Having skipped most of my maths classes throughout my entire stay at Seremban, I am hardly qualified to say anything on the subject. However, a small (but very insistent) voice in my head keeps telling me to record my thoughts about one of our maths teachers: The unmistakable Mr Maniam Raju.
Remember this mathematical pillar of strength? Even today, I am still amazed at the speed with which he went through calculations – any calculation! And this is not just because I am easily dumbfounded by things mathematical. If this guy was a car, he’d be rocketship of a car! When he was demonstrating solutions on the board, if I even blinked, it was all over. What was worse, when I looked around me, everybody else seemed to be able to follow. Therefore, there was nothing wrong with the teacher. However – the painful implication was – there were a whole lot of things that were going wrong with me (but that belongs in a different blog entry).
Then there came a time when I began suspecting that it was all a hoax; that it was some kind of elaborate conspiracy. Mr Maniam was merely play-acting! Nobody could make mathematical calculations at what looked like close to the speed of light. There must be some laws of physics that were being broken. And the other people in my class were playing along, too – a sort of extension of the Stockholm Syndrome. So I picked out a math problem, took a week to solve it (all by my lonesome), and waited for Mr Maniam’s next class. True enough, it took him the good part of 3 nanoseconds to solve it. Mr Maniam wasn’t play-acting. The rest of the class weren’t just playing along. I was just mathematically inept.
But thanks to Mr Maniam (and all our other teachers, especially Mrs Helena Chu), I am now not as dumb as I would have been.
- Pian Boe -
13 responses so far ↓
Jenk // July 23, 2008 at 12:26 am |
Speed eh…??? ever heard of the expression “…macam … dapat basikal…” ??? Damn… I’ll probably get done for being politically incorrect here…
Jenk // July 23, 2008 at 12:58 am |
Hmmm… Believe it or not Mr. Maniam Raju is now a practising lawyer (so tempted to add another expression here… But no need lah, getting a certain part of my anatomy absolutely red for my comment above is enough) with an office in Seremban… What I remembered most about Maniam is how ‘Jiwang’ he could be… My class (if my classmates out there still remembers) had the experience of getting Mr. Maniam in tears because we commented that his teaching method wasn’t so good that some of us can’t follow whatever he’s teaching… The truth is we weren’t the brightest lot anyway, a bit like ‘The Bash Street Kids’ from the comic Beano… I probably qualify for the character ‘Smiffy’. Anyway, another trait of Mr. Maniam is a bit like Karam Singh Walia… The famous ‘ungkapan’ as his last words. In Maniam’s case it’s the ‘ungkapan’ at the foot of his handout and the most memorable being “1 hour next to your sweetheart feels like 1 minute and 1 minute next to an oven feels like 1 hour . I’m sure Mud Jun (Azhar) remembered this one quite well. Till today I still cannot figure out the relationship between your sweetheart and the oven. Closest explanation that I can think of is one might get a good roasting if the sweetheart found out that he’s been playing ‘Kayu Tiga’.
td // July 25, 2008 at 4:18 pm |
I remember that day where we had that heart to heart talk with Mr.Manian Raju. I was very glad the class decided to frankly tell him the problems we had following his bullet train lessons. Thanks to him, my Math grade for MCE was acceptable. Or…should I blame him for getting me stuck teaching Math till I retire??
Kjenk, do you still remember our other math teachers? Mrs.King who greeted us ‘Good morning!!! (Bounce, bounce,bounce….) and Miss Yeow who loves to explain with drool… They were wonderful dedicated teachers. We were ……
Jenk // July 29, 2008 at 1:44 am |
Yuppp… I did remember Laura A. King (say it with your nose partially squeezed to get the proper american intonation…). Not only did we get to drink ‘milk’ but she also like to treat us to candies & cookies (tapi masa form 1 jer…). Her famous quote “…The mind is like a knife… The more you learn, the sharper it become…”. Slightly better than Maniam Raju’s “..a minute next to the oven…” I suppose.
