One hot day in December 1986
I was mulling on which name to use. Everyone’s got their nicks down pat now and the usual ones which I would use are probably grabbed ages ago. It must be something meaningful and hopefully not to obscure ,so I would remember it – age is catching up alas! I have so many handles it’s hard to keep track!. It’s easier when I peg it to something memorable - my ebay handle is the bike which Man and I used when we were dating. hee hee!
So in the end, seeing that it is IU who have been pestering me for a blog, there seems to be only one choice. Try as I might to find some trace of this name on the Internet, there’s none so this is my small contribution to keep that name alive. Of course, the events that kindled this name is way before the internet age we know now.
It was the December school holidays. The school canteen was empty except for three earnest girls trying to get together a dikir barat group for NYJC annual 1987 Gema Dikir Barat. Without fanfare, the name Sri Perwira was chosen. We liked the Perwira (warrior!) bit and I think we cobbled the “Sri” in front of it to make it more feminine.
I was still smarting from the “humiliation” our school suffered two years running. The first time RGS took part, it was a lacklustre performance and worst of all, the dikir barat group used the Angklung blouse (it is really a chiffon blouse with the most kuniang bow at the neck! Where got brutal?!) with black slacks, red kain samping and oh my! the headress was fashioned using paper, aluminium foil and sewing thread. Complete with aluminium balls at the side!! Oh tidak! Against the dazzling costumes of the other teams, we faded like a wallflower.
The second year, it was a fantastic performance. Our seniors did a fab job - we had a good juara and tukang karut. They had proper dikir costume in lilac. I thought the prize is a shoe in especially since it was so bloody obvious that the Tukang Karut from CGS was reading the lyrics from her palm. Still thwarted! They said we looked too masculine. I was so determined that 1987 will be our year!
4 comments:
oh my God! just look at the language used here!
your one post beat mine years of blogging hands down, shiks!
i can't wait to see the rest of it. :)
Talking about language, I still have your GP Compo paper Shikin which I have read many many times...It's titled `What you will miss if you leave Singapore'. (Maybe God wants to prepare you very early..heh)It's so well written, I think you scored almost full marks! I simply love it too...I wanted to use it as a sample when I was still a teacher but could not get in touch with you to get permission.
I must say, I like your writing style... like yours too Ayu...you have your own identity too...heh
Wah!!! nani, send me a copy! if can fax it over, better still. except i tak ingat my own fax no. scan it pls! I don't have anything of mine from my school days. kesian tak? hahahahah
alamak, kan sini pon boleh "terburai kain" ah. haha.
i want to see that write up too, nani! one of these days, i will drop by your place and then get it scanned and then shiks can have it posted it up here for the world to see!
shiks, if you write a book, i will be the first in line to get a copy! : )
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