A slip of the ear

My son-in-law and family were watching a feature film on TV one afternoon. Suddenly Nuraina said to her brother, Umar: “I heard he said ‘Hussain,’ abang.” She was referring to the dialogue uttered by one of the character in the English movie. She was excited because she thought she heard the character had mentioned the name ‘Hussain’ (a Muslim name) which seemed anomalous to her. Umar responded promptly, “It’s not ‘Hussain,’ adik. He said ‘WHO SAYS.’ That means ‘SAPA* [sic] CAKAP.’”

Fabulous kids

*SAPA dialect (=SIAPA)

Note: In the above snippet the siblings actually talked in Malay.

 

 

Stories behind my strip cartoons

1. During my early teaching days I used to draw cartoons for a children newspaper Utusan Pelajar published by Utusan Melayu. I gave the title “Si Dogol” (Shaven Head) for my strip cartoons which centred on a boy with shaven head. In those days pious parents would shave a son’s hair for the sake of piety.

2. I spent the remuneration money to buy story books for my class library. My students enjoyed reading the books very much and I felt contented doing my bit for the rural young generation. Early last year I happened to meet one of my students at a wedding reception thrown by my friend. It had been a long time, so naturally it was impossible for me to imagine who she was in my class nearly 50 years ago. But I nodded politely at what she was saying. She longed to see me and felt very grateful to have met me that day. She remembered with fondness the joy of reading the books I bought for the class library.

3. Coming back to “Si Dogol,” I intended him to be a simpleton for sentimental reasons. The character is my tribute to a student I knew when I was working as a temporary teacher. He was a simpleton and considered “hopeless” (in his study, that is) by most of his teachers at the time. The situation seemed to tie in with a quote I came across from the famous physicist, Albert Einstein, “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

4. Miraculously, years later I heard that the “hopeless” student fared very well in vocational skills training and in fact he was sent to England for further training in carpentry. I believe he did it by virtue of opportunities provided by the education system.

5. My cartoon contributions were short-lived, however, for one reason or another. Only 25 of my strip cartoons were ever published. In this post I’d like to share a few of the cartoons with the readers.

6. Teaching in a rural school for nearly 10 years an episode as depicted in the cartoon below was a common experience for me especially during the rainy season when students’ socks often got wet. Here the culprit is “Dogol” himself who has carelessly taken off his shoes.

"Whose socks stink?"

7. The following episode is, of course, an exaggeration. Here the children are chuckling as the headmaster appears at the door to find his teacher sleeping away in the middle of a lesson. I have no idea if it actually ever happened in schools, but I knew at least two of my senior colleagues who were in the habit of sleeping in class.

8. In the episode below the teacher is wondering what has happened to the feather duster. I wonder if the younger generation can make out the story in the cartoon which is linked to a game I’ve not seen played for a long time. In my boyhood days we used to play a game called ‘bulu ayam’ literally chicken feather.

9. ‘Bulu ayam’ was an object that resembled a shuttlecock. Three or four discs the size of a large coin were cut out of old inner tube. The discs were layered and fixed together with a nail pierced through the centre. Soft chicken feathers were tied around the nail with rubber bands. The game was played by kicking and suspending the object in the air to attain a target count agreed upon by the players.

10. You might have noticed the objects under the boys’ chairs. Those are supposed to be ‘bulu ayam.’ The boys looked quite nervous. You might have guessed what happened to the feather duster.

"What ever happened to this feather duster?"

11. The next episode concerns a takraw ball which is made of woven strips of rattan. It is used in a game native to Southeast Asia called sepak takraw. In my country it is also known as sepak raga. Here ‘Dogol’ is unknowingly calling out to his mother to throw out the takraw ball that has veered off and flown into the house through the window. His mother is quite upset because the ball has landed in the bowl of mixture that she’s prepared for making fried banana.

"Mama, throw the ball out, please."

12. ‘Dogol’ is a bit theatrical in this last piece of strip. He sulks and refuses to play the part of a palace guard and insists on playing the part of Hang Jebat. According to the Malay epic Hikayat Hang Tuah (The Saga of Hang Tuah), Hang Jebat by reason of injustice rebelled against the sultan who ordered the execution of his comrade Hang Tuah whom he believed was a victim of slander. However, the bendahara who was entrusted to carry out the execution secretly arranged for Hang Tuah to go to ground in a remote place.

