It's a BLAST!

It was a dark, dark Thursday night. The junior students of Kolej MARA Banting, still in their first week of their stay, in their formal attire, with no clue whatsoever of what was to happen, were gathered like sheep ready for slaughter, into two groups – one for the rams and one for the ewes. They were then told, by the senior sheep, to remove all valuable items and our bags – in the cold, dark night, under a tall building, with nothing but the faint moonlight to light our path. It was the 25th of June; I should have suspected something was wrong. Yet, we, the juniors, innocently followed ever command from the seniors’ lips. They tied up each group in nylon string, each senior with a gleam in their eyes; we were trapped.

The senior sheep then instructed us to sing Barney’s “I Love You”, with the guise of incalcating unity. He then instructed us to shout “It’s a blast!” to his calls of “IB!” So it went like this:

Senior sheep: “IB!”
Junior sheep: “It’s a blast!”
Senior sheep: “IB!”
Junior sheep: “It’s a BLAST!”

As we, the innocent and helpless juniors, declared those last words with astute confidence, suddenly a wave of cold water crashed down upon our heads. It was a wild chaotic scene of screams and flailing arms as the junior guys started running all over the place. Alas, it was a hoax; a scam; a prank! More water was being splashed upon us, and I was unfortunately directly under the building so I probably got the worst of it.

When the guys eventually plucked up the courage to return to the general vicinity, we realized that the girls were still huddled together in a tight circle due to the nylon bonds that held them. We, the guys, wondered in amazement at the girls’ bravery – that was, until the seniors splashed more water on them. The girls then started screaming and slowly trying to walk away: it was such a comical sight! We then concluded that the girls weren’t all that united; they just couldn’t break free!

“Welcome to KMB,” said the seniors, in a cold, mocking voice that will forever send chills down my spine for the next two years of my life. But it was all good fun; no one got hurt, and we got some junk food later to munch on. After that, all anger and grudges would disappear together with crunchy junk food that satisfied us hungry students who get nothing but a morsel or two of food each day.