The story of body size

I enjoyed serving as a temporary teacher in Heng Ee Secondary School, Penang for a stint of three months. I was very young then. I was asked to teach Malay, replacing a trained teacher who had gone on a Malay course – a requirement for teachers who were trained in English before as the medium of instruction would be changed to Malay.

Cycling to work was a novelty for teachers because most of them drove to school. The headmaster allowed me to park my bicycle at a designated place away from the boys’.

Came pay day and with the cheque I went to the Malayan Banking (now Maybank) to cash my cheque. The casher, being a busy-body, did not believe that I was a teacher as I looked more like a schoolboy than a teacher. She kept telling people that I was too young to be a teacher.

Even when I was serving as a trained teacher in Jerantut Secondary School in Pahang, one teacher used to tell the others that I was one of the boys when I was running with the boys in Sports Practice session.