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.