"Never--I want the part of Hang Jebat."

 13. When the matter of Hang Jebat got out of hand the bendahara revealed his secret to the sultan who readily pardoned Hang Tuah and sent him to kill the traitor. By and by Hang Jebat died at the hands of his comrade whose supposed death he avenged. A Malay scholar, Kassim Ahmad, in his radical critique of Hikayat Hang Tuah had elevated Hang Jebat as the true hero in the epic.

 

Tiny Earth, small world

 

“The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were only aware of one Earth.” – Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud

 1. Tiny Earth! It was just a tiny speck in the vastness of outer space. That’s what a NASA photo showed in an internet report on my mobile. The image was snapped by Voyager 1 spacecraft more than 30 years ago.

2. At first my septuagenarian eyesight was incapable of beholding the tiny speck, so I stretched the photo with my thumb and index finger and barely caught sight of a tiny dot. How amazing!

3. The tiny dot seemed all alone in the vast emptiness of space, but in actuality it was never alone. It is part of the solar system orbiting the sun along with seven other planets.

4. According to the report Voyager 1 took the picture at a distance of 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometres) from Earth as the spacecraft was heading out of the solar system. By now it is reportedly deep in interstellar space at more than 13 billion miles distant.

5. I enjoy reading about the cosmos, galaxies, stars and planets, the mysterious black holes, dark matter and whatnot. Many articles and reports on the internet about the subjects are worthy of note but the physics and mathematics are beyond me.

6. So I might as well leave science aside and contemplate the cosmos with my layman’s mind. I’ve long realised that I can never understand the reality of the cosmos except that I can only wonder at its majesty and mystery.

7. Just imagine the vastness of our solar system alone. It is but a dot within the vast spiral structure of the Milky Way galaxy which has four main arms emanating from its centre. Amid the arms there are smaller spurs. The sun and the solar system reside on the inner edge of one of the spurs known as the Orion Arm, about 26,000 light-years from the galactic centre.

8. It’s a wonder how creation exists in order and harmony. The Milky Way is constantly rotating and the arms are moving through space. The sun and the solar system travel with them. Apparently nothing escapes the connectedness of all things in this universe. A famous naturalist, John Muir, once wrote: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

9. I’m not being cynical, but I believe no amount of science is capable of explaining the mystery of creation through our entire existence. As a Spanish neuroscientist, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, put it, “As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the structure of the brain will also be a mystery.”

10. It follows that destiny remains a mystery of creation. A professor of evolutionary cosmology wrote: “There is nothing more mysterious than destiny – of a person, of our species, of our planet, or of the universe itself.”

11.It is enigmatic how destiny connects people as gravity connects the sun and the planets. As an ancient Chinese proverb says, “An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet. Regardless of time, place and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.” This seems to tie in with the following episodes.

12. My father and one of his schoolmates were from George Town, Penang, but eventually finished up in Alor Star until they breathed their last. In their teens both were destined to become teachers at their old school, the Penang Free School.

13. Later in 1910, my father’s schoolmate was appointed as the first headmaster of a newly founded English school in Alor Star, but only for a brief spell. Soon my father took over as headmaster of the school in early 1911.

14. Thenceforward my father and his schoolmate moved along separate paths in pursuing their destiny. The latter would one day be blessed with a son destined to become a great man in the country. And it was fated that my father would have no children from his first and second marriage, but miraculously he became a father in his middle 60s after marrying my mother.

15. My father’s second marriage is worthy of note by reason of relationships on his wife’s side. He married a widow who had a son who was married to his cousin who had a younger brother who was destined to be an important figure in the country.

16. As years passed by and long after the son of my father’s schoolmate had fulfilled his great destiny, I had the opportunity of being called for appointments with the eminent citizen on two occasions.

17. On the first occasion I accompanied my sister who sought his advice and help over a private matter. We showed him proofs of our identity and he seemed pleased and convinced.

