Jejak Kasih - Part III

Madad laughing at something that none of us could understand, more pictures here

As promised, the Science One clique, plus our adopted member Chamat, met for a Jejak Kasih session to celebrate Madad's long awaited return from the much hyped resort city of Hull.

Not to be outdone by Badut (to whom the midnight curfew still applies), Madad goes a bit further - he was totally grounded unless one of us went to fetch him up. So there I was, driving all the way to KL and then to Kajang to pick him up. Luckily Kajang was such a metropolis that I did not waste a lot of time looking for Madad's mansