Terpesong

Alayna, one of the most brilliant and radiant young school-going ladies I know, does not answer essay questions critically and with creative abandon. Why? “I’ll get a big ‘x’ and ‘terpesong’.”

Ahh…that word brings back memories of my own schoolhood.

Terpesong…

There is not a single good person I know who was never at least once terpesong. Sit around a room of upright and morally respectable people, get the ball rolling and you are bound to discover everyone’s little deviations in no time.

[I look at that word deviation and realise now that the first few letters almost spell the word 'devil'... almost.]

A few stories emerged that night:

1. A really sweet and bubbly lady friend of mine once ganged up with her cousin and ‘really whacked up’ a kid who had been bullying her little brother. Years later she found out that the little ruffian was actually mentally disabled from himself being abused, bullied and roughed up. He was taking it out on her little brother and her rage was a form of justice.

2. In early primary school, Eric had witnessed his friend getting gang bashed in the basketball court by 6 other guys. Helpless and scared, Eric stood there an cried his eyes out.

3. Jules cried when his mother told him about the starving children of Africa. He was not the only one at the table who had this experience.

4. Ramu went to a school where the caning was not executed on the bottoms but on the soles of the children’s feet!

Not trying to say, 'talk to the hand' or even 'nak kena tampar ke?'

5. Liz once saw a teacher punch and beat a child badly because of poorly done homework. The teacher stopped suddenly when she realised that she was looking at the wrong child’s book and therefore beating the wrong child! The real owner of the book shook with fear, thinking the teacher was going to unleash her fury on him now. But the teacher did not. She said a few stern words and let it go. The child who was beaten up was told he deserved it for another minor mistake in his homework. Almost a third of the class didn’t show up for the rest of the week…

6. In standard 3, it was suddenly a fad to demonstrate one’s strength by karate-chopping the sharp end of a ruler as hard as one could! Being a puny and asthmatic 9 year old, George never lasted long at these displays of manhood. But as a child, he had always made friends with the toughest boy in the year (perhaps these macho types were drawn to George because he never laughed at them for being emotionally weak) and this year was no different. Raveen, already a taekwando brown belt at 9, proudly chopped at all the rulers in class, not for a moment showing any signs of pain as the blunt edges made hard contact with his bone. The boys in the class would ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ away… But not George – “Raveen, do not use my ruler for this.” George had this glass ruler from Australia that had pictures of all the 4 seasons on it. It was the hardest ruler in class (imported what!) and had a sharp edge – the ultimate invitation for the boy who dare brave it for solitary alpha-male bragging rights. Raveen could not resist the temptation. When George was taking a toilet break, Raven pulled the ruler out of his bag, gathered the boys all around and chopped. It broke! When George got back Raveen placed an arm around his shoulder, led him out of the class and broke the news. A sensitive little thing, George began to cry. (Let me assure you that 20 years on, George does have more control over his emotions, okay?) Raveen tried to comfort him, “It’s just a ruler! I’ll get you a new one…” George replied, “I’m not crying because you broke my ruler, I’m crying because you broke my heart.“

Children are born with an innate sense of justice and compassion.

But so many influences try to make us un-learn this!

When a Chinese or Indian kid in Malaysia wants to write an essay about, “What would I do if I were PM?” and the teacher tells him/her to not entertain such thoughts because it will never happen to a non-Malay, who, pray tell me, is terpesong?