Fire Drill: "Bapak Kau Setan"

KNO recalled our first encounter with fire drill and how the relief of finally getting out of the Common Room, turned into a nightmare in front of the TAR Hall.

Fire drill was nasty, but I was never bitter about it. I maintained that those prefects who went physical crossed the line and should have been reprimanded, for they should never be any body contact. Torture us to make a thousand lap until we fall or do a "half way up" until we get muscle spasm (not the kind of pleasureable muscle spasm that most people are more used to nowadays ha ha), I consider that fair - but don't ever slap or kick us.

Of course many crossed the line in their naivete and lack of understanding of the magnitude of their actions - however most of them were nothing more than a child back then, and children do get carried away.

Anyway, one of my most memorable fire drills was the one that originated from the surau. I couldn't remember the details of the torture, suffice to say it was hell.

But I did remember the surprise and annoyance when we finally found out the grave sin we had committed that sent us to the gallows (so to speak) that night.

Two or three kids (I will not disclose their names here for they had become good friends over the year), in our first few weeks in koleq, were fighting for the best spot under the fan in surau one evening. I guess it must have been so hot then because that erupted into a shouting match (some pushing had apparently taken place before).

What was shouted was the reason we suffered fire drills that night.

(Reconstruction)

Preppie A: Bapak kau setan.....
Preppie B: Bapak kau lagi setan...
Preppie A: Bapak kau memang setan....

It went on for a while without them realising one of the prefects was standing at the back, fuming with anger that their iron fisted rule over us had come to this this early in the year. What was even more insulting to them I suppose was that both were the sons of old boys who (the old boys) were contemporaries in college, and one of them was actually the younger brother of the Head of Prep School prefects that year (aaaaaa I gave it away, didn't I?)

For many years to come, when the stress of life got to us, this "bapak kau setan" episode never fail to produce an eruption of laughter.

I felt that that was the gravest injustice ever committed against us - "yang setannya bapak diorang, kita pulak yang kena". And as a good friend always keen to point out "patut ****l pun kena sekali laa sebab bapak dia yang setan, bukan bapak aku".

PS

* To Preppie A and B, do not take this personally. You two provided a memory that is everlasting
** One of the fathers that got involved in the shouting match had passed away a few years back - Al-Fatihah.