All roads lead to PFS
Road pathway in Penang Free School
Dr Wu Lien Teh MB BChir (Cambridge)
Queen Scholar 1896
First medical student of Chinese descent in Cambridge
2.5.2010
Run to me*… (from your shadows!)I was not really someone who was active in sport when I was in school. Out of necessity to make my school leaving testimonial well balanced – not just glamorous on the academic side, but also with a few sports achievements, my dear friend Kameel and I started jogging when I was in Form 4. This self motivating sport helped me to win the 6th place in the Under-20 PFS Cross Country Run, even beating my house captain in a photo finish.
In primary school, sport activity was essentially playing football in the school field before and after Tamil class. All the boys would gather at around 8.30am, play till 10am, Tamil class from 10 to 11.30pm, then play again till 1pm before we dispersed. It looked like football was main show and lessons were the side show! There were 4 school houses namely Arnold (green, I was in it), Cheeseman (Yellow), Mortimer (Red) and Hewitt (Blue). The house names’ were after PFS’ old Headmasters (except for Cheeseman who established the Scouts movement in Penang). My primary school, Hutchings occupied the old Penang Free School building. It was founded in 1928 and was closely linked to Penang Free School. It was a feeder school to its secondary students.
In Penang Free School, there were 6 school houses –
In Penang Free School, the Cross Country Run was an annual event, usually in February. There were (I think) 2 categories of events – Under 15 (3.8km) and Under 20 (4.4km). The run started at the school gate past the State Mosque into Ayer Itam Road till the Muslim orphanage. At the orphanage, we turned into Thean Teik Estate up the cemetery hills and came over near the Georgetown School. From here, we went into Hamilton Road and back to where we started. When I was first exposed to this race in Form 1, I could only run to the Mosque (400m) but by Form 6 (1982), I had finished the race as 6th in Under-20 category, even beating the Hargreaves house athletic captain in a photo finish. The idea of using jogging as a form of recreation and its positive effect of memory power was mooted by my bosom buddies like Kameel, Sas, Farouk and Hari. These people were good friends indeed. Kameel was a good motivating factor in helping us to improve ourselves and is probably doing the same to his students in IIU. He put forward the theory that jogging improves cerebral functions and I have been running since like Forrest Gump!
My first jogging track was the greenery paved tombstones lined tar roads of the Rifle Range–Batu Gantung cemetery. Here I found peace, serenity, silence and peace of mind which was sorely missing in RRF. Only in CSI dead people got a tale to tell, in real life they lay dead and motionless! And they will not haunt you unless provoked! Somewhere along the way I used to meet fellow joggers and I will follow them all the way to Botanical Gardens via Batu Gantung Turf Club and Western Road and back.
The desire to make my school testimonial more illustrious pushed me to involve myself in the school rugby team. Even though I was no superstar, I somehow made it to the school B team to play as a hooker due to my puny size. That was enough for me! And all the jogging helped me to be victorious in the 1982 Under-20 PFS Cross Country Run.
In those days, before Sylvester Stallone became Rambo, he was a motivating factor for me. His depiction of Rocky Balboa (a.k.a. Italian Stallion) in the original Rocky film and his raw zest to train as an underdog to challenge the mighty Russian boxer spurred us all to work and play harder. The original music score 'Gonna Fly Now' by Bill Conti used to vibrate repeatedly in our minds. Well, it helped us all to reach our destinations.
I continued my jogging activities all through my varsity and working lives. After relocating from RRF to Brown Garden, I used to jog around Minden Heights and USM campus. In Kubang Kerian, there was a nice track behind our hostel to run. In between my houseman duties, Taman Andalas in Klang was my jogging ground. Just like that in Kuala Pilah it was Taman Seri Bahtera, in Seremban it was Rasah Jaya, in Malacca it was Sin Hoe Garden and Forest Reserve, in Johor Bahru it was Bandar Baru Uda, and in Kuala Lumpur it was Taman Cuepacs!
Somehow in early 2009, out of the blues (may be mid life crisis), I had the burning desire to take my recreational pastime to the next level. I signed up for the 2009 Standard Chartered 10km run and one thing lead to another and I am now standing as a proud finisher of 3 Half Marathons.
The take home message here is that it is important to find friends who give us positive influence to improve our lives. Friends who strive to improve themselves will shed off some of their good qualities on us to do the same. It will be just the reverse for association with bad hats. Like what Amma used to tell us, “the calf who follows around piglets in the pig sty will eventually learn to eat shit!” It is just a crude way of what I am trying to say above.
