从母亲的一个心愿谈起

从母亲的一个心愿谈起

小时候我很喜欢跟随母亲跑庵堂，不是因为 我有学佛的善根，而是我在庵堂能吃到平常在家里吃不到的食物和糕点，还能在庵堂周边空旷的场地跑动和玩耍。每逢庵堂有信众打斋`拜忏，母亲通常都会去帮忙或去随喜。曾经听母亲说过，她这一生有一个心愿，想打一场斋，拜一次 “梁皇忏”。当时是我听错，将“梁皇” 听成 “ 粮房“。 小小的心灵不甚其解，搞不清楚母亲为何要拜 “ 粮房“ 呢？难道拜了 “ 粮房“ 家里就能有吃不完的食粮吗？后来我才明白，原来母亲老想着拜“梁皇宝忏”来为自己消災除业障，求生善道。

在五十年前，一位信徒如想要在庵堂打一堂“梁皇宝忏” 得花上数百块马币。当时这笔钱对我母亲来讲算是一个天文数目，可能她连作梦也不可能见过这笔钱。

母亲一生省吃俭用，将钱一点一滴、一分一毫地存起来，备用在庵堂、寺庙求神拜佛保佑家里大小平安健康。她也很期待有朝一日她能够存足钱来拜梁皇忏。

母亲这一等，几乎等了二十年，一直到她的孩子们陆续就业后，才有足够的闲钱和友人在庵堂联办一堂梁皇宝忏，了了期待多年的心愿。

 

这算是我与拜梁皇宝忏的间接缘起。然而这么多年来，我从来没有认真去读梁皇宝忏的忏本；也没有去了解它的内涵和中心思想。

以往我都会随兴去参加妙香林佛学院一年一度的读经研习营。一般上我不会抱着太大的奢望要去‘深入经藏’，只想独自在寺院过着几天与外界隔绝的清修生活。

今年因缘殊胜我能再次参于妙香林寺佛学院举办三天的梁皇宝忏选读研习营。佛学院特地邀请台湾的惠空法师前来主讲十堂课。法师佛学深厚，辩才无碍，深入浅出地讲课，令学员们 ‘如入宝山却没有空手而归’。

不论身教或言教，法师都能给学员作出良好的典范。法师教学认真，讲义也准备得很充实和完整。因此学员们能很轻松地听课，不必费神抄笔记。法师的佛学根基很深厚，任由学员们一一发问，他都能应答如流。他曾说过他是“不怕学员发问，只怕学员不敢发问。”

法师鼓励学员勤修戒 ~定~慧。他希望学员每天修行的功课应该包含持五戒`静坐修禅和诵读经典。法师自己本身也身体力行。平时除了诵经` 讲经说法，他每年都会定期办两次连续四十九天的禅修营。

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0x3RTyaYg0 )

 

在这三天的研习营里，法师除了讲解忏悔法门的意义及如何以忏悔来改变一个人的因果关系。他还讲述[梁皇宝忏]的大意和其中心思想。

这课程给我最大的启示是‘易得难信`易得难行’。它的含义是说‘容易得到的东西我们很难相信它是珍贵的，也不懂得去珍惜它和善用它’。

我们知道忏悔文是厉代祖师根据佛教经典编写的，它主要的内容是要行者以念佛`拜佛和忏悔 来消灾解业。这方法看来很简单，可是我们却很难相信它的有效性，更不肯去依教奉行。

往往容易得到的东西我们不懂得去珍惜它。今时今日拜[梁皇宝忏]已经是很普遍化了。各地寺庙及佛教团体每年都会举办梁皇宝忏法会，让信众们随緣参于。可是还有很多人不懂得珍惜这殊胜因緣。反观先母以前要拜一次梁皇忏，需要花一大笔钱及等待多年才能如愿以偿。因此，我们更应该懂得惜缘`惜福，好好地规划和掌握我们这难得的因缘。

The Marvel of WaterGym

“Have you ever heard of WaterGym?”
 

“Would you believe it if I were to tell you that I prefer to do aerobic exercises in the swimming pool than to swim in it?”
 