18. On the second occasion I was accompanied by my wife and the first thing he mentioned was that the appointment was fixed up by reason of the name Ismail Merican, saying that he remembered him for his meritorious services to the state of Kedah.

19. I was very pleased with the remarks made about my father by the eminent citizen who was the son of his schoolmate. And as I was introducing my wife to him she mentioned that her father was a cousin of his brother’s wife. “Small world,” I noted and he took it with a slight nod and a faint smile.

20. As for the “important figure” that I’ve mentioned above, he was appointed to a high government office by the son of my father’s schoolmate for a period of time. Not many months ago someone very dear to me recounted that the mention of my father’s name was lost to him. It seemed that to some people certain parts of history are not as memorable.

Note: To better appreciate this article, see my posts “My father’s subsequent marriages,” “The appointment” and “Pandora’s box” published on 10 October 2016, 18 October 1918 and 7 January 2020 respectively.

Funny boy Umar

1. My daughter and her husband were filling in loan application forms from seven banks to try and get a home loan. Just then Umar unexpectedly said in his usual careless manner, nodding pretentiously, “I used to do this too, Mama, but it was only four banks.”

2. Amused, his mother asked what loan he asked for. Umar replied spontaneously, “Why, home loan of course, Mama.” “Are you sure it was not for your teeth?” his mother retorted, teasing.

3. Umar’s upper left middle incisor had just fallen out recently. His lower row of incisors were all gone but the middle two have come through and the left lateral one is beginning to appear leaving a gap where the right lateral would erupt. “You know I cannot apply for loan to do my teeth,” Umar remarked matter-of-factly.

Funny boy Umar

 

Telling it to Mama

 1. On their way home after fetching Nuraina, my daughter had to lend an ear to the talkative little girl. She told her mother that Roopa had to stand outside the class for playing with Karan.

2. Nuraina said, “She was playing with Karan because I refuse to play with her. It’s Covid nowadays, Mama. She didn’t control herself that Roopa.”

3. She went on to say, “Then Arjun wanted to give me a high five. Hmm, never mind and we gave each other high fives. But afterward when we get home I must wash my hands because of Covid, Mama.”

Note: The names of Nuraina’s friends in this post are not their real names.

Speaking her mind

18 August 2020

1. Covid-19 is much alive and kicking. After a seemingly quiet calm there occurred a sudden outbreak of fresh cases of infections in several parts of Kedah. Within days the number of infected cases has raised unexpectedly causing alarm among the general public.

2. There were rumours of a Covid-19 infection case not far from the neighbourhood where our son was staying, so he prevented his children from going to school for three days in a row by reason of their safety.

3. My wife told him off over the phone because she felt the children would be missing their lessons as schools were opened as usual in the neighbourhood. After the conversation ended, my wife was still muttering her concern about the children missing classes.

4. All the while Nuraina was listening intently. “It’s alright, grandma,” she remarked spontaneously. “They can always learn at home.” 

Like father

1. Since school reopened early last month, Umar and Nuraina have regained their enthusiasm for class learning. They have missed school for more than three months when the MCO came into effect around the middle of March to contain the spread of Covid-19 disease affecting the population at large.

2. The kindergarten has introduced tight SOP for the safety of the children, teachers as well as parents. To make up for lost time classes for 6-year-olds were extended to 2.00 pm. So Umar has to stay back for two hours whereas Nuraina goes back at noon as usual.

3.  Apparently Umar was not affected by the new routine at all, in fact he enjoyed the extra time being with friends. It has also boosted his self-esteem as illustrated in the following account.

4. My daughter whatsapped me to recount an anecdote two days ago. She wrote that her husband had just come back from work on account of working overtime. I noticed that it was about a quarter to 8 pm at that time.

5. Noticing a familiarity with the situation, Umar passed a remark, “Daddy and I are the same, Mama. We go look for rezeki. That’s why we come back late.”

6. Amused, her mother said, “I never knew you understand rezeki.” Umar replied spontaneously, “Well, rezeki  – what we eat, drink. That rezeki.”

