The Star, Northern Metro

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Trip down memory lane

By RASLAN BAHAROM

THERE were plenty of shrieks, hugs and tears of joy when more than 300 former students of Taiping’s Treacher Metho-dist Girls School (TMGS) gathered for dinner at a hotel in Taiping recently to celebrate the school’s 120th anniversary.

Many of them are now in the prime of their lives but memories of their school days, their ‘naughtiness’ and ‘no nonsense’ teachers are still fresh in their minds.

One ex-student Tan Sri Dr Asiah Abu Samah, who remembered praying for rain to skip the afternoon co-curricular activities, said her prayers were usually answered as Taiping is well known for its rainy weather.

Dr Asiah, who was the former Human Rights Commission of Ma-laysia commissioner, was one of the evening’s guest of honour together with Inland Revenue Department director-general Datuk Hasmah Abdullah.

Both of them paid tribute to the teachers during the dinner. They also noted that the 1Malaysia concept had already been practised since those days as they were never conscious of their ethnic or social backgrounds.

Former SM Convent Taiping teacher Muhitah Mohd Rose, who left TMGS in 1959 after completing Form Five, was the luckiest as she won a return AirAsia ticket for two to Guilin, China.

The grandmother of seven, who retired in 1996, said she would probably bring along one of her six children for the trip as her husband. Ahmad Khairuddin, passed away about two years ago.

“I have never been overseas before and I am looking forward to do just that with the free air tickets,” she said.

TMGS Old Girls Association (OGA) chairman Ahsaniah Othman in her speech said this was the biggest gathering ever organised.

While catching up on old times, the former schoolmates were entertained by a dance troupe made up of Kuala Lumpur-based OGA members calling themselves Dancing Queen.