In fact,both the above questions are related to a floatation belt which is distributed under the brand name of WaterGym. It is sold in the US market and is specially designed to be tied around one's waist so that one can float vertically in a deep-water pool with one’s head and neck above the water level. Hence one can perform all sorts of exercises which are more extensive than swimming, without worrying about drowning. Exercises such as jogging, cycling, dancing with the body in the upright position or dancing with the body in a sleeping posture on the water, front or side leg-kicking, boat rowing, rock climbing, various yoga asanas, aerobic exercises and many other forms of exercise, some of which you may not have even thought of can be done.
 

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX4TfSRxtlI)


     WaterGym is now widely used by the female swimmers at the Bukit Mertajam Country Club particularly for those who go there for a morning dip. Now, practically every female swimmer who comes for the morning-session work-out would carry a WaterGym belt, thanks to the energetic and efficient Miss Chiah Eng Too. She took the initiative and trouble to order the belts via the internet for members and friends who were interested to purchase the equipment. Since the past few months, she has already ordered more than twenty belts.

     Those who have used the WaterGym floatation belt, all agree that exercising using the WaterGym is more effective than swimming to burn off calories in a single session of a workout as it is more vigorous and more effective.

     Miss Chiah opined that,“I find exercising with the WaterGym is very good. It helps to strengthen my muscles and improve my swimming strokes.”

I have personally benefited much from using the WaterGym. After a few sessions using the belt in the swimming pool, to my amazement I was able to master backstroke swimming - something I have been wanting to master. Now I can perform more variety of exercises in the water apart from backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle - all these exercises can be done with or without using the WaterGym belt.

WaterGym has given me a new insight regarding swimming. From my experience of using WaterGym, I perceive that swimming is not as difficult as most people are made to believe. Actually, a person just needs to master the technique of breathing in the water,that is, to inhale with either the nose or mouth when his face is above the water and exhales with the nose once he is totally immersed in the water. As long as he has acquired the technique, he can innovate his own style of swimming; not necessarily confining to the conventional styles of swimming like backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

     The story of the widespread use of WaterGym at Bukit Mertajam Country Club started with my wife who has been plagued for years by her knee problem. One orthopaedic surgeon at the Hospital Pantai Mutiara in Penang, Mr.Wong Chee Leong, advised her, four years ago, to reduce her weight to lessen the burden of her knees in supporting her body. She was counselled to do exercises in the water as it is injury-free due to the buoyancy of the water. As my wife is a non-swimmer, she needs a float as a safety measure. She has tried out many types of float,but not to her satisfaction until last December when she was recommended to buy the WaterGym floatation belt from a swimming instructor at the Penang Sports Club. She found WaterGym to be the best floatation belt she has ever used.

     She uses it to do cycling and jogging in the pool. She also tries out other exercises that she has learnt from the physiotherapists at the hospital.

     Miss Chiah was curious and fascinated by the many uses of the WaterGym. After watching my wife using the WaterGym and watching the WaterGym DVD, Miss Chiah wasted no time in ordering the belt from the US. She loves cycling and remarks that cycling in water is safer than doing it on the road as one is exposed to the high risk of being robbed or knocked down by a motor vehicle.

     As the use of the Watergym becomes widespread among members, the rapport among them has improved, as the members would meet to explore,discuss and teach one another new exercises using the floatation belt.

     Occasionally, they would ‘temporarily forget about their weight control’ to organise Sunday morning gatherings with a potluck.

     Watergym is really a marvellous equipment. It is not only used to tie to the waist of the swimmer, it has also ‘tied the hearts’ of the members together by strengthening the relationship of the club members through frequent interaction and get-together.

     Believe me you will be impressed with the WaterGym.

A Letter from Nanyang

A Letter from Nanyang

Although my eldest brother whom I addressed as “KoKo”[哥哥] only went through three years of formal education in a remote village of Guangdong province of China, nevertheless he was acknowledged by many people who knew him as a gifted ‘petition writer’ in Mandarin. In those days,during the post-Merdeka years,in the middle of the last century, the only form of communication linking the people of Malaya and the People’s Republic of China was through the postal service as there was no diplomatic ties between these two nations of different ideologies. All correspondence in our household was handled by ‘KoKo’ who enjoyed letter writing to the extent that he would do it for free for all his friends and relatives who approached him.

