BM High School Rojak

BM High School Rojak

~~This story is fictitious. Any resemblance with the real life characters is just a coincidence. ~~

Lately, I had asked a BM High School old boy, Henry Ng, to tell me what his alma mater is famous for.

He was dumbfounded to answer me as he could not think of any that the school is now proud of. Like what my  other friend, Christopher Lo, told me, “All the premier schools  in Penang, like Penang Free, BM High and Penang TI  are  now hibernating like lazy old snakes  waiting to slough their skins and hopefully they would one day be rejuvenated as vigorous dragons! The glories of all these schools could only be found in the pages of history. The present school of the BM High is just like the present school of the Penang Free; both are devoid of their past glories. They are just a pale shadow of the 70's or 80's and before.”

The instant I mentioned to Henry that ‘BM High School Rojak’ is the pride of the school now, he could not deny it but to agree with me with a grin.

 

It had been a common sight to see many people gathering opposite the main gate of the BM High School in the evening just to satisfy their taste buds with the delicious rojak prepared by a Chinese vendor. According to Henry, the vendor was having a lucrative business as his customers were from all ages and they were from all walks of life irrespective of race and religion as the rojak he prepared was 'pork-free' and 'beef-free'.  His success story had prompted another vendor to set up another stall in the town displaying a big signboard that reads ' BM High School Rojak'.

The signboard had drawn a huge crowd of customers gathering around to buy rojak from this bogus vendor. His business was so good that he could hardly handle it all by himself so much so that he had to reduce his business hours down to three days a week.

On the other hand, the business of the genuine vendor was affected tremendously so much so that he was very frustrated and very unhappy with the bogus rojak vendor who was trying to sabotage his business. As a result, he went to confront the bogus vendor. Subsequently, both of them engaged in a few rounds of heated quarrels. Onlookers were too happy to instigate a fight between them. Finally they agreed to end their conflict once and for all in a showdown to determine who should be the rightful claimant of the brand name of  'the BM High School Rojak '.

In the pre-showdown campaign, both the vendors were instigated and orchestrated by their respective ‘managers’, in which they would yell at each other with vulgar words like,

"BASTARD!!! I'll slaughter you!”
“YOUR BALLS!!! I’ll make your pants drop to the ground!”
…............

The D day finally came when the hands of the ‘grandfather’ clock on the clock tower struck the appointed time. The two rivals met at the courtyard of the old BM court house to settle the score with the modus operandi usually shown in the Western movies. They engaged in three rounds of boxing, the sport that was quite prevalent in the BM High School during the sixties of the last century. Both the boxers had agreed that the winner of the fight would legitimately own the name of 'The BM High School Rojak' irrespective whether he was a bogus or a genuine vendor of the business.

The verdict was quite obvious to the town folks when they saw the bogus vendor still bearing the signboard ‘The BM High School Rojak’ on the following day.