Badique // July 29, 2008 at 7:56 pm |
Salam geng..
I agree Mr Maniam is a maths whizzo. But I had one unforgettable experience in his class during F4..
I was sleepy and dozed for probably 18.56 seconds. Then I felt a chalk being thrown at my face missing my gaping mouth by an integral of X2 + 5X mm.
I couldn’t sleep at all from that instance till probably 2am the next morning.
I wonder if it was Morgan or Hamid yang pointed me sleeping to Mr Maniam…hehe..
Badique // July 30, 2008 at 1:29 pm |
A..ha… U were in my class, Boe. So the other person..?
Hahaha
Jenk // August 1, 2008 at 12:31 am |
Hmmm… Morgan…, Maniam… Both names starts with the letter ‘M’ (some of the similarities). Anyway maniam fascinates me as to how he managed to create a ‘remos’ with his extremely curly hair… He he he… goes well with the ‘bell-bottoms’…
Jenk // August 1, 2008 at 12:56 am |
Boe… Tulis lah cerita pasal cikgu-cikgu yang lain such as Rashids Whams (Hey you guys, close the lamps and give me the terups…), Selvarajah (Vhat vill u be if you keep missing my class – waking me up in my room coz I missed his class first thing in the morning), En. Zubir (Cikgu nak aiskrim nyonyot satu – Jual aiskrim malaysia as his part time business when he was one of the warden in 1979) or even Helena (sekejap… aku nak lap air liur aku dulu…) Chu. Boleh aku tambah-tambah… or perhaps the other colourful characters such as kakak-kakak dapur (I’ve mentioned a few in my comments on Kandan’s profile), pak cik Jaga such as Yahya ‘Boy’, or even pak cik driver such as the masculine, long-haired, tight shirt and flared trousered Liman Tukachit (boost his ego when he’s driving bas maktab and you’ll reached your destination in double-quick time…!).
Jenk // August 5, 2008 at 1:20 am |
Boe
Ok… kawan aku punya pasal nanti aku start… (Yuppp… I still have the picture of you and me doing the John Travolta SNF punya pose in front of the hall at MRSM Kulim… Another teamwrk there…)
Badique // August 6, 2008 at 3:20 pm |
I agree with Boe and Jenk.. Let’s do some memoralia..memory lane..mammary glands..whatever the name is for those beloved teachers and staffs..
I know from years back that Jenk just loved Mondok.
And is there somewhere we can scan and download those great old pictures…
And Jenk… I can forget when you nearly fall of the chair in Aston Curgglae D Cymru canteen when I offered you a special cocktail drink. I called it D’ Lemon Tukachit…
Iman // August 10, 2008 at 11:03 pm |
I remember Hamid’s impression of Sairin Pardi’s “Iman Sah, I soot you with my sotgun”
Zorah // December 24, 2008 at 1:29 pm |
Mr Maniam?… I was in the class when we frankly informed him about his style of teaching. At that particular time, most of members in the class have gone to Mr Tan’s classes. There were only around 3 ~ 5 left in the class. He asked one of us to call all the other students back to his class to find out why most of the students have gone to Mr. Tan’s class. Gosh… macam bertih goreng… semua orang cakap… sampai Mr Maniam menangis… Kesian dia masa tu… but, he changed!! He was so happy that most of the students in that class did well – passed the paper … tak adalah yang fail!! He was in the school when we went to get our MCE results!! Cerita yang Iman tulis tu… memang sooooo… real!! I have been telling the same story to my children a couple of times… the story of Mr Maniam Raju. Lawyer, eh??? Hmmmmm…..
arrenn // March 6, 2009 at 4:07 pm |
Pian Boe, Kjenk, td, Badique and all who have contributed on this topic… Hey everyone arrenn just found out we have this website.. So bawah tempurung nye arrenn ni…
Misti la remember Mr Maniam Raju, I was one of the contributers for his tears… Mr Maniam we put in tears.. Ms Siow we chased out of the biology class for comparing us with the “A” class…