He took pride in all the letters he had written. He would retain the drafts or carbon copies of all the letters that he had posted. He would read the letters time and again to his friends and relatives,‘highlighting’ the style, presentation and special quotations he used in the letters. Many's the time he would ask me to read the letters he had written to my uncle in China which I reluctantly obliged  as it took me quite some time to comprehend the content of his letters as he did not use punctuation marks. In order to understand his letters, I had to go through an initial round of tedious punctuation exercise.

He treasured all his correspondence, which he would keep in a drawer, for his future reference and for further reading. Unfortunately, almost all the letters were left in the shop house when the family vacated the building as it had to be  surrendered to the owner at the beginning of this century.

The other day when I paid a visit to my sister-in -law in Nibong Tebal, I happened to come across a few drafts or carbon copies of the  letters left in a cabinet at the dining hall . One particular draft attracted my attention. It was written by my late ‘ KoKo’ to my late maternal uncle in the year 1962, at the time just before my late mother made her maiden trip back to China after she had left mainland China for fourteen years.

The letter reads:

My dearest and most respected maternal uncle:

    It has been quite a long time since I last wrote you a letter. How’s everybody back in China? All of us in the family pray that you are in the best of health. Mother is very concerned about the well-being of uncle and uncle’s family members,especially your daughter,Sister Ah Gee, who was very helpful and close to mother. Mother is also very concerned about my paternal grandmother who is blind and leading a lonely life in the care of my cousin brother in China.

Mother always reminds her children to be grateful and thankful to uncle, auntie and my maternal cousin sister,Ah Gee, for all the assistance rendered in time of need when we were living in great hardship back in China. At that time while mother and I were living in China, mother had to shoulder the burden of taking care of me and my paternal grandmother. She had to take up any odd job available in the village,working as a farm hand,toiling in the fields,threshing rice or plucking fruits in an orchard, or working as a building construction worker,carrying stones,sand or cement, to earn a meagre income to support the whole family . As uncle is well aware that job opportunities at that time were scarce,especially in our remote and underdeveloped village. At times,mother was out of job for days, particularly during the drought，flood and winter season. Our livelihood was badly affected. Consequently,all of us in the family had to “tighten our belts” during those difficult times. Sometimes mother could not stand to see grandma without proper meals for days. She had to resort to a short-term but yet effective measure: to bring me along to visit uncle for a few days,so that we could have “ free food and lodging” at uncle’s house. When it was time for us to go home, uncle would provide us with plenty of foodstuff and other daily necessities taken from uncle’s sundry shop.

Some ignorant and irresponsible folk in our village misconstrued the noble intention of mother. They blamed mother for being unfilial by leaving grandma alone at home uncared for, while we, mother and son, were having ‘happy hours’ at uncle’s house. Little did the folk knew that the provisions mother brought back from uncle’s place were worth more than mother’s income for the whole month.

Going through life in hardship certainly is not a pleasant experience.Nevertheless, it is one lesson that is never taught in school. Through suffering,one learns to appreciate and to be contented as to what life can offer. It is no wonder that mother always told my other siblings that “as long as there is a shelter above our heads with three meals a day, we should be thankful to God.”[有得吃，有得住，就要谢天谢地.]

Uncle, you were indeed our refuge during those miserable days just as the ‘Triple Gem’ is to a lay Buddhist. Without uncle’s help in the past, we could hardly imagine how we could survive our days in China. Our family is deeply indebted to the kindness and generosity of uncle. No amount of words is sufficient to express our profound thanks and gratitude to uncle.

In this letter I wish to inform uncle of a piece of good news. In a month’s time mother will be making her historic voyage back to China to pay her visit and respect to uncle and grandma. She will board the cargo vessel, Hai Wang[海皇号] in Penang ，and disembark at the port of Swatow[汕头],China. As she is an illiterate, she needs a trustworthy person to help her to handle matters pertaining to customs and immigration document papers in China, and to dispatch the recipients in China the cargoes in the form of a baggage of used clothes and a kerosene tin of pork oil, and monies brought by mother on behalf of our friends and relatives at Nanyang. I suppose uncle is the person best suited to perform the task. Hopefully uncle would help mother in every possible way to make her short stay in China a smooth sailing, pleasant and memorable one.

That is all for the time being. I shall keep uncle updated concerning my mother’s upcoming trip to China from time to time.

Thank you very much!

With love from your nephew,
Tit Kong [的康]

The Story of a Stray Dog
On a dim moonlit night at an undergrowth near Taman Bukit Indah, a puppy with two other siblings were born to a family of stray dogs.

This puppy might have a distinctive name of which we knew not. “Wow-wow” was what we always heard his parents call him. As the puppy grew up to mingle with the residents of Tingkat Indah Road, he had assumed the name of Blacky given to him by humankind as his whole body appeared to be ‘metallic black’ in colour. Unlike many local politicians who felt insulted and offended if their skin colour is being associated with ‘metallic black’, Blacky,on the other hand, gracefully acknowledged his body colour as it was and accepted the name with pride and honour as he had learnt from an old-timer that “ an utterly black dog is a rare breed in the kingdom of dogs and it is hard to come by; it is like the top branded name of LV in the ladies’ collection of expensive handbags. It is said that a black dog’s penis wrapped in a red cloth or the blood of a black dog splashed over a haunted mansion would easily ward off all the hard-core evil spirits like ‘eating kacang putih'.”
Blacky was no ordinary dog. He was not oblivious of the predicament of his life as a stray dog.He knew fully well that ‘a stray dog is not born with a silver spoon like a house dog; for him to survive he has to be self-reliant to find his own food and shelter.’ To do that he would have to win the heart and soul of humanity.So he decided ‘to take to the street’ by being a faithful and responsible watchdog to guard the entire stretch of Tingkat Indah Road.












Blacky guarded the road like a water-tight compartment. No stranger appearing on the road would escape his ‘CCTV eyes’ and his ‘radar ears’. He would bark and chase after the stranger like a shadow attached to its object during broad daylight, until the stranger had disappeared into another road.

Whenever there was a dog trepassing Tingkat Indah Road, Blacky would confront it by exchanging glares for a couple of minutes until one party started to fight. Blacky always emerged the victor of the fight just like the invincible Mohamad Ali during his golden years with his famous catchphrase of ‘dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee’.
Blacky started his day by going from door to door making his daily calls to the residents of Tingkat Indah Road. He would sniff at people’s trousers to show his friendly gesture, or as a way of saying “good morning!”. Some residents would like to play with him while others would provide him with scraps for his breakfast.

Blacky was not a filthy dog. In fact he was very hygienic and environmentally friendly. He would never relieve himself anywhere along the road like many house-trained dogs would do when they came out for a walk with their master as if the road was “the only toilet in the whole of the universe.” In the case of Blacky, he would look for a secluded place behind the bushes to do his business.

Undoubtedly, Blacky was a very good dog adored by most of the residents of Tingkat Indah Road. Some kind hearted families once offered to keep him as a house dog but he shunned away from the noble invitation as he preferred to lead a life as free as a gypsy. He would rather sleep beneath a car or under the shade of a tree just like any lobby dosser would do in a big city.
Blacky was adorned around his neck with a red ribbon band coupled with a dog licence tag by a well-wisher at the taman; a rare honour given to a stray dog. With the licence on his neck, Blacky was considered a house dog. He could walk up and down the road holding his head high without the slightest fear of being shot by a City Council enforcer.

For the past few months, there was no sign of Blacky to be seen along Tingkat Indah Road. Everybody was wondering where he had gone and what had happened to him. Later, it was learnt from a reliable source that a pack of feral dogs, out of nowhere, had launched a surprise attack on Blacky until he was fatally wounded and disappeared from Tingkat Indah Road . Not long after that he was poisoned to death by an unscrupulous thief who frequented a recycle centre in the neighbourhood.

The death of Blacky is a great loss to many of the residents of Tingkat Indah Road. It is hope that someday somebody somehow would write a best-seller and make it into a blockbuster based on the tale of Blacky, a very extraordinary stray dog.

A Classroom Scenario Version 3.0
-My playboy teacher

The Scenario:
A National Language lesson was in progress in a Form Five class at the Technical Institute,Penang, in the year 1969. The subject teacher was Mr.Mat Gau.