  

Nuraina's quips

 Early July 2020

1. Her grandma cut Nuraina a big slice of agar pudding from a low square tin for her to take home as the family was leaving after paying us a visit one whole day. As usual her grandma never forgetting to inculcate good manners in her reminded her to share the agar pudding with her father as well.

2. Back at home, her mother sliced the pudding into small rectangular pieces the size of a USB drive. Nuraina loves pudding, so she frequented the fridge to spoon a piece or two at a time.

3. By and by all the pieces were gone but one. Only then did Nuraina remember her grandma’s words. She carried the plate with the solitary piece of pudding to the dining table. Using a teaspoon she began chopping that last piece into a number of smaller pieces and scattered them on the plate.

4. Her mother thought she was playing and got upset. Nuraina explained herself and insisted the pieces were for Daddy. “I feel bad to leave only one piece for Daddy,” she said innocently, “This is more like it.”

17 July 2020

1. My daughter shared a drawing by Nuraina on WhatsApp (see below). I believe the picture speaks for itself.

Nuraina's drawing

2. But there is a story behind the picture as described by Nuraina and recounted by her mother: ‘Mama kata I LOVE YOU kat Abah. Pastu Abah kata balik I LOVE YOU TOO kat Mama. Haa..adik rasa camtu sesuai la. Baru sesuai. Laki tak boleh kata kat perempuan dulu.’ (‘Mama said I LOVE YOU to Daddy. Then Daddy said back I LOVE YOU TOO to Mama. Haa.. I feel it’s proper that way. Truly proper. Man shouldn’t say to woman first.’

3. My daughter was most amused of one thing only – that was the first time she ever heard Nuraina use the word ‘sesuai’(=proper).

21 July

Umar and Nuraina were chatting away as they put on their shoes in the doorway getting ready to go to school. Suddenly a weird thought crossed Umar’s mind: “If mama and daddy die, I’ll stay with grandma and grandpa.”

Nuraina promptly gave a spontaneous remark: “Hey, abang! Grandma and grandpa will die first.”

Missing pieces

1. His time as a young man had gone a very, very long time ago. It’s a shame that facts and figures pertaining to his teens might have been buried with the passage of time.

2. I’m so curious about his education. According to a report he was a promising young student at Penang Free School and was in the Queen’s Scholarship class, but his uncle “would not allow him to proceed to England even if he should win such a scholarship.” So he had to give up his study for the Queen’s Scholarship examination.

3. The report stated that after leaving school he joined the tutorial staff of his alma mater.  He’d made it in studies for sure, but how well he fared would remain unanswered indefinitely.

4. He taught for several years until he became senior assistant master. According to reports in local papers he was a popular teacher. It was during his time as a teacher that his name appeared in the List of Qualified Juror, Penang, 1904: Mahomed Ismail Merican, schoolmaster, Free School; Farquhar Street.

5. I’d heard rumours that his achievements as a government servant were attributed to his love of reading hence learning and not to any qualifications of which he had none. I believe his mastery of the English language had turned him into a highly articulate person leading to his appointment as high court registrar and later as assistant legal adviser. He was legal adviser and public prosecutor during the war.

6. In her book The Chulia in Penang, Khoo Salma Nasution cited an article on “datuk keramat” to relate about early Tamil sufi pioneers on Penang island. The writer of the article wrote under the initial MIM which according to Khoo Salma belonged to Mohamed Ismail Merican.

7. Some time ago upon meeting her at Areca Books store, I asked her how certain were she that the initial belonged to my father. She replied she was 99 per cent sure.

8. I’ve a feeling that that wasn’t the only article he’d ever written. To date our search for other pieces by MIM hasn’t borne any fruit. If we ever get hold of his writings we’d ultimately cherish them and do them justice.

9. Much about his migration to Alor Star as well as his marriages would remain as enigmas to us all. We would never learn the underlying factors that triggered off both events. We may only speculate about what had happened but may never learn the truth.

10. Lastly, according to the above mentioned report he took up private business after retirement. It seemed that to the last he was attached to a legal firm in Alor Star. It would be a great fulfilment if facts and figures about his venture were to be found one of these days. So our search continues...

Bits and pieces worthy of note

1. It’s gratifying how bits and pieces of facts and figures about my father gathered from libraries, archives and the internet has proved to be worthy of note. Prior to uncovering the treasure trove of information we all knew so little about him. If we were not determined to research him in the first place then we wouldn’t have been able to build up a picture of M. I. Merican.

2. My wife and I supported by our children began our search about seven years ago around the middle of 2013. We made time usually at weekends to do our search in the archives and libraries often putting in long hours scanning through long lists of official documents or pages of bound old newspapers for relevant information pertaining to my father.

3. Formerly our knowledge of his career in the Kedah Civil Service (KCS) was rather sketchy. Ever since my teens I knew he used to work as a high court registrar and assistant legal adviser. I learned about this from the inside of his book covers where he put down his signature and job title below. I couldn’t remember when I first came across his name in the list of members of the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS). In the list for 1930 I learned that he worked at the legal adviser’s office. Years later I came across his picture in official uniform in a periodical issued by Kedah State Museum that featured several past figures in the state. Apart from his name, the caption stated that he was formerly a superintendent of education and a legal adviser.

His signatures on the inside of his book covers.

Cutting from list of members, JMBRAS 1930.

 4. We only got a better picture of his career after getting hold of his retirement file which was one of our early discoveries. We found the file in the Kedah and Perlis Branch of the National Archives Malaysia in Alor Merah. It contained his record of service and other documents such as forms regarding leaves and pension calculations as well as official correspondence.

5. The record of service listed his appointments throughout his time in the KCS which included jobs as headmaster, chief clerk census office, acting superintendent of education, senior auditor, high court registrar, registrar and acting sheriff, assistant superintendent monopolies and custom, and assistant legal adviser. He was acting under secretary II before retiring on 24 September, 1937.

6. At that time I noticed that his jobs as mentioned in the periodical were not consistent with that recorded in his record of service. And I thought it might be editorial errors until we made our second important discovery. It was a letter to the editor penned by LCL to the Straits Echo. In his tribute to my father the writer mentioned that “he was the first Malay in this country to become Legal Adviser.” And I wondered then why wasn’t it recorded in his record of service.

7. As I recall, vital documents, such as his death certificate and marriage certificate, were long gone with the passing of time. Attempts to get copies of those from respective departments were futile for want of actual dates. It was a stroke of luck that my wife found a very informative news report on his death in a fat volume of bound old newspaper at the Penang public library.

8. A lot of useful facts and figures about my father had emerged from that one article alone. At long last we learned things of note such as his actual dates of birth and death, place of birth, where he went to school and what his work was before he came over to Alor Star. The actual date of his death had facilitated the search for his death certificate. And for the first time we learned that he was recalled to service during the war.

9. Later on to our great delight we found his retirement “again” file in the Archives. The file mostly contained official correspondence including several of his letters. The letters shed light on his recall to service by the government of Kedah during the Japanese occupation. He was made head of Judicial Department hence his appointment as legal adviser and public prosecutor for Kedah and Perlis. That explained the confusion I had before about his appointment as legal adviser.

10. Our search had brought us as far as the capital city where we visited the National Archives and the National Library a few times to gather more information.  At the Archives we found several files regarding my father’s activities as a special translator of enactments for which he received remuneration. At the Library we found old government gazettes in which we discovered further information about his work.

11. The internet and digitization have actually facilitated our search for information. I first learned that my father was “a scion of a well-to-do family” from a site on the internet. This was later supported by an article on the history of the Noordin’s family from another blog.

12. We also obtained bits and pieces of facts and figures by virtue of digitized printed materials. For instance, we got hold of one otherwise buried article on the internet that carried remarks regarding the role played by my father in the translation committee entrusted with the herculean task of translating hundreds of enactments from English into Malay.

13. The story about my father’s involvement in the 1911 census taking in Kedah was also found on the internet. It explained the anomalous situation in which he was appointed headmaster on 26 February and chief clerk of census office on the following day.

14. The demise of his uncle, Habib, in 1909 and of his only brother, M. H. M. Noordin, whose funeral he attended was also discovered on the internet. So was the marriage of his brother’s only daughter, Kulsoom Bebe, to a local politician in 1929.

