I was reading Faera’s blog about TKC. It feels so funny because I can still remember all the things she wrote about the school. I feel so privileged because I was able to experience three different secondary schools with different systems while growing up. I’m going to write my experience in TKC first before I forget, memori dah tak berapa bagus macam dulu dah…

TUNKU KURSHIAH COLLEGE, SEREMBAN.
After enjoying such a wonderful & marvellous childhood at SR Dato’ Hashim in KB, I received a phone call from the Headmaster’s Office, informing that I had been offered a place to study at TKC (somehow,I thought TKC was in Ipoh). I was oblivious to the fact that TKC is actually THE school for girls. I knew nothing about it. I waited for my mom to return from the market (dulu mana ada HP) that morning and told her about the news. She was very happy and surprised. She was an SBP student herself (from STF). We thought oh ok what the hell, let’s give it a try. Later we went shopping for stuff ie bantal, cadar putih and so on, buat medical check-up kat HKB… Plus I had to write my name on everything. Takut hilang/tertukar.

When I arrived there, I was given a College Sister (CS). Mine was Kak Linda, an excellent traditional dancer. My dorm was Canna (Blue House) and my class was 1T. My bed was next to Babed (masa tu kitorang panggil dia Debab) and she was one of my bestest friends. I sat next to Helmi in class. I was associated with sloppiness but she was tidy, kekadang tu dia tolong kemas my table and even locker, hehehe! And everybody called me ‘As’ there since Kak Linda said ‘Nida’ was not, err…commercial enough.

Bermulalah my life as a TKCian. The thing that I couldn’t foresee was having to wake up at 4 or 4.30am in the morning (the bathrooms were strictly reserved for Form Five students after 6 am), took a shower and went back to sleep. I’d wake up again at 5.15am or so and went to the surau, stand-by for Subuh and then queued up depan Dewan Makan because we had to serve the seniors. Once the makcik opend the door at 6am we’d rush in madly. We had to make sure the chairs were there (form 4 and 5 had a different set of wooden chairs, form 3 had another set of chairs and form 2+form 1 pakai kerusi plastik buruk aje). The problem was the chairs were NOT enough, so we had to come early and made sure that we have everything in order for our table. So sapa datang lambat, kerusi2 kat meja dia dah kena ambik and kena la mengadap seniors hari tuh. Tension woo… The first formers also had to wipe the table -make sure it’s clean and not sticky, beratur ambik breakfast and serve them on the table. Kalau hari tuh hari roti, kena bagi roti yang tak berlubang kepada seniors and kena tepuk2 roti tu to get rid of the serbuk2 roti. Scrambled eggs - kena ketuk2 sampai halus dulu before serve it on the plates. Kalau makan bihun, kena bagi ayam etc dalam bihun tu kepada senios, juniors kalau boleh makan bihun kosong aje. Then kena tunggu Yang Berhormat seniors semua masuk. Tangan strictly takleh letak atas meja, muka kena tunduk. After prefect habis baca doa makan, kena tunggu seniors makan dulu, baru juniors boleh makan. That was the most annoying thing in TKC. Kuli batok betul… Another annoying thing was when the seniors would call you from your dorm on weekends and asked you to buy stuff for them from the co-op or canteen. If ada any functions, the juniors would have to do all the labor ie angkat kerusi, susun meja, sapu dewan etc.

All these human rights violations eventually inspired me to study law

When my mom left me at TKC, she forgot to bring my scarfs (I’ve been wearing tudung since Standard Five). So I went free-hair for a while (lagipun sekolah tu semua perempuan kan except for some of their staffs) until the day an ustaz from a religious school came and warned us about the seksaan and azab for various of sins. I called my mom to post me the tudungs immediately. Takut.

During weekends, after House cleaning (cuci blok) on Sunday, I’d go to my class and sat there. Sometimes I studied, sometimes I’d write letter to my present hubby who was one of my penpals from various SBPs. He wrote to me quite frequently, sehinggalah dekat hujung2 tahun tu we both ‘bergaduh’. The reason was because he would kutuk TKC= katak over and over again, while I’d call SDARians-taik cicak (something to do with their baju outing). So silly.

