BRIAN AND I

BRIAN AND I

Brian Shutes came to STAR as a volunteer under the British Voluntary Service Overseas in 1961 after completing his A Levels. He was about my age or younger. He was supposed to help teaching and help out in our extra curricular activities. He did not teach me because he was a science “teacher” and I was in the Arts stream. However it is with his involvement in extra curricular activities that Brian and I saw a bit of each other in STAR.

Brian produced a full length English play entitled “She stoops to conquer” I did not have anything to do with this. The play written I think by Oliver Goldsmith was a comedy. The  actors were to come from STAR and the actresses from Raja Perempuan School (RPS) Ipoh. This was the attraction for my friends, the chance to meet RPS girls. I heard one boy who will remain nameless when doing the audition pronounced “Certainly” as “Kertainly”. The leading role was played my good friend Razak Yahya B alongside the heroine from RPS. The play must have been a success. It was rumoured that the romance between the leading actor and actress continued after the staging of the play into their old age. We congratulated Brian for this maiden English play staged in STAR. I will come back to She stoops to conquer later.

I got to know Brian better when he embarked on another ambitious project. He set to publish a periodical sports magazine to cover sports activities of schools in Kinta. I was Editor of the School magazine Perintis. So I was roped in. I cannot remember my title, Chief Editor, Editor Chief Correspondent, STAR correspondent or what? This was in 1962. Anyway we managed to produce a few issues. How or why it stopped I cannot now remember. But to me this is an important episode in my life. Firstly it brought me and Brian closer together and began a friendship that has survived to this day. Secondly I met Mokhtar Daud. He was with the then Radio Malaya Sports Section. I do not know how he came to know about our magazine. So he came to interview me and it was aired. When I left School among the jobs I applied for  was a Broadcasting Assistant in Radio Malaya. Among those who interviewed me was none other than the late Mokhtar. Of course I secured the job. But sadly I had to turn it down. To this day I told my wife that was one of the stupid decisions I made. It was certainly a   job with more glamour compared to a teaching job in the Ulu in Tanjong Malim. Do you know why I had to turn it down?. My then girl friend sensed that she would face a stiff competition if I became an announcer and perhaps a deejay and who knows an actor! So it was either her or the announcer job she said..  I must admit  I was madly in love with her. The rest as they say is history. I married her. And no regrets.

When I went to the United Kingdom to read Law at King’s College London I met the late Mokhtar again. He visited BBC Malay Service and I was there moonlighting as a Malay translator cum news reader. When I returned to Malaysia I again met Mokhtar and his wife Puan Maimunah. What do you know? She taught my wife in Sekolah Tun Fatimah. Small world you must admit. By another coincidence Mr Sockalinmgam’s ( one of my favourite teachers) wife also taught my wife in STF.

Sorry for the digression and back to Brian and I. In 1962 Brian had this crazy idea that I should go and approach the late Encik Murad as he then was,who was  the School Principal to ask his permission for some of us to borrow the School’s  VW combi to go holidaying in the East Coast during the term break. How audacious  these Lower Sixth Formers can get? Tan Sri Murad asked “How can I let Pak Udari drive the Van to take you on your holidays?” He got a point there. But then I gathered my strength and said ”Sir, we don’t need Pak Udari”. “Oh …” he said. “Pray tell me who is going to drive?” “BRIAN Sir.” You wont believe this he allowed us not only the use of the Van but we were allowed to take some dry rations from the School Kitchen. The trip was up to that point in time the best holidays I have ever had. I must write about this sometime. We saw turtles in Rantau Abang, we camped in Batu Buruk and saw the sunrise, had a good time at Pantai Cinta Berahi, had an accident in KB and Brian scooted off fearing for dear life and finally the van broke down in the middle of Pahang  in the wee hours.

Brian was in Cambridge when Shukor and I were in London. We did meet Brian but I cannot remember much about this period.

This fellow Brian is a smart guy. He travelled all over the world free by giving academic lectures. He is an academic you see. Inevitably one day he found himself in Malaysia. He had lost contact with us. He told me he had brought this She Stops to Conquer programme. He got the list of the actors from STAR looked up the Telephone Directory and called them one by one. Of course Tajri and I were not actors and he did not get us. But he got to the late Wan Mohammad bin Wan Kadir, a professor at UITM and lived in Shah Alam. From Wan he got to me. So Shukor and I met him at the Hotel he was staying. So after a long hiatus the friendship resumed to this day. Tajri and Badli our first Head Boy had stayed with Brian in his house in London. Brian had visited me on one Hari Raya in Surrey. His uncle lives in the village next to the village where my daughter and her husband had lived. Brian had also stayed with us for a few days in Sungai Buloh.

Brian’s last visit to Malaysia was on 19^th December last year. Dato’ Tajri hosted a high tea at his new mansion in Sri Selangor (not sure of the name of the area) and attended by former teachers and some old boys.

I hope to continue to be in touch with Brian.