A Short Memoir Spanning Seven Decades


 

Youthful Sporting Doctor Mukhtiar Sidhu was invited by the Seletar Young Indians Football Club to join the Club around 1952, as its’  Sports Secretary as it needed an English educated member to handle correspondence and liaison. 

Dr Mukhtiar recalls:

The Club was affiliated to the Singapore Football Association and took part in the SFA Division League. Hence, for the first few years I handled all the ground work, mainly administrative and coordination with (SFA) that was located in Sports House in Farrer Park.



Front Row from L: 1Palani (RIP); 4Vinayagam (RIP); 5 Dr Sidhu 6Chandrasekaran; 7Suppiah G;   9Sasidharan (in Perth). 2nd. Row from L 3Jayaram; 5Velayadan;  6 Sankran 

 I also conducted internal meetings in Tamil! as I was fluent in Tamil having picked up the language from childhood friends.

The football practice sessions were held in a field near Hot Water Springs, kindly leased to us by Frazer and Neave for a token sum of $2 a year! before F&N built its Seletaris spring water bottling plant.

A few years after joining the Club, I invited my English educated classmates from Admiralty Asian School to join Seletar FC which helped the club progress.  

  As I began to get more involved in my Medical studies, I delegated the day- to- day matters to others, especially Palani and Vinayagam.

 When the Naval Base was handed to Singapore Government, and the Naval Base Trade Union disbanded in 1971, we were fortunate to be able to use the Union’s building at 14 M/s (mile stone) as our Club House.

When I left Singapore for Brisbane in 1976, the club continued functioning till the early eighties. Subsequently, due to Sembawang Road widening works we again had to move to a building along Pakistan Road. Eventually, I think around 1990, the site was redeveloped, and the premier Indian football club in Sembawang "died" a natural death.

Story and photo copyright of Dr Mukhtiar Sidhu.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE BASE SOCCER 'NUTS'

Image
THE BASE SOCCER 'NUTS' The Straits Times 23 April 1978 by Bernard Pereria who  lived in Block 23 Madras Road .   Soccer to the local kids living in Singapore’s former British Naval Base at Sembawang was not just a sport to be played on proper marked out pitches. The kids living in the uninhabited world of their own used to spend hours on end in the open spaces that offered an ideal sanctuary to their sporting needs. Boots were alien to them nor did they have any formal training by competent coaches . Observes, national soccer and hockey star Bernard Norbert, ‘The warm and friendly “Peyton Place” like atmosphere and the landscape where everyone knows everyone also contributes to our success. From the Naval Base came the great veteran Vivian Roberts and the famed Quah brothers Kim Tuan, Kim Beng, Kim Choon, Kim Swee, Kim Saik, Kim Lye, Kim Song who ruled soccer for nearly three decades since 1948. Patrons of sports The British knew that sports was a social event inte
Read more

MADE in HM NAVAL BASE

Image
My brother Mr Dharam Singh celebrated his 96 th birthday in his home in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada with his two sons and their families; his two younger brothers and their families; relatives, close friends, including former residents of HM Naval Base who emigrated to Canada.                But his story starts from Singapore on 9 th January 1927 where he was born and witnessed the trials and tribulations of the Second World War. Dharam Singh studied in Admiralty Asian School until Standard III. When he was 12 years old, he left school to accompany our parents to their birthplace Punjab, India, for a visit and to bring his elder brother who had been staying with his grandparents, back to Singapore. Unfortunately, the Second World War broke out and Dharam was forced to remain in Punjab.  However, my teenage brother was not going to idle his time and moved to Karachi- now Pakistan- to study tailoring under the tutelage of our uncle. After successfully completing a prolonged appre
Read more

Shopkeeper Businessman Publisher

Image
    The story  of Subramanian  Rethinam Pillai   a young teenage  Shopkeeper turned Businessman and Publisher from Naval Base. If Jalan Kedai (Shop Street) was Dr Muthiar Singh’s Orchard Road of Naval Base , it was  “a one-stop-shop ‘under one roof’ for our Admin Wan Chan Peew. “Provisions and basic items were readily available, if not shopkeepers promised replenishments in their next restocking! Purchases could be on ‘credit.’   Purchases could be made on credit with all transactions detailed in iconic ‘555’ pocketbooks maintained by the shopkeeper, and sums owed were acknowledged by the customer. The buyer dutifully settled the outstanding amount on the following Friday, which coincided with the payday of the week. No cheats, no quarrels or disputes of any kind arising therefrom. This harmonious relationship fostered a relationship of unwavering trust and integrity between the shopkeeper and the customer,” added Peew. Manimegalai Kedai , a popular provision shop stood at
Read more