Cikgu ZULFIKLI

Taare Zameen Par. Black. Two movies which throbbed my heart away recently. I've already written a review for it in my friendster yet I am not satisfied. Why this movie touched me so much? Coz I too had a teacher just like this one in this movie. (wait.. wait I was neither dyslexic nor mentally ill whatsoever ya!)

When I went back to Segamat last week, I somehow found my long lost karangan notebook. The “Diri Saya” and “Keluaga Saya” essays with red marks all over the page, the “penbeturan” (thats exactly how I had spelt it) that a teacher made me write over and over again put a smile on my face now when I think of it.

It was the dark gloomy days of life which I spent in T’ganu without knowing a single word in malay. Where I used to sit amidst a huge group of tudung-ed malay girls and vividly stare at yet another tudung-ed being who desperately tried to keep the class interesting in the extremely dry subject (kajian tempatan) with all her superpowers braught out to lime light through lame comedy .. so classic! Even that I figured out only after months because initially it was just like watching a Japanese movie without subtitles! (shakespeary movie! No action all! ) And of course I made a big fool of myself when I approached her as I deliberately wanting to seek guidance. So after after professionally looking through my English-malay pocket dictionary I gained all my courage and wanted to ask her when she was free. But ended up asking “Bila cikgu percuma?” She was perplexed initially then burst into laughter!
The point is I was lost! Totally!

Then slowly this “tuition-will help” thing crept in. TUITION..I’ve never even heard of it when I was in India. Back then there it was like tuition = for school drop-outs. It was this ugly drainage that you wouldn’t want to step into. But of course now things have changed.. SO MUCH!
I agreed reluctantly.. Well actually I didn’t have much of a choice!

Cikgu Zulkifli – my 1st Bahasa Malaysia @ Melayu (even after solid 10years spent in Malaysia I see people are still contemplating over this issue and they don’t seem to come to a consensus.. Malaysia la beb =P ) Anyway back to my cerita! His mom was my dad’s patient and when he heard that I was helpless, he readily agreed to be my tutor. And he refused to take fees.. noble eh? I couldn’t even pronounce his name properly! Zulkifli.. Zulfikli all sounded the same to me.. ARGH! All the names were so alien after being so used to the lalithas.. shreenivases and moorthis back in india.

He used to travel 20km everyday from some ulu kampong in t’ganu all the way to my house and teach me malay. The best part is he couldn’t speak English! Great! How much worse can it get. No international school.. No special malay coaching.. Not even a teacher who could speak English! But the magical part of it was that, he never gave up nor did he let me give up!

Umpteen times I failed in most of my subjects as everything was in malay. All this were very new to me. I felt like running back to India that instance and happily going back to DAV! But he never gave up! I used to curse him under my breath for the silly kindergarden story books he made me read... the “satu dua tiga” and “isnin selasa rabu” he made me memorize. A point to be mentioned... even till now I think twice before saying SELASA because I never got it right back then! I used to confuse it with SELESA ! Admit it.. It’s confusing what! Well I had to start from scratch =/

But later on especially when it came to slightly higher level complicated Malay ,Primary 3, it became difficult. He felt bad that he couldn’t speak English. So he brought another teacher along .. his English speaking friend supposedly.. and I used to have 2:1 Malay class! Haha. Though the new guy was just a shade better than him but the sincerity that mattered. And of course, for the dosas they enjoyed from mom’s kitchen too mattered I guess! Haha that explained why my classes got purposely extended to dinner time at most of the times =P but argh well, mere hindustani ma loves being a host more than anything!

Well after that slowly I picked up malay .. and I moved to Segamat. Till today I feel bad for not keeping touch with him ...Wait...frankly I am exaggerating. Erm actly, not that I have it in my mind always or what but argh well.. it’s just a phrase everybody use when they repent over something! So yah bear with it!