15. His climb to success could actually be traced in the occasional brief “Kedah” column of local newspapers where appointments of government servants were publicised. He began as a headmaster and worked his way up to become one of the important figures in the Kedah government service in the 1930s through his retirement period in the 40s and 50s. His importance was most evident in his recall to service during the war. Even in his later period of retirement his two cents worth still found space in local newspapers.

16. Lastly, we would never ever forget the contributory factor without which all this couldn’t have been possible. The librarians at the Penang library, archives officials at the national archives and the clerks of both institutions were very supportive of our search. Thank you all.

Spelling time

1. I love watching children spell some rather difficult words on The Great Australian Spelling Bee. Apparently there are words they haven’t come across before and it’s amazing to see them spell the words correctly. I suppose the regularity of English spelling enable them to predict likely spelling patterns.

2. Spelling may not be taught directly in language classes, but in primary schools and even in kindergarten there are teachers who still give spelling quizzes to their pupils. That brings me to my grandchildren, Umar and Nuraina. They have spelling quizzes twice a week both for Malay and English on Monday and Friday respectively. For each quiz five words are given beforehand for them to learn.

3. Umar and Nuraina were quite good in spelling. My daughter cared about their intellectual development, so she made time to guide them in their learning. She shared her fun experience with me via WhatsApp messages.

4. Their teachers started giving them spelling quizzes on 7 February. Umar started well getting full marks for his first quiz. His teacher stuck five red star stickers on the page of his spelling book. His sister got full marks too and her teacher stuck a praise sticker.

QUIZ 1*

5. Nuraina got another praise sticker for her second quiz. Unfortunately, his brother got only four stars. He told his mother somewhat carelessly that only three people made mistakes including him. His Chinese friend, Cotton, spelled ‘sekolah’ as ‘selahki,’ Afif, a Malay friend, spelled ‘arnab’ as ‘arnad’ and Umar spelled ‘lelaki’ as ‘lekaki.’

QUIZ 2

6. Umar got one star less for his third quiz yet again. His mother was rather disappointed and I told her it was not the end of the world. Umar spelled ‘draw’ as ‘braw,’ but he spelled all the other four words correctly. Nuraina spelled all words of different spelling patterns - flag, gift, gate, hand, horn - correctly and earned another praise sticker.

QUIZ 3

7. I told my daughter to help them prepare for their next quiz on the following Monday. She texted me that Umar was quite ready for his coming quiz, but anything could happen in the actual situation. For instance, Umar tended to mix d up with b. Anyhow, their mother took heart from the siblings’ results on Monday. Both got all their spellings correct. ‘Praise be to God,’ she texted, ‘they did so well.’

QUIZ 4

8. The following Thursday my daughter did revision with the siblings for Friday quizzes. Umar seemed able to spell all the English words fluently including ‘children,’ but when asked to write them down ‘children’ was written with the ‘r’ missing. Thus I felt a bit doubtful if he could make it.

9. It was Friday. I was curious when there was no message from my daughter about the children’s spelling quizzes, but my wife had troubling news from her that they didn’t fare as well. So I texted her that there seemed to be no report for that day. And seconds later two unexpected photos appeared on my mobile. It was a pleasant surprise. Nuraina did very well. Umar was splendid. Their mother wrote: ‘I am a proud mummy.’ I responded: ‘You pulled mum’s leg. She’ll pull your ear tomorrow.’

QUIZ 5

10. Around noon the following Monday my daughter texted me that Umar had made the same blunder again – mixing b up with d. He spelled ‘datuk’ as ‘batuk’ thus earning one star less. Nuraina did well earning another praise sticker. I suggested giving Umar simple drills on the use of b and d, for example, asking him to spell and write down pairs of words beginning with the two letters such as baku/daku, basi/dasi, bata/data, batu/datu, beli/deli, bini/dini, buka/duka, buku/duku and bulu/dulu.

QUIZ 6

11. There were no text messages regarding spelling quizzes on Friday 28 February, but I learned later that both Umar and Nuraina scored full marks on that day.

