my brother and i went to sultan ismail primary school in kota bharu. both my sisters went to sekolah Zainab. we took the school bus and it was about 8 km meters from home. 8km was quite a long journey in those days. the roads were long and winding. we had to past thru the center and get over to the other side of the city to get there.

my first bus was the type that has a shape of a nose infront where the engine is stored. it was old and always breaks down. i did get a few rides before it went totally kaput. when my brother joined me to school later, we then had another bus which was in better condition. but it didnt help us coming to school on time . the driver will drive and send the other school kids to other schools first. we were his last destination. so we always arrived late to school and got punished for it even though it was not our fault. there was no mercy from the teachers. no questions were asked and we will get a few lashes of rotan on our buttocks. during those days the teachers were allowed to give u a rotan or gave you a slap on your face if were caught for doing something wrong. fear was used in full force and this didnt help to free the children. it created a gap…an authoritarian one which is the worse. the children become passive and not train to ask questions when in doubt. some teachers get a kick out of doing that. those should be sent for rehab. thank god they stopped doing that now. not all teachers were like that though. some were like angels and u feel u want to bring them home.

Arriving late to school went on quite frequently that we had to think of something to avoid those painful punishments. my brother came up with a trick where he put a book in between his pants and his butt which worked rather well. the teacher must have been quite stupid not to notice that or maybe they just closed one eye and ‘make dunno’. maybe some of them do felt the pain when they give us those lashes. perhaps those days they were instructed to do it. i dunno.

i tried sneaking up thru the back door to enter the classroom and went in when the teacher was writing on the blackboard. it didnt always work. sometimes i would wait for the first lesson to be over before coming in. i would hanged out in the back of the school or stay in the toilet to wait. when the school bell rings, then u just act as if u came from the toilet. make sure u hide your school bags though. u have to find ways to survive.