Prankster.

Way back in 1960 when I was a Form 1 student in a Government Secondary English School somewhere in the State of Perak. I like to be different and I used green ink fountain pen for my school work. I was nearly bashed up by a Form 5 senior because of the green ink. The story went as follows:-

Two Form 2 students, whom I knew, innocently borrowed my pen with the green ink and without my knowledge they wrote a letter to one Form 5 student using my pen. The letter purportedly was from me warning this guy about an intimate relationship with their feminine classmate Miss MT. Can you imagine a Form 1 Chico like me warning a Form 5 student? Size and age was a vast difference. Can you believe it? The Form 5 senior came looking for me, fortunately there was another student in my class having the same name. The poor guy was pulled up and I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t aware what was going on and one fine day Miss MT approached me and asked me to write a lyric of my favorite song. Naively I complied and my favorite song then was “Fatwa Pujangga” made famous by S Effendi.

Fatwa Pujangga.

Telah kuterima suratmu nan lalu
Penuh sanjungan kata merayu
Syair dan pantun tersusun indah, sayang……..
Bagaikan madah fatwa pujangga

Kan kusimpan suratmu nan itu
Bak pusaka yang amat bermutu
Walau kita tak lagi bersua, sayang………..
Cukup sudah cintamu setia

( korus )
Tapi sayang… sayang… sayang
Seribu kali sayang
Ke manakah risalahku
Nak kualamatkan?

Terimalah jawapanku ini
Hanyalah doa restu Ilahi
Moga lah Dik kau tak putus asa………..sayang
Pasti kelak kita kan bersua.

Couple of months later, Miss MT told me why she wanted me to write the lyric and related to me the whole story. She compared my writing styles by the lyric that I gave her and the letter sent to that Form 5 guy. She knew all along it wasn’t me, just to ensure. She revealed to me who were the culprit. They were HDS and MR. I began to recall they did borrow my pen. I did nothing and I just left the episode to rest. I was just a small kid then.

That was part of growing up.

Now in 2011, half a century later I sat down and ponder a prank can really make someone in deep shit. Both HDS and MR had since passed away and MR really landed in a Mental Asylum, at Tanjung Rambutan before being summoned by the Creator. No joke. Miss MT is now a Datin somewhere in KL and the Form 5 guy, God knows where he is. He must be 70+ by now and wish I can meet him if he is still kicking. Yours truly who is now 65 remain naïve, innocent and Allah fearing until today? After the incident, I gave up my green ink for good. Only Auditors use it nowadays.

At anytime I heard the song “Fatwa Pujangga” my memory lingers to 1960.