QUIZ 7

12. Nuraina seemed to fare better than his brother in spelling quizzes from the beginning. She did quite well scoring full marks all along. Then the unexpected happened. My daughter was waiting at the entrance downstairs to fetch her and Umar. After a while she caught sight of them coming down the stairs. Halfway down Nuraina burst out crying piteously telling her mother that she’d made one mistake in her quiz. She’d spelled ‘sentuh’ with the ‘n’ and ‘h’ missing apparently because she was unfamiliar with those closed syllables.
13. Her mother comforted her with encouraging words. She began wondering what went wrong despite making time to help her daughter do revision. She was worried because Nuraina had to learn words with closed syllables quite unfamiliar to her. So she’d helped the little girl revise a number of times, but Nuraina was inconsistent. Her mother was partly blaming herself thinking that she might be pushing the girl a bit too hard. I suspected her technique was ineffective. I thought to myself, it’s not easy to become instant teacher.

QUIZ 8

14. Umar had been given five words, namely ‘big,’ ‘small,’ ‘robots,’ ‘together’ and ‘crocodile,’ for subsequent Friday quiz. I thought he would be able to spell the first three words easily, but I wasn’t sure about the other two. My daughter agreed with me and recounted what Umar had told her in his usual careless way: “Mama, ‘robots,’ ‘big,’ ‘small’ OK; ‘together,’ ‘crocodile’ sure not OK la.”

15. I tried to help and texted her to tell Umar to spell ‘father,’ ‘mother’ and ‘brother’ stressing on the syllable ‘ther’ and ask him to spell ‘toge’ then just add ‘ther.’ She OK’d it and admitted it was a good formula. Thus I thought Umar had just to memorise ‘crocodile.’

16. Later I texted her: ‘… if you care to play with him, break up the word into three syllables cro/co/dile. Write each syllable on a piece of paper. Jumble up and ask him to rearrange. Do this several times. Then hide one syllable and ask him to arrange the two syllables. Where must the missing syllable be?’

17. My daughter thanked me for the tips. I reminded her not to forget Nuraina. She was certain Nuraina would make it because she’d been given quite simple words: ‘ring,’ ‘star,’ ‘vet,’ ‘vest’ and ‘tea.’ I supposed my daughter carried out the tips with Umar, but later when he was told to write down ‘crocodile,’ it became ‘crocobile.’ I responded I was just about to remind her about the letter ‘d’ suspecting he might mix it up with ‘b.’ Anyhow Umar and Nuraina did very well on Friday and I congratulated them.

QUIZ 9

18. I missed the following Monday morning text from my daughter which ran: Pray for #umaraina ejaan paktok maktok.. Then around noon she sent me a recording of pages from Umar’s and Nuraina’s spelling books showing the results for that day. Both got all their spellings correct. I was amused to hear the siblings singing “Aya Che Siti” in the background. I responded: Very good Umar and Aina. Congratulations!

QUIZ 10

19. The following Friday my morning text ran: ‘Good morning. Hope Umar and Aina do well for spelling today. Good luck.’ Later during the early afternoon my daughter texted me to tell that both did well in their spelling and I congratulated them. Later she sent me audio of Umar and Nuraina declaring they got five stars for spelling and afterwards photos of the relevant pages.

QUIZ 11

20. Those were the last quizzes before school was indefinitely closed by reason of the Movement Control Order (MCO) or lockdown imposed by the government to contain the spread of Covid-19 disease affecting the population at large. And now after a lapse of more than three months since the MCO came into effect, school will reopen on 1st July which means that Umar and Nuraina will be able to resume classroom learning to acquire basic skills in writing, reading and counting.

21. Regarding their spelling quizzes I’m glad that they never got lower than four marks out of five. Umar got four marks three times, twice due to mixing b up with d. The other mistake might be due to carelessness. Nuraina made only one mistake in the entire spelling quizzes apparently on account of not being familiar with certain closed syllables.

22. I care about how they fare in whatever they do because motivation is an important psychological factor in learning. They’d be motivated if they fare well in what they do in classrooms. The main aim is to build their confidence. I conclude with a quote from a Greek writer: “In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”

*Pages from Umar’s (left) and Nuraina’s spelling books.