To ‘Tengku’, I say "thank you!"

‘Tengku’ [东姑] was my playmate during my pre-school and school going age. He was my backdoor neighbor whose father was a shoemaker.

The nickname of ‘Tengku’ was derived from another nickname given by his father.

It was a common practice among the Chinese people passing down from generation to generation to give a kid a nickname which resembles that of an animal hoping that the kid would grow up effortlessly and healthily just like any other animal in the wild which was left to find its own food for survival.

The Tengku’ was given a nickname of ‘Niu Ku’[牛牯] by his father in the Hakka dialect meaning ‘male cow or bull’. I was not spared from this fate of the naming of a nickname by my father. I was called ‘Zhu Ko Xin’ [猪哥诚] carrying the meaning of ‘male pig named as Xin’.

Those elders in the neighbourhood of Nibong Tebal of the Hakka clan would always ridicule us with these nicknames until we grew up to enter the secondary schools.

In those years when we were kids, we used to play at the open space of the Pai Teik School Union [培德校友会] in the evening. More often than not, we did forget the time to go back for dinner. Occasionally, we would hear Tengku’s father raising his voice to yell at him from a distance, “Niu Ku, come back for dinner!”

Those friends who were around there heard the name of “Niu Ku” mentioned. They would conveniently ‘confer’ him with the title-ship of the ‘Tengku’.

Since then, ‘Tengku’ became his ‘brand’ name.

The ‘Tengku’ was a friendly, generous and trustworthy boy. He had a good collection of playthings which he was very willing to share with me during our play time when I was in his house. Together both of us would play for hours the games like the ‘snakes and ladders’, different kinds of chess and card games.

Sometimes he would show me his collection of stamps, coins and cigarette packs.

Other outdoor games which we played together were basketball, marbles, 'hide-and seek'.

Though I was two years older than him, I could not ‘out-play’ him with the advantage of age during the game as he was a better and smarter player.

Once in a while we would quarrel over a ‘suspected foul play’ or who should rightfully emerge as the ultimate winner of a game. If our quarrel persisted without any compromise or conclusion, the elder sisters of the ‘Tengku’ or his father had to intervene to send me home.
I still remember once we had a heated argument over who should be the mightiest of all the comics’ heroes that we knew of. We would take sides on the figures like the Superman, the Spiderman, the Batman and many others. Neither of us would want to give in to the other side and in the end a quarrel short of a fight ensued. In the end I was sent home again!

Come to think of it. We were very naïve and stupid to argue seriously over the comics’ figures which were fictitious and non-existent as no conclusion would ever be drawn from this fruitless argument.

But, do not blame the children then. Even the adults at present are still arguing endlessly over which religion is supposed to be the best of all the religions on this Earth. I personally believe that everyone has the liberty to seek his own path to be with the Supreme.
I had to admit that the ‘Tengku’ could afford to lose me as a friend. On the other hand I could not afford not to be his friend. The ‘trump card’ he was holding was the Chinese comics’ books he bought regularly, which I had to borrow from him to read. Losing him as a friend would mean an end to my access to his comics’ books. I could not forgo enjoy reading the comics he had bought.

Those were the days when we were having a great time together. I would never forget those years when we were together ‘learning to play’ as well as ‘playing to learn’. To ‘Tengku’, I would like to say “thank you” from the bottom of my heart!