Class of '62 - A Gathering Of Classmates

Three weeks ago, I received an sms inviting me and my wife to a dinner gathering of class of 62 classmates in a restaurant operated by one of the classmates. I placed a reminder on my pda for the date of the gathering. This is one gathering that I always look forward to as it gives me the opportunity to fraternize with my former classmates while enjoying some good food. The day came and the reminder duly triggered by the pda by a series of beeps.

I was a little late in arriving at the location as it was dark and I took a wrong turn off. I had to make a long detour to get back on track. When I arrived at the restaurant there was already quite a crowd and I was quite surprised that there were strangers amongst the crowd and the ones I recognized were only a handful of my former classmates. The host welcomed us and I found out that for this night he was gathering all his classmates that he could call upon, from lower school to college. That was why there were strangers in our midst. We made some new friends that night. The host was my classmate in Technical College where we studied engineering.

Over dinner we were joking and sharing stories of old. There were a lot of laughter and light banters amongst the crowd. We mixed around and introduced ourselves to those that we do not know. One lady sat next to Ram at dinner and introduced herself by her full name and Ram also introduced herself by her full name. This lady used to live overseas, in Rome specifically, as her husband was working in the Malaysian Embassy there. Ram told her that we too used to live overseas, in Japan and Paris. So between the two of them they had volumessssss of information to share, heh heh. However, the interesting part of their conversation was not where they were or have been or what they have done. Its where they both come from!!

Amidst talking about where they have been to, where they used to work and so on, this lady asked Ram whether I came from Perlis, like her husband who was from Perlis. Ram said no. “But, how come he is a classmate to the host as the host came from Perlis” she asked. “Oh, they were classmates in college in KL, My husband and I come from Johore” Ram replied. “Oh really, I come from Johore Bahru and I was in SIGS (the secondary school) until 1962”, she said. I was listening to their conversation and was quite amused really. I thought I could see where this conversation would lead to. SIGS? Ram asked. “I was there too” she exclaimed “and I thought you look kind of familiar to me”. Ram asked for her nickname and she said “Nilam”. “Nilam? Oh my…. I am Melah” Ram replied. “Melah? And your mother is Mak Bi, and… Shidah…, Siti” They just hugged and patted each other while I continue to be amused, so also those that were around us at the time. Recognition came only after talking for a good half-an-hour!! They definitely do not recognize each other, do not recognize each others full name, and have not met for a very long time, since their school days. They remembered only each others nickname. For the rest of the night that we were there they remained together, talking of old times.

Meanwhile, I was with another classmate who introduced his new and young wife (his previous wife passed away quite some years ago) who also came from Johore Bahru. I found out that her elder brother lives next door to my mum and that her family lives close to Ram’s and Nilam’s former house. Her elder sister was classmate to Ram and Nilam. So the three of them had common things to talk about whilst the husbands watched and be amused over the whole discovery!!

There was plenty of good food that night and interesting company from all walks of life, and mostly retired like us or semi retired, if there is such a thing as semi retirement. We just mingled and mixed around, except the three ladies of course, who could not get enough of information sharing!! They exchanged contact numbers and promised to call up each other later. How long later? ……… hmmmmm …. I would like to check that out, how long later …….

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya