was Ning’s (and Pakcik’s too, of course) 47th wedding anniversary. Then there were two wedding anniversaries of our first two children, making it three wedding anniversaries in all. There was also the Merdeka anniversary on 31th August. Then there was Hari Raya which fell on 30th, all in the same month of August.

But that was not all. Tuesday 30th was not just any Hari Raya. It was also Ning’s 70th birthday. So, for all intents and purposes, that day ought to be a befitting day of the month to celebrate – (not to mention Pakcik’s own birthday which would fall three days later – just into September.)

As planned, the Hari Raya started all too well with the birthday and delayed wedding anniversaries cakes and all. And that being a Hari Raya, soon after ‘sembahyang Raya’, relatives and friends began to call in – the promise of a wonderful and joyous day.
_____________________________

Disangka panas sampai kepetang, rupanya hujan ditengah hari.

While things were warming up and the family gathered to take group photographs, Ning received a phone call from her sister near Tanjong Malim. Their bed-ridden mother had just passed away. Was this not a divine planning that the faithful wife, the grand old lady chose to breathe her last at the age of 88, on a Hari Raya, on the very exact day, 70 years earlier she gave birth to her first child, Ning? Just imagine how Ning would feel, celebrating her birthday and the Hari Raya to be followed with the death of a very loved one.

It was perfect – the work of the Greatest Planner of all.
________________________

So, Pakcik has lost two loving mothers. Fifty years ago my mother passed away while doing her pilgrimage in Mecca. I do not, as a result, have her grave to visit. Then this loving lady, who had been my mother, left us on that very auspicious day of 30th August.

On hearing the sad news, Pakcik made a snap decision to stop our part in the day’s celebration. The next seven hours of Hari Raya saw me driving on a relatively quiet route. We reached the burial ground when the last group was leaving the freshly made grave covered with flowers. There we squatted with tears running down our faces, reciting Al Quran, marking the end of our Hari Raya. We had to stop as the sun had gone down behind range of hills.

The final destination

We planned and planned, and we often forget who the Ultimate Planner is. HE reminds us over and over again in the Quran of HIS overall power ABOVE EVERYTHING.

Above everything

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

With a sigh ( Pt 8b ) – Bring in the clowns

Kotastar left the following comment against my post ‘With a sigh ( Pt 8a )’. The gentleman behind Kotastar, suffice to say a product of the famed Kirkby teachers’ training college, explained briefly how a teacher of his era was trained. Here is what he wrote:

‘Thank you for remembering Kirkby and Brinsford Lodge. Yes they were two teacher training colleges set up for Malaysians overseas. Successful for that period.Don't know if the same experiment will show similar result. Just to enlighten. We started reading the 'Chong Beng' book and ended with almost all editions of Shakespeare and not to mention other literary books the likes of authors Thomas Hardy, Conrad, L. Stevenson and other literary figures. Only then, we were able to speak and write English as it was. Maybe as good as the Queen's English itself. So no short cut, no brief induction courses will push our teachers and students to that height. It took good six /seven years of hard learning, practice AND 2+ years overseas in native English speaking countries to get us to that position.Similarly people like Shahnon Ahmad,Kassim Ahmad ( two Malay writers) English educated with strong command of Malay Language to be active and well known writers. Mind you English Literature and Sastera were two strong subjects in school.

Now?

Next,I attended our PAMKM (Persatuan Alumni Maktab Kirkby Malaysia last Tuesday at KL and surprisingly yr name was mentioned after I brought up your father- in- law's name. Dato Baharudin , Dr Shaari Isa and others know of your activities at AlManar. Our President Tan Sri Yahya too was surprised how an engineer got into such 'predicament' but with success. We referred to your 'kampong' near Tg Malim plus the durian tree.Ha.Ha what a small world. Just to let you know the old Collegians are still 'active' though many have even touch the octogenarian period.We are proud to be able to share your success story. Wishing that the teaching and learning of Malay and English too will find the lights in the tunnel.
Salam to you and 'family' Selamat Berpuasa dan Selamat Menyambut Shawal.”

I am truly humbled by what Kotastar related in the second part of his comment. A few truly learned people talked about Almanar and the person running it. It is praise indeed to be commented in that vein by these people. But my fear is that this may be a case of ‘Indah khabar dari rupa’.

Kotastar, you were not certain whether the ‘experiment’ you underwent to be a teacher in English would still produce good results today. I maintain we need not reinvent the wheel. Our ‘cerdik pandai’ have experimented and failed badly. And now we do not know how and where we have gone wrong that the result has been all but wrong. So now bring in the clowns.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

With a sigh ( Pt 8a ) – Bad English?

Why the bad English?

That was the headline on Sunday. It was followed by another question :
Are teachers incompetent, or school books unsuitable?

-----------------------

For many years, schools and pupils benefited from teachers who were trained at the two colleges ( not universities of taraf antarabangsa, mind you) in Kirkby and Wolverhampton. Those young men and women returned to Malaya and successfully taught English (Queen’s English) with pride and dedication for many years. Then we became very clever, with graduates and post-graduates, PhD and all coming home from countries like America, England, Australia etc. Every one was clever and had new ideas which had never been thought of by the likes of the lowly diploma holders from the two teachers’ training colleges. And so, the people in position implemented novel ideas. Not long ago a very senior personnel from the Education Department went to a great length to convince me how the centre of learning English had shifted away from the good old England. With humility Pakcik listened to the mini lecture.

Here we are. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

--------------------------

And today we have thousands of teachers who are graduates with first and second degrees, many of which are from our own universities of taraf antarabangsa, no less. The so called English schools in the country would never dream of having such a high percentage of university graduates.

And we will be importing, by hundreds, teachers from America to teach real English at our schools. I have seen two of these English speaking teachers who spent useless couple of years trying to get used to the local culture and feeling distressed for not being totally accepted by local teachers.

-------------------------

And only last week one of Pakcik’s Form 2 pupils came to relate how her teacher marked as wrong a sentence she wrote – ‘ My home address is in Batu Rakit.’ Apparently the sentence was wrong. It should just read ‘ My home address in Batu Rakit’, the verb ‘is’ should be deleted because the sentence has ‘in’, making ‘is’ unnecessary! Now that is some English. The girl had a good laugh telling me that. Maybe I had taught her the wrong kind of English. The need for finite verbs etc is now obviously out of date.

---------------------------------

Why can’t we do a simple thing like teaching English the way it used to be done? I can only draw a long sigh.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan