Found this too...! :-)

Saya Budak STAR

Blog Old Boys

Written by Ariffin Mamat

Tuesday, 14 April 2009 00:00

As the train pulled into station, I joined a disorderly queue rushing up to one of the three coaches marked "Reserved - STAR - Pantai Timur." From experience, I knew there will be enough seat for everyone, so except for making sure I was at a distance where I could get on-board should the whistle blow I was quite relaxed. The more senior amongst us responsibly helped the more junior ones with their bags and ushering them to seats. The more cute the juniors, the faster they got helped!! Ironically, the younger boys were seen carrying much bigger bags than us seniors. I was in form four then! I thought to myself, "Must be gifts for everyone at home - perhaps they even packed one or two Limau Tambun and a dozen packs of Kacang Menglembu!" I smiled, as I recalled those similar acts during my earlier years.

Home bound train rides at the end of every school term was something I always looked forward to! Long before the term finished, the more adventurous amongst us would have been writing letters to our counter parts from TKC, or Sekolah Perempuan Kolam Air, or STF. Counterparts could be in the form of similar examination number, or a prefect sending to another prefect, or a soccer player to a netball captain etc. A few used friends to intiate the introductions. So when the train ride begun, we waited with abated breath for stops at Kuala Lumpur ( Kolam Air ), and Seremban ( TKC ) and Gemas ( to be joined by our country cousins from STF ). I didn't belong to those groups who had 'girl-friends', however I belonged to a group of wide eyed silent and envious observers who pretended not to care but who was watching every moves made by our more adventurous friends. All the same, term after term I anxiously waited for the train ride home....in the hope that luck would be with me and a cute girl from TKC, or Kolam Air or STF would smile in my direction and gestured for me to go seat next to her.

Alas.....

In my six years, which translated to 36 train rides to-and fro, the closest I ever got was when a girl with a crew cut hair came and sat next to me when I was having a hard-boiled egg and a cup of tea in the train canteen. I wanted to smile back, but egg yolk was sticking all over my teeth, I thought it was best to keep my mouth shut! She was later joined by another girl who came to stand next to her and kept glancing at me with some kind of body languages so apparent that even a half-blind man would understand ~ she wanted me to buzz-off and vacate the seat for her! Less by intention to be a gentleman, but more by a hidden motive to impress the girl with the crew cut hair, I actually got up and vacated my seat while still trying hard to swallow the last few crumbles of the hard boiled egg. In return, I did get the sweetest of smile from her....the girl with the crew cut hair!

Whenever I arrived in Kuala Krai, the station where I disembarked every time - my uncle was always there waiting for me. He would offer to carry my bags to his rickshaw. I always made a point to let him carry any bags except my STAR school bag - a white bag with the school badge proudly and prominent printed on one side of it, and with the words Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman Ipoh scribed in a semi-circle just below it. That bag would hang from my shoulder, and always with the printed side facing outwards. I was a proud 'Budak STAR' showing off to every girl in Kuala Krai and all the way to my uncle house in Gucil of my status - "A STARIAN". Judging from the outcome, none was impressed. I did not get any favourable second glance. Even the dullest amongst them did not show any interest to know who was the sunken eyed boy with unkept hair and egg yolks sticking to the side of his mouth.

My boy friends in kampung however were always keen to listen to my stories - about my train rides and how the girls from the all girls boarding school would date us from STAR during those journeys. Throughout the years, I learned to spice up my stories so as not to lose my audience. One of my friends actually got so inspired he persuaded his parents to send him to a vocational school in Mentakab Pahang after his LCE with single objective to experience the train rides. One little problem was, he actually took my stories about dating literally and tried to en-act the same. He got into deep depression because he thought he was a loser since nothing close to my stories ever happened to him. Out of a rigging sense of guilt and nudging sense responsibility, I explained to him that I made up most of my stories in previous years.

He recovered. I knew he truly recovered when one day during a train ride home when we were in form five, he searched for me once he came on board in Mentakab and by his side was one of the prettiest damsel I ever seen during all of my previous train rides. She was tall, had dark flowing long hair, big eyes, and a smile which shook my heart to a rhythm I never knew existed. I was in danger of falling in love with my best friend's girl friend. I came to understand later in life when we had a session of a group confession at one of the old boys' meeting that almost all of my friends had fallen head over heels in love with any girl who made a mistake of smiling generously at them.

We were 'Budak STAR', we needed help with our social grace especially when it came to being in the company of girls.

Fortunately, we were also fast learners. I stopped eating hard-boiled eggs during train journeys. Instead I learned to bring things I could offer to girls as a form of ice-breakers such as chewing gums or scented facial tissues. I was encouraged by the results and made the mistake of sharing my experience with a few of my friends. Whoaallaalalaa, the next thing I knew, during the next train ride a whole bunch of STAR boys were handing out chewing gums to unsuspecting girls from TKC, Sekolah Kolam Air and STF.

As fate has it, I ended up marrying a girl from TKC. And I have been having a ball of a time trying to win her over on daily basis - so much so I suspected they actually taught in TKC on how to play hard to get!!

Ariffin Mamat, batch 75, is a typical success story of STAR. Popularly known as Pak Pin he has held various senior positions with Texas Instruments, Unilever Asia Pacific and Unilever Middle-East Africa. He currently resides in Jeddah.