Mr.Mat Gau was a man of medium height with a receding hairline. He wore a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses all day long. He never took them off just like a fish could not be parted from its dwelling. He drove a red sports car to school.

His presence could be detected long before you could actually see him as his scent permeated like a skunk's, thanks to the perfume he applied on himself. One student jokingly commented that Mr.Mat Gau’s great grandfather might be operating a perfume factory so as to enable him to have an abundant supply of perfume.

It was little wonder why he got the reputation as a playboy.

Students liked him to bits as he was a jovial,understanding and easy-going man. Never once had the boys seen him lose his temper or scolded a boy.

Every time when Mr. Mat Gau was about to enter the lesson proper, somehow or other, a student would interrupt with some irrelevant questions or excuses to sidetrack his lesson. In the end, to the delight of everyone,the teacher and especially the students,no proper lesson was carried out and needless to say no assignments for the students to bring home.

Most of the time the boys were not keen to learn the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, although it was mandatory for them to get a pass in the subject to qualify them for a Malaysian Certificate of Education[MCE]. They would rather prefer to hear the playboy stories of their Malay language teacher than to follow a boring lesson on grammar[nahu].

Then one day, Mr. Mat Gau thought he should have a proper lesson. He started by telling the class, “Boys,today we are going to learn the important parts of speech,the different types of pronoun.”

Before he could continue any further, a boy by the name of Ah Choy stood up and interrupted, “Sir, last night I thought I’ve seen your car pass by my house along Dato Keramat Road. Where did you go?” “Ah! Ya! My bloody friend-lah, we used to call him Robert Head[萝卜头]. He asked me to join him at the Chusan Night Club[舟山夜总会] at Tanjung Tokong. He wanted me to keep him company. He likes to listen to great music and songs composed by P. Ramlee, Ooi Eow Jin,Jimmy Boyle and Alley Cats.” Mr. Mat Gau started to explain.

“Didn’t you all dance with the ladies?”Ah Kheng interrupted. “Of course, we did. In fact,to tell you the truth,that was our ‘hidden agenda’.Going to the night club without dancing is just like ‘scaling a treasured mountain but to return home empty handed’[入宝山而空手而归]. Not that I want to be boastful to you all; I’m quite familiar with all types of dances.But,I prefer slow-moving ones, especially those with more bodily contacts. You know-lah. It’s really shiok! (exhilarating)” Mr. Mat Gau relayed to the boys the fun he had with his friends at the night club.

The boys were listening with immense interest; they were all grinning ‘like the cat that got the cream.’In the end, a supposed-to-be grammar lesson finally ended up as a story-telling session.

A Classroom Scenario Version 2.0
- 'You Help Me, I Help You'

The Scenario:

In a Form Four classroom at the Technical Institute of Penang, forty-four years ago, a lesson of Additional Mathematics was commencing with Mr. Abraham as the subject teacher.

To begin the lesson, Mr. Abraham addressed the class in a soft-spoken manner, “Good morning ,boys.”

“Good morning,Sir!” The boys replied in a chorus.

Mr. Abraham continued, “Today we are going to deal with a new topic. It is about surds,indices and logarithms. Please turn to Chapter 8 on page 165. Let’s look at some of the formulae which we are going to apply in our exercises.”

He then copied ‘the laws of indices’ on the green board.

To show how the laws were applied in solving problems, he copied a few worked examples directly from the textbook. After that he jotted down on the board the number of questions which he expected the class to attempt.

“If you have any problem with any of the questions given, we shall discuss it later on, is it ok with you, boys?” Mr. Abraham asked the class.

“Yes, sir” the whole class answered in unison.

The class was back to pin-drop silence as every student was doing the assignment.

'Sub Sub Soi' was a typical hardworking boy. He had to give credit to his father for the name. His father wanted him to do things at a superb speed and efficiency like what people used to boast to others as with the colloquial phrase: “sub-sub water” which means ‘something very easy’. Unfortunately,the train of thoughts and the computational skill of Sub Sub Soi did not live up to his father’s expectation. Being a mediocre student, he found it hard to solve even the first question. After repeated attempts with repeated failures, he had no choice but to approach the teacher for help.

“Sir , could you help me solve this question?” he asked.

The teacher studied the question for a few minutes, pondered for a while, wrote a line or two on the board and then pondered again for a longer period. In the end,in order not to waste time as well as not to embarrass himself, Mr. Abraham pulled out from his ‘James Bond bag’ a school exercise book and flipped through the pages before he finally copied down the solution neatly on the board,word for word and step by step.

All this while,while Mr.Abraham was conducting the lesson in front of the class, a boy sitting at the back by the name of Patrick Kong was not bothered to listen. He had his head buried under the same Additional Mathematics textbook, but doing different exercises from a different chapter - a chapter not yet taught by Mr.Abraham. Under normal circumstances, a student would be punished by the teacher in class for inattentiveness or not following an order. He could be sent to the headmaster for more severe punishment like caning. But Mr. Abraham didn’t take any action at all. Instead, he would occasionally supplement Patrick with more exercise books for him to write on.

This was a ‘Rashomon’ that puzzled the class for a long period of time as Patrick was a quiet and studious boy and he did not wish to reveal anything to others. He seldom talked to others as he considered it was a waste of time to chit chat. He might as well utilise his time for self-study. But, after a lapse of several months, he was unable to contain himself any longer so he divulged his secret to his close friends. He had come to a verbal agreement with Mr. Abraham that he would do all the exercises in the Additional Mathematics textbook and write out all the solutions for Mr.Abraham. In return, Mr. Abraham would nominate him to the school prefect board for the following year.

Finally,the deal was sealed at the beginning of the following year, 1969, when Patrick Kong was wearing a school prefect tie.

You would not have believed that the concept of "You help me, I help you" is nothing new. It had already being practised some forty-four years ago in the Technical Institute of Penang.

A Classroom Scenario

-A Tribute to the late Mr. Oh Boon Tat
The Scenario:

At the workshop of the Methodist Secondary School of Nibong Tebal in the year of 1966, a lesson on Industrial Arts was commencing for a group of Form Two boys.

Mr. Ooi,being the subject teacher, had had his notes and diagrams copied on the blackboard.

After the boys had entered the workshop in a single file, they started to gather at the front benches of the workshop to jot down the notes from the board. It would take them quite some time to finish the task.

As the teacher had nothing else to do, he would tell stories for the boys to listen. But the most vivid one was about his student days in Technical Institute(TI), the only secondary technical school in the state of Penang. The person whom he always mentioned was his headmaster in TI.
To start off the conversation, Mr.Ooi would ask the boys,

“Do you know I had a terrible HM in TI?”

“Really?” Lau Beh was a bit puzzled and curious.

“Whenever a pupil chanced to meet him, he would be awarded with either a carrot or a stick. But then, it was more likely to be a stick than a carrot, you know what I mean?”

“No, I don’t,” replied Sukumaran .

“Because the HM expected all his students to pass every subject taught in school. For each subject a student failed in an examination, he was given a cut on the buttock. So you can imagine how many TI boys would pass out from the school without getting the punishment. Very few! ”

“Moreover, every time when a boy was sent to his office by a teacher, the first thing he would do was to give the boy a cut before he began to question him.”

“One good thing about the HM was that he was neither a hypocrite nor a conformist.”

“In his office, he would keep bottles of liquor on the shelf which no other HM at that time would do so.”

“And.... if he expected a heavy downpour before the school session was over for the day, he would order an early dismissal for the school.”

“Whenever there was an inter-school rugby or soccer match involving the school,the HM himself would mobilise the whole school to go down to the field to cheer for the school team. If for one reason or another, he was not satisfied with the umpiring of a match, half way through the game he would turn his back to leave the field. The boys would get the hint as to what they were supposed to do. A fight would ensue in the field and it would be reported in the next day's newspaper.”

For more than forty years I did not know, as well as I did not bother to find out who was the headmaster in TI whom my Industrial Arts teacher always referred to. In fact I had forgotten totally about the matter.

Only a week ago, while I chanced to flip through the 1971 school magazine did I manage to find the “missing link” from an article written by Mr.Tan Boon Hin in memoriam of the first headmaster of Technical Institute,Penang, who passed away on 9 July 1971.

‘The HM was Mr.Oh Boon Tat’.

The late Mr.Oh Boon Tat was directed by the Ministry of Education to pioneer the establishment of a secondary technical school in 1958. He served in the school as the headmaster until he retired in the year 1965.

As the headmaster, he had helped to inculcate and develop a deep-rooted school culture of loyalty to the school, respect for the teachers and prefects, a thirst for academic excellence and a love for sports. It was during his tenure as the headmaster that many of the school records set for the track and field events by the students then are still maintained and remain unbroken until this very day. I doubt they would be broken in the decades to come. As a Chinese adage says, “虎父无犬子”[hu fu wu quan zi]which means ‘a father as brave as a tiger would never produce a son as timid as a running dog.’ Similarly,with Mr.Oh as a strict and dedicated headmaster, the school had produced quite a number of outstanding students. All the efforts of Mr.Oh were not in vain. May his soul rest in peace and may we remember him always.

Related stories:

http://zest-zipper.blogspot.com/2012/03/classroom-scenario-version-2.html

http://zest-zipper.blogspot.com/2012/04/classroom-scenario-version-3.html

THE BALLAD OF DANCES WITH WOLVES
Last August I received an epic poem,THE BALLAD OF DANCES WITH WOLVES, from my former colleague, Mr.Poh Keng,Lim.

In an accompanying note, he wrote:

This 30-verse poem written by my friend twenty years ago had won him the prize of a TRK-3D30W mini-compo in the contest, SUPERSHOWS 1991. It was jointly organised by The Star and Hitachi, for the sheer effort that my friend had put in in the writing of the poem dedicated to Dances With Wolves.

At the footnote of the poem, Bro. Lim has specially dedicated it to the author of ‘Dances with the Wolves’, Michael Blake, for his moving novel in which “in the end, inspiration is everything”, to Kevin Costner who took a big gamble in producing such a magnificent picture and to John Barry who composed the superb film soundtrack which enhances the enjoyment of the movie.

I thought it would be a good idea if I could share this poem with other readers on my blog so that they too will have the chance to read and appreciate the beauty of this poem.

I translated my thought into a text message to my friend; to which he duly agreed and replied on 21 August,2011, emphasizing:

“Bro. Liew, I would be happy if you could send my poem to Kevin Costner to commemorate its 20th anniversary.Please try your best. Thank You.”

Hopefully the publication of this poem on my blog would achieve its dual purpose as it is intended to .

Below is the text of the poem:

THE BALLAD OF DANCES WITH WOLVES

Lieutenant Dunbar, how well you did ride,
You were dubbed a hero from a likely suicide!
You rode to draw fire, and then turned the tide,
Which brought wondrous victory unto your own side.

Decorated was young Dunbar,our suicidal hero
Who rode upon a buckskin by the name of Cisco;
Saved he was his foot for putting up a great show!
His boon was thus granted, so to the frontier he’d go.

With Timmons the peasant to guide him along,
The foulest man was he, Dunbar couldn’t be wrong;
Abandoned was Fort Sedgewick, to him now belonged,
“This is my post!” said he with a voice clear and strong.

Alone at his post, he would clean up the place,
And gathered he the garbage and set them ablaze;
Soon up on the bluff, a wolf started to gaze,
Dunbar nemed him Two Socks in a couple of days.

O piteous Timmons was he butchered by the vicious Pawnee,
But Dunbar he knew not, the loneliest man now was he;
A horse-stealing Indian soon appeared on the scene,
But when our buck naked hero appeared, O how he did flee!

Prepared was our hero for a coming encounter,
Where there was one Indian, there’s bound to be another!
Soon the Indians again did try to steal Cisco from his master,
But the clever steed would outsmart his two-timed abductors.

Walking on eggs was he, far too long it did seem,
Decided so our hero to break off his dream;
And dressed up was he in grand self-esteem!
Off to see the Indians who camped along the same stream.

Away he did ride way across the prairie,
And ere long he found beneath the oak tree
A mourning Indian, O so bloody was she!
Who soon swooned away at our hero’s entry.

The squaw in his arms to the Indian camp he did take,
But the reception was hostile causing our hero’s heartbreak!
But on the morrow, a visitation the Indians would make,
And it marked the beginning of friendship for each other’s sake.

They were Sioux Indians, Dunbar soon came to know,
A more peaceful tribe than the others would show;
Their chief was called Ten Bears with wisdom of old,
And Kicking Bird’s the holy man, a man to behold.

There’s Wind In His Hair, the young Indian brave,
And Stands With A Fist, the squaw Dunbar saved;
And friendship was made with the coffee he gave,
Soon, the wary Indians began returning his wave.

Dunbar when invited, to the Indian camp he would go,
But communication was difficult, painful and slow;
Stands With A Fist was Christine many years long ago,
Pawnee massacred her family when she was fourteen years old.

No more was Dunbar alone now with his neighbours so near,
Then, the earth shook one night when the buffalo appeared;
To the Indian camp he headed upon Cisco he steered
To inform his dear neighbours that the buffalo were here.

To the hunting ground they made for, but alas, what a sight!
With dead buffalo lying all over and stripped off their hides;
Who could have done such a thing in the living daylights?
But only white hunters who had no regard for Sioux rights.

When the next day arrived, the buffalo hunt then began,
O what a great stampede, how the buffalo there ran;
It was truly a spectacle between animal and man!
Finding the magnificent beasts was a flash in the pan.

Though it was Dunbar’s first hunt, a fine beast he did deliver,
And Wind In His Hair then offered him his first steaming liver!
The sight of the liver at first made his whole being quiver,
But once he had tasted it, he was thankful to his giver.

A grand celebration was there which lasted all night,
All were filled with elation, it was a wonderful sight!
Each day’s a miracle, and harmony came into light,
Back at the fort, Dunbar danced all by himself in delight!

One day on the prairie followed Two Socks so tame,
Dunbar ordered him home but he was playing games;
Animal and man were frolicking upon nature’s domain,
That’s how Dances With Wolves became Loo Ten Nant’s Sioux name.

Communication was a frustration to Kicking Bird’s plan,
Only half truths were told concerning the white man;
Stands With A Fist was a bridge to make both understand,
How many white men were coming to their very own land!

The Sioux war party would soon go against the Pawnee,
Dances With Wolves took care of Kicking Birds’s family,
When they were away, then came their old enemy,
But with guns from the fort, they gained a one-sided victory.

No dark political objective in this Sioux battle was there,
Nor battle for territories, riches or freeing men anywhere,
But the protection of the home, wives and children’s welfare,
And preserving the foodstuffs before winter hit the air.

All of a sudden it would then dawn upon him,
For he never knew who he was until now it did seem;
Dances With Wolves thus discovered himself from within,
Among his Sioux friends they now shared the same dream.

Stands With A Fist’s mourning was over, now she was free,
So Dances With Wolves could now join her in matrimony;
Spent they their honeymoon inside a tepee,
Trying their level best to produce a baby.

Leaving for the winter camp, were the Sioux ready to go,
But the tell-tale journal at the fort was Dances With Wolves’s woe;
So rode he to Fort Sedgewick, empty it was no more so,
White men thinking him an Indian, their shots killed poor Cisco!

Dances With Wolves found himself then in neck-deep trouble,
Branded was he by the U.S. Army a traitor on the double;
Shackled and disgraced, his dignity took a sudden tumble,
They even killed poor Two Socks as his world further crumbled!

But rescue was not far off from Wind In His Hair,
His captors were soon routed, it became their nightmare;
Soon back at the camp, there was much to be shared,
He recounted his adventures to all present there.

With Dances With Wolves’s painful decision to leave,
It caused quite an uproar for they found it hard to believe;
If the U.S. Army should find him, they would all come to grief,
As their freedom days were numbered, it was beyond all relief!

Kicking Bird and Dances With Wolves just between them two,
Exchanged they presents before the final parting was due;
“ We have come far – you and me,” Kicking Bird would review,
And Dances With Wolves sadly replied, “ I would ne’er forget you!”

Wind In His Hair loved him truly like his very own brother,
Dances With Wolves loved him too like there was no other;
But man’s inhumanity to man only makes poor mortals suffer,
As sadness descended the couple left their Sioux friends forever!

Dunbar was prophetic when he wanted to see the frontier
Before it was gone forever and the irony is now clear,
And like all good times, it too would in the end disappear,
Along with buffalo and Indian rights in just a matter of years!