Thursday 5 May 2011

TIGER LANE IPOH 1958

THE MOVE TO
TIGER LANE IPOH
- 1958

We were very excited when we went back to School in January 1958. We had moved into our brand new school in
Tiger Lane
. The school was built in a 40 acre compound which was very big by any standard then and even now. The main buildings were a three storey classroom block, a two storey specialist block consisting of science laboratories, metalwork and woodwork workshops and a library. There was a big (at that time) dining hall and a modern kitchen attached to it. For our accommodation there were six hostel buildings. The School has a huge sports ground sufficient for rugby, soccer and hockey fields; badminton, volley ball, basket ball and tennis courts. We also have a big assembly hall. Any school in the country envied us.

For neighbours we had the Geological Survey Department, the Veterinary Research Department and the Heslet Scouts Camp and the Gurkha Army Camp.

There were five Form Two classes, four Form One classes and some Remove classes. We were divided into six Houses and each House was allocated a Hostel building with a resident Warden for each House. I was in White House and my Warden was Mr Michel Liau, with whom I got into trouble many a times. There was an incident I remember vividly. I was a keen Tennis player and saved some money to buy a Tennis racket. It was my most priced possession. One day he saw me carrying this pride of my possession to go and play Tennis. He asked to see my racket. Proudly I handed it to him. He said he was keeping my racket until I could buy a mosquito net! I thought he must be mad or envious of the fact that he did not get to play Tennis when he was a student! He only played table-tennis. But then so did I. Well I had to save more money to buy the mosquito net and get back my racket!

A new routine was introduced to our hostel life. Every Sunday morning there would be an inspection of the hostels by the Warden on duty. Sometimes the Headmaster himself the late Tun Hamdan would also accompany the Warden. The purpose was to see that the hostels are kept clean. And it is our responsibility to keep the dormitories, the toilets , the bathrooms and the compounds clean. As a matter of fact they have to be kept clean everyday. Although many of us did not like this but it was a very training. We must keep our environment clean at all time. It is sad to see even now that Malaysians generally do not keep their public property and facilities clean. It is probably because they did not go to good residential schools like STAR.

There was another practice introduced in
Tiger Lane
. Every evening some Prefects and representatives of each House will dine with the Warden on duty on High Table. The attraction was the food served on the High Table was a lot better than that served to the rest. The disadvantage or slight problem was that one has to dress properly to go High Table which means Malay suits complete with sampings, songkoks and shoes. This was not everyone’s cup of tea. So for those who declined this privilege they had to find substitutes. They are not difficult to find! In fact some would be just waiting at the entrance to the Dining Hall to replace those who could not make it to the High Table for one reason or another.

The event everyone was looking forward to was the official opening and renaming ceremony of the School which was scheduled to be held in May that year.