Our first experience as boarders was not all nice. Those nights in front of TAR Hall, those endless hours in the Common Room - they suck (big time)! I had an awfully hard time trying to remember what were the ‘don’ts’ and the ‘dos’ in Form 1. Initially, during the first few weeks, I used to ask questions to one of the prefects - I was so naive at that time, I thought the Malay popular proverb ("malu bertanya sesat jalan") should be useful in a place called the Malay College. I was totally wrong! After the first few weeks, I was beginning to realise that he was really peeved with my questions. Every time I came up with a question, he seemed to be looking at me as if I was a jerk! I was getting more and more perplexed each day.

Nowadays, when all the things we had to do in 1990 rush back to my memories, I am not so sure whether to laugh or to grieve. Sometimes I feel so guilty to myself for blindly following all the orders because some of them were just out of this world. Imagine, how on Earth does one of the prefects explain to Moto’s parents, that Moto had to sleep at the stinky Dorm E corridor for two chilly nights? If that kind of things were to happen in the UK or Sweden, that particular prefect would have been sued and interrogated for child abuse. I still feel so guilty to Syed, because as his dormitory’s monitor, I did not do anything to help him (maybe because at that time, I was unsure that my efforts would have changed a thing, or even make it worse). Sometimes, I felt we were too naive (or scared maybe ) to differentiate between reasonable punishments for misdemeanours and total cruelties. Anyway, let bygones be bygones.

Nevertheless, it did give us one thing that we shall never forget - the spirit of singularity and togetherness. During these ‘fire-drill’ sessions, I could feel my warm tears on my cheek every time my friends were punished. I could feel the pain too, as if I was also there being punished at that time. If there is a single thing that bonds us so strongly, I reckon it is that ONE thing.