*Run to Me - Bee Gees 1972.
- Wu Lien Teh (green) – named after PFS Queen Scholar who read medicine in Cambridge. He was an exemplary student there winning all medals and scholarships. He returned to Malaya but was disappointed not to get a suitable post to match his qualification due to bureaucracy. As he was vocal in social issues, he was framed in Malaya for having opium in his clinic even though it was legal for its medicinal properties. He left Malaya disappointed to work in China. Wu did a lot of pioneering work in fighting pulmonic plague in China in the 1930s He was later decorated by the world medical fraternity for his work in China. He returned to Malaya later to work as a GP in Ipoh and passed on at the age of 81, a year after retiring from Medicine. (Déjà vu?)
- Tunku Putra (orange) – named after the most famous Free School boy who needs no introduction, Malaysia’s Father of Independence.
- Pinhorn (blue) – named after the Headmaster of PFS (1904-1925)
- Hamilton (yellow) – named after the Headmaster of PFS (1925-1926)
- Hargreaves (brown) – my house, named after Headmaster PFS (1891-1904). He was appointed as the first Headmaster of MCKK in 1905.
- Cheeseman (red) – named after the legendary founder of Scouts movement in Malaysia.
In Penang Free School, the Cross Country Run was an annual event, usually in February. There were (I think) 2 categories of events – Under 15 (3.8km) and Under 20 (4.4km). The run started at the school gate past the State Mosque into Ayer Itam Road till the Muslim orphanage. At the orphanage, we turned into Thean Teik Estate up the cemetery hills and came over near the Georgetown School. From here, we went into Hamilton Road and back to where we started. When I was first exposed to this race in Form 1, I could only run to the Mosque (400m) but by Form 6 (1982), I had finished the race as 6th in Under-20 category, even beating the Hargreaves house athletic captain in a photo finish. The idea of using jogging as a form of recreation and its positive effect of memory power was mooted by my bosom buddies like Kameel, Sas, Farouk and Hari. These people were good friends indeed. Kameel was a good motivating factor in helping us to improve ourselves and is probably doing the same to his students in IIU. He put forward the theory that jogging improves cerebral functions and I have been running since like Forrest Gump!
My first jogging track was the greenery paved tombstones lined tar roads of the Rifle Range–Batu Gantung cemetery. Here I found peace, serenity, silence and peace of mind which was sorely missing in RRF. Only in CSI dead people got a tale to tell, in real life they lay dead and motionless! And they will not haunt you unless provoked! Somewhere along the way I used to meet fellow joggers and I will follow them all the way to Botanical Gardens via Batu Gantung Turf Club and Western Road and back.
The desire to make my school testimonial more illustrious pushed me to involve myself in the school rugby team. Even though I was no superstar, I somehow made it to the school B team to play as a hooker due to my puny size. That was enough for me! And all the jogging helped me to be victorious in the 1982 Under-20 PFS Cross Country Run.
In those days, before Sylvester Stallone became Rambo, he was a motivating factor for me. His depiction of Rocky Balboa (a.k.a. Italian Stallion) in the original Rocky film and his raw zest to train as an underdog to challenge the mighty Russian boxer spurred us all to work and play harder. The original music score 'Gonna Fly Now' by Bill Conti used to vibrate repeatedly in our minds. Well, it helped us all to reach our destinations.
I continued my jogging activities all through my varsity and working lives. After relocating from RRF to Brown Garden, I used to jog around Minden Heights and USM campus. In Kubang Kerian, there was a nice track behind our hostel to run. In between my houseman duties, Taman Andalas in Klang was my jogging ground. Just like that in Kuala Pilah it was Taman Seri Bahtera, in Seremban it was Rasah Jaya, in Malacca it was Sin Hoe Garden and Forest Reserve, in Johor Bahru it was Bandar Baru Uda, and in Kuala Lumpur it was Taman Cuepacs!
Somehow in early 2009, out of the blues (may be mid life crisis), I had the burning desire to take my recreational pastime to the next level. I signed up for the 2009 Standard Chartered 10km run and one thing lead to another and I am now standing as a proud finisher of 3 Half Marathons.
The take home message here is that it is important to find friends who give us positive influence to improve our lives. Friends who strive to improve themselves will shed off some of their good qualities on us to do the same. It will be just the reverse for association with bad hats. Like what Amma used to tell us, “the calf who follows around piglets in the pig sty will eventually learn to eat shit!” It is just a crude way of what I am trying to say above.
*Run to Me - Bee Gees 1972.
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