Remembering Friends

It was an impromptu program by any standards, conceived, planned and executed all in less than 2 weeks. But as far as I'm concerned, it was a runaway success. It could have been better, no doubt, but everything "could have been something else" if we want to nitpick.

Thanks to the efforts of the prime movers Wilmie, Alim and Rosman, the ever helpful Mokhlis and of course the willing hosts Zahari and Nor Ismail, all went well. Of course without the attendance of and support of friends, all the planning would have come to nought. So thank you all.

The event started on Saturday, 1st September in Zahari's place in Bangi. It was a pity I was not able to be there as I had left for Melaka a day earlier. My biggest regret was not able to meet up with Cikgu Tahir. I have not not met him since I left school, more than 30 years ago. Who can forget Cikgu Tahir? Over the 2 years that he was the hostel warden, he must have caned me more than 30 times and I'm supposed to be one of the "good boys". You can imagined how many "the bad boys" would have got. Every time he blows the whistle 3 times all of us must assemble in front of his house. We know someone is going to be caned. Most times, most of us will be caned.

I can still vividly remember one night when the whistle was blown 3 times. We would rushed to wear at least 2 pairs of trousers and then our sarong to soften the expected blow. Cikgu Tahir told us that someone just reported to him that he had lost his money (I think it is 20 ringgit, big money to us then). Cikgu asked all of us to go upstairs and search for the money. If in 10 minutes we cannot find the money all of us would be caned. Sure enough 10 minutes passed and we came back down with no money. So all of us got caned. I think our Captain, the late Nor Zahari, was the first to be caned. One by one all of us got caned. All this while the boy who reported losing the money was standing besides Cikgu. All of us stared at him of course. After all of us had been caned, the boy who lost the money was caned twice for not taking good care of his money. Since that day nobody lost any money in the hostel.

Sorry but I digress.

On Sunday, a few friends including Wilmie, Alim and Rosman met the family of the late Anuar Johari and visited his grave in Cheras. They handed a small contribution that was collected earlier. Thereafter they drove to Melaka. Mokhlis drove alone from KL to Melaka.

I decided to fetch Cikgu Rejab from his house since I know he is not too well after a heart operation some time back. We were actually quite early and so decided to go to the grave of Tan Sri Rafie. He was the first Malay principal of Melaka High School and later became the Director General of the Education Ministry. Therefater, we went straight to Nor Ismail's place in Tiara Golf Resort.

Nor just moved in to his new abode two weeks ago. According to him, he had spent the last 15 months supervising the construction of his house. Knowing architects, his contractor must have had a nightmare :-). As expected, it was a very nice house. Soon enough everybody started arriving. The wife of the late Yusof Sulaiman and their 3 children were also present. We were busy reminiscing and almost forgot about our initial objective. A few minutes after 1:00pm we started the tahlil. Mokhlis gave a short introduction and mentioned the names of our friends who had left us. There was quite a number and some that I did not know have passed on. Cikgu Rejab led the tahlil and also recited the doa thereafter.

We were then treated to a sumptuous lunch. While we were having lunch "Edward" arrived with his wife. This is one friend whom I have the utmost respect for. He is staying in JB, more than 200kms away from Melaka, but he took the effort to join his friends in Melaka. When I invited him for my brother's wedding earlier in the year, he also made the effort to come. Thanks Edward, you are a gem of a friend. You definitely put others to shame. When some even considers Bangi to be too far away from KL, you are always your jovial self coming all the way from JB. But for all your efforts I still cannot remember your real name, Edward. Please forgive me.

Dato' Dr. Baba was also present. I did not had the opportunity to know him while in school but I surely have heard about him. After all, how many Malaysian doctors got shot while doing voluntary work in a foreign country? Syabas, Dato'. Keep up the good work. I'm proud just to know that you are a High School Alumni.

Later, we had our Zohor prayers, led by Cikgu Rejab. I had long chats with KM Yaakob. Frankly, I can not recall him from my High School days. I'm quite sure he also cannot remember me but we had something in common. Both of us worked for MISC, the national shipping line in the 80's and early 90's. Both of could have spent the whole day talking about shipping. After all, I know quite a bit about the exploits of seamen. Though KM is supposed to be an "old High School friend", I left the gathering thinking that I have just met a new friend. He is also the guy who painted the roof of his house into the Jalur Gemilang to celebrate Merdeka. What a guy.

Before long we had to continue with our program. Mokhlis handed some contribution to the eldest son of the late Yusof Sulaiman before we proceeded to ziarah his grave in Bacang. Before that all of us were handed a new pair of kain sarong. Thanks for the gift. It must be Wilmie, Alim and Rosman.

We spent only a short while at Yusof's grave as it was getting dark. We then drove to Selandar, quite a distance from Melaka, to meet the parents of the late Mazlan Yaasin (John). His mother is such a jovial lady. Even though Selandar is only a few kilometers from my kampong I have never been to this house while John was still alive. What a pity I only managed to be there after he was no longer around. I had to leave early as I promised dinner for my family as it was my daughter's birthday. The others proceeded to ziarah the pusara of John. I had to ask Malik to help send Cikgu Rejab home as I left the group. Thanks Malik for your help.

I was a full day for me. After dinner we headed back to KL and the highway was jammed packed with cars. I left Melaka round 8:45pm and reached Kelana Jaya about 30 minutes before midnight. I was real tired but the whole trip was worth it.

Thanks my friends. I will refrain from naming you all again but EVERYONE is special. Let us hope this is a signal of more to come. This past few months have been an experience for me. First, I was part of the team that organized our university Reunion. We had more time and the program was more elaborate. This time around we hardly had 2 weeks and the program was more sombre as we were remembering friends who were no longer with us. But isn't it ironic, it took friends who are no longer with us to get us to meet. Lets us not wait until someone leaves us before we meet again.

Sallam semua.