History 1 The Naughty Boy in CLass by Lim Cheng Ean

Avenging fist NOTHING IS PERFECT in this world; and like the wonders of a boarding school, which I have dealt with in an earlier chapter, had also its dark side. If there were hoys who were easy to get on with  there was unfortunately one  who for some reason or other  harboured ill-will towards me.  Was it because he was envious and jealous, proud and supercilious, high and contemptuous? Well, whatever it was, he certainly made life very unpleasant for me in the study hall.  He resented my passing behind him in order to go out into one of the many intersecting passages of that hall from and to my desk. I had to pass behind him because he occupied the end of the bench we shared.  In front of him was his own desk and so was mine in front of me; and there were a row desks between mine and his which belonged to other boys, who sat between me and him. When the other boys mentioned above went in and out into the passage to go to the lavatory, he did not do anything to them as they passed behind him; but when my turn came, he would project his bottom out, so as to inconvenience me.  I had to use my knee sometimes, but that did not solve the problem.  So this nuisance continued unabated until one night after dinner and while we were strolling about on the playing fields dimly lighted by a tall street lamp, I hit him with my fist on his sneering mouth, causing his lips to bleed.  I did behave like a tortured animal in accordance with a well-known Chinese proverb about not baiting an animal too far.  He had really provoked me beyond endurance.  I could have complained to the Brother-in-charge of the study-hall like a cowardly whining animal, but that didn't appeal to me. For daring thus to take the law into my own hands, I was then and there seized by the Brother-in-charge and taken upstairs for punishment, which went the full measure of three smart cuts with the cane on the palm of each hand and an extra dose of three strikes on my buttocks. The Brother who used the cane on me stated, by way of explanation, that he had to make the punishment fit the crime, ‘because I had struck the son of the Chinese consul stationed in Penang.  I did not know until then that there was such a diplomatic dignitary in Penang.  That Brother must have inwardly felt sorry for me  for on the following afternoon he took me and some other boys to the sea for a swim.  He did not know and I did not tell him that when I got into the salty water, I found the salt jabbed terribly on those cuts on my buttocks.

A Gold Medal But this wasn't the end of the episode, for there was in the offing the elections scheduled to take place a few months later.  Only the boarders in the 7th standard and the Cambridge and Scholarship classes were allowed to cast votes and elect the most exemplary boarder to be honoured with the conferment of the Loke Chow Thye "Cross And Bee" gold medal.  And like a bolt from the blue, they elected me and thus made me the recipient of that gold medal, which I still possess and treasure as a token of their appreciation of the punishment I gave that bully and of their commiseration for the punishment I received in return.  Was this not an instance of honey being found in the ass's  head?  It was in any case a wonder of wonders for me transcending all the glories on field and track and in the classroom. To come to my friends and to leave that enemy of mine behind is a more pleasant task.  I had no chum or particular friend.  Besides it was against the rule to have one.  I considered every one my friend who bore me no ill will and there must have been many of this description, otherwise  I would not have received that medal.  My friends embraced many types.  Among them was a dumb Chinese boarder, son of the millionaire who presented Penang with the clock tower at the junction of Light Street and Beach Street. We got on very well together, as he had a sense of humour and could write and draw and make understandable signs with hands and mouth, and was never without a smile.  He had a younger brother for a companion, a nice fellow, who later became converted to Roman Catholicism and then went to Scotland where he married a Scotch girl. The next fellow who I liked very much was an Eurasian boy  who stomped about on the wooden leg affixed to his right knee and who cheerfully struggled with the problem of locomotion.  I was full of admiration for his bounce of spirit in  spite of his handicap.   I also got on quite well with an Indian boarder by the name of Dominic.  He was the elder of two brothers.  We exchanged confidences quite often about other boys.  He was the only one who knew before hand that I was going to settle accounts with that son of a consul. There were many others in my list of congenial fellows besides those I have already mentioned specifically; and the most outstanding of them was Ng Weng Wah alias Anthony Joseph Waugh, for whom I have to reserve a special chapter because he needs a whole chapter to himself. #

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_____________________ The Penang File Issue 25