My Father When He Was 15

Believe it or not this photo was taken in 1950. This bunch of 15 or so year olds have just finished school and applying to become teachers. My father is the one standing 2nd from left. This is the earliest known photo of my father.

A friend of his came over to the house and gave him a photocopy of the photo. Azah said he looked at the photo with tears in his eyes. My father is 72 this year. Still healthy with amazing memory. He's a walking history book. Ask him anything about the country's history and he can tell you in detail. He used to be a Bahasa Melayu and History teacher. He's a true teacher right till this moment. In this photo he looks a bit like my 2nd brother (Hello Abang Ben! Hehehehe...).

My father wanted me to become a teacher. None of my siblings became one, so he thought I could be the best candidate. He was so proud when I enrolled in the TESL program. But I officially taught for 2.5 months. I didn't like it. He was angry. We didn't speak for months. In his younger days, my father was also a scriptwriter. He wrote scripts for children radio shows. His main characters - Ani & Azlan. That's me and my youngest brother. We spoke again after I went to see him and showed him a newspaper cutting with my byline. That was the first story I got published. I guess it was a little consolation for him that I did follow his footsteps, not being a teacher but a writer. At least lah...