'There Was An Owl...'

When i was younger, i was often the butt of the jokes, not that it means that i was practically bullied or pummelled into submission by the other kids. Nope, it was more like 'funny' jokes, stuff of comedians and entertaining shows. I had a good bunch of friends. And most of the people i know were more mischievious than malicious (well, we were kids after all).

I recall this one involving an owl being up on this tall tree in the middle of my primary school. Everyweek there would be a 'Story-of-the-week' thingie, and that particular week involved this white owl being up on that tree. All visible and kiddie magnet. Yup, it was an age of curiousity (i think this applies to everyone actually), so that week, groups of kids would just gather round the tree during recess, talked about the owl, or tried to bring it down by pelting it with stones and sticks; or just came to look at it.

Well later that week, things just toned down and it was basically a zoo session. Staring and looking. This is where the joke happened.

A group of malay kids (i think i had no affiliations with them, anyways i'm too old to remember them now...) were there on this particular day. All chatterbox and laughing. I think i was the only chinese kid there. As i approached the tree, one of them said to me in malay, "Ei...budak, mana burung hang tu?" (Basically, i thought they were asking me where the owl was, but "hang tu" isn't "hantu"). In Bahasa Melayu (Malay language), 'Burung Hantu' means Owl, but literally translated is Ghost Bird, which doesn't make sense (FYI, i think it's because of the sound it makes and basically people long ago thought it was spooky). And 'Burung hang tu' means your bird (your penis).

So guess what happens next.

Me being chinese and all didn't help my listening/understanding skills to properly identify the kids' pronunciation.

I pointed up to the tree saying, "Tu, atas pokok..." (There, it's up on that tree).

The whole group started laughing like ape-crap. Some even fell down where they were, holding their stomachs and stuff. And yeah, it was then i realised, "Oh crap......" (after a while it was more amusing than insulting, so yeah i laughed along too).

It was alrite.

;-)