At seventeen, I finished my Cambridge Certificate (‘O’ levels) and continued to pre-university (equivalent to ‘A’ levels) in the science stream at St Patrick’s. I had dearly wanted to do my pre-university in medicine at St Joseph’s Institution in the city centre but the travelling cost to and from town and other associated expenses was too prohibitive for my parents. So, I was told to continue my studies at St Patricks instead. Unfortunately, St Patricks did not offer a pre-university medicine option so I had no choice but to do science the only other alternative being arts. During this period, I had gotten to know a Eurasian friend G and his family particularly his mother very well. One day she mentioned that a friend of hers living in Joo Chiat Terrace in Katong had a daughter who was preparing for her Cambridge Certificate exams and was struggling to cope. She wondered if I might be interested in giving tuition to this girl. I was just turning eighteen, only a year older than the girl I was being asked to give tuition to, so it was rather unusual and quite bold of me to agree to it. Nevertheless, since I had done pretty well at the Cambridge exams myself, I felt confident in my own abilities and the money offered seemed heaven-sent since money was always an issue. The tuition fee was to be $25 a month for a twice-a-week, one hour tuition, on Maths and English. I had never earned this kind of money before so it was very tempting. One-on-one tuition with S went pretty well and she did improve considerably in her class exams much to the delight of her mother who began to shower me with all kinds of gifts and goodies to bring home. Whereupon, S then asked if I would mind if her best friend A joined in during the tuition session as well since she was also in need of some guidance. Since it made no difference to me in terms of my time commitment, I did not object. A was a much better looker than S who somehow took to me. Yet, I on my part would have preferred A to S but unfortunately they were best of friends! Caught in this triangle of attraction life was beginning to be much more complicated than I imagined. Yet I was learning to enjoy the fruits of my hard work giving tuition.
With my very first $25 dollars tuition ‘pay’ I celebrated with my friends G, D and M. We headed to Islamic, an Indian restaurant in Arab Street renowned for its ‘nasi bryani’. I loved this meal so much that each month we would head there to savour our favourite food. Eventually, M suggested that we try an Indian Vegetarian restaurant called Komala Villas in what is now called ‘Little India’ and that also became one of our favourite eating places. We did this regularly until M (who was two years older than me) left to further his studies in Perth, Australia and G and his family migrated to Sydney, Australia to start a new life. The satisfying and rewarding (in both senses) experience of giving tuition set me on the path to future tuition successes. Needless to say, when the results of the Cambridge Certificate came out early the following year (as they usually do) both S and A did far better than they had dared to expect