Every Sunday I’d wait for the newspapers man to come so that I could buy Mingguan Malaysia. That was the only connection to the outside world as far as I was concerned, because we couldn’t watch the news (prep hours) and we couldn’t go out (first formers were not allowed to go out for outing, except for when our parents came to take us out, but my parents were in KB mana la diorang datang). We relied heavily on the co-op shop and my mom would post packages of chocolates to me. She would also send money orders and I would cash them when the Pos Bergerak van came to our college. Sometimes on Sundays, after reading the newspaper I’d usually entertain my classmates by mimicking some teachers from our class, especially our Math teacher Cikgu Saleh. He’s still in TKC I think because I saw him in the newspaper with TKC students last week.

I was involved in volleyball (my favourite sport), netball and basketball as a ‘pelapis’ since form one students cannot represent the school yet. Very few of us were selected at that time but I managed to get picked for all three sports. I felt so proud of myself back then, but it was also tiring since it also meant that I have to practice with the seniors everytime they practice.

I was voted as the batch’s costume designer for our English Drama, but I didn’t do much because we all didn’t have any experience at that time. For the Freshie Concert (the form Ones perform under the guidance of our Form Fours), I tried for Traditional Dance but I was not ‘tonggek’ enough. Yes those were the exact words. So I tried and was accepted for this weird,modern dance thing called Miscel (correct me if I’m wrong). But the dance was banned by Pen. Kanan HEP Puan Sabariah because of some of the moves. We cursed her (kat belakang dia la) because it was so frustrating since we’ve been practising for weeks, even staying late at nights, secretly practising in our dorms! Emotional betul masa tu.

But the Talent Show was the most memorable event for me, held before the Freshie Night. Each house had to send some ‘wakil’ for every singing category, ada solo, ada duet. My duet partner was Siti Malini Mat, and we were the underdogs. Totally. The seniors were supposed to train us, but most of the time they left us to train on our own (basically they ignore us la) because they were training our other friends with more potential, I guess. So we both ended up making our own moves etc at the dorm, and  Malini was so malu2 sebab dia jenis yg warak. Dahla pilih nak nyanyi lagu Norsheila Amin "Ahai Usahlah", macam lagu dangdut pun ada kot! Our dormates were very supportive, thank you guys.

On the day itself,Malini pulak naik sheikh and lawan tokey hahahaha! Punya la gelek and people were so amused because they always think of her as an ‘ustazah’, even the teachers were laughing. That was a great entertainment. And we won. Sweeeeeeeeet….

I remember all those ’starter’ notes that I got from Mar(diana) and from several seniors. They all had beautiful handwritings and quite similar, ada satu style handwriting kat TKC ni, but we were very creative in writing those notes. ‘Starter’ ni macam adik-kakak angkat la, tapi we also have starter from our own batch. We encouraged each other in many things- studies, life etc. It was like a written sisterhood, I’d say. When Mar heard about my plan of quitting TKC, she gave me a card - "Don’t Quit". It was so nice and sweet of her. But I quit eventually.

People love to say that homesick was THE reason I quit TKC. Yes, I admit I was a bit homesick, but that alone did not make me quit TKC. I hate it when people say it as if they know more about your life that you do, and they are so sure that homesick was the reason, no matter what I say to them. The main reason I quit TKC was because I wasn’t good in my studies. I just knew that if I remained there, I won’t get straight As in my PMR because I was so occupied with so many things! After the 1st exam (penggal satu), out of around 120 students, I think I was among the last ten. I was definitely the last in my class. My friend who was no. 27 (out of 28) cried like it was the end of the world, while I, the last in my class, just sat there and thought "oh, well I deserve it because I didn’t study for the exams". Not even a single teardrop. I studied hard for the next exam and I scored a much, much better result than the first exam. By then, I was already at home because I already quit TKC.

Next post: My life at SMKDAM in KB.