C. Kunalan and Keegan Tan
The Legacy of Two Authors
C Kunalan:
Hmmmm! Where was I when I was 9 years old? From the age of 5 till 18 I grew up in Alexandra and Pasir Panjang area, opposite Gillman Barracks. My wife Chong Yoong Ying and I, drive along, Alexandra Road on our way to Labrador Park to walk after dinner. As we drive along, I sometimes recall all the things that happened to me 70 years ago.
The drain and coconut tree and slopes and the Guard House and the road remind me of an incident in 1960 Keegan. There were many times when I made my mother and father sad because of the silly things I did. One day in 1960 my friend and I decided to pluck coconuts at the plantation at Gillman Barracks. My friend climbed the tree and threw down a couple of coconuts which I started gathering. But we were caught by the Military Police because we were in a Restricted Area. We were sent to Tanjong Pagar Police Station.
Fortunately, after a few hours at the Station, we were told to go home. When I came home from the Police Station, my sister said, "Mother is looking for you! You better go and find her!" I ran along Alexandra Road and I reached her where HortPark and Hydrabad Road are now. She had tears in her eyes and I also had tears in mine and a tear (other meaning) in my heart. I was so sad.
Another incident happened when I was 13 years old. I was running back along Alexandra Road after posting a letter when I jumped onto the grass along the roadside to avoid a bus. My foot landed on a broken bottle hidden among the thick grass. I was bleeding. Luckily a man on a bicycle took me home, bleeding all the way. My mother said, "I can sew this!" But my father suspected something worse and he took me to the General Hospital. He knew he should not sew the wound as he suspected an injured foot bone too. We came home past midnight. I was in a plaster cast for several weeks.
Gillman Barracks and Alexandra and Pasir Panjang have many more stories for me.
"Late but not Last". You will read about this when you get to P4. Below the picture it says "Mr Kunalan as a young athlete". Actually when I was in Primary and Secondary school, I was never an “Athlete". Everyone was faster and stronger than I was at that time.
In Primary school we always had a Sports Day, but my event was the Egg and Spoon Relay or the Baton Shuttle Relay. In Secondary School we only had Sports Day when I was in Sec 3 and 4.. I was not good enough to represent my House for the short sprints instead I was put in the first event of the day, the One Mile Open for which each House could enter 6 runners.
I left school at the end of 1959 after my "O" Level examination. In 1963 Mr Tan Eng Yoon "discovered" me and trained me to become a National champion in sprinting!
"Lucky in Life" too because of our International Family! It is made up of a Scottish son-in-law, Colin Macleod (1) who is married to our eldest daughter, Soma (2) and their 2 daughters, Jasmine and Amber (3 & 4). They live in Perth. And an English son-in-law, Mike Thomsett (5), who is married to our 3rd daughter, Gina (6) and and grand son, Jamie (7) who all live in Singapore.
C. Kunalan’s Achievements
1977: National Day Honours (Efficiency Award)
1981: MOE Scholarship to Western Australia (Certificate)
1983: IE scholarship to West Germany (Diploma)
1986: NIE Scholarship to UK (Masters of Science)
NIE/NTU: (Twice named teacher of the year)
2007: 2 NTU Awards for Excellence in Teaching, Excellence in Service
2007: IOC Sport and promotion of Olympism Award
5 Asian Games & 15 SEAP/SEA Games medals
At one time or other: Held the Singapore Record in: 100m, 200m, 400m and had his name in the National records of: 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays.
Represented Singapore in 1968 Olympic Games.
Sportsman of the Year in 1968 & 1969.
Keegan Tan:
One day a bad guy came from the nether world! He turned my school into a school monster! Luckily Keegan came out and turned into ICEBOT! Before the students could see him, he blast his hands with ice, but it grew back. The right arm grabbed Keegan!!! Keegan turned his hand into ice and broke free.
Keegan then transformed into SPEEDYBOT. He is very fast. He ran as fast as he could to Mr Kunalan’s temple. He asked how to defeat the giant school monster. Mr Kunalan said, “You must go into the school monster’s mouth and burn him and quickly come out of his mouth or else it would explode! But it will be hard!
The school monster & body is so powerful that you can’t transform into any other super robots! So you will have to get out using heatbot, he said. So well good luck!” suddenly I had an idea….
I said can I transform into fire-fly? I mean he can fly and shoot fire! Mr Kumalan said sure! But that will make it explode quicker! I quickly ran out of Mr Kunalan’s temple and said thank you! By the time I got there the school monster was about to eat all the schools on earth. I quickly transform into fire-fly and flew into the school monster’s mouth and shoot fire everywhere.
I didn’t have time to escape the school monster’s mouth and it just exploded too fast! I was stuck! under a huge enormous rock!!! I couldn’t transform into STRENGTHBOT because Keegan can’t reach his power! The children were safe and they helped me up and pushed the rock so I can reach my power and transform into WORKERBOT and build back the school. Everyone was so happy but before they could thank me, I was gone and I turned back into my normal self and everybody thought I missed everything but the good news is that everyone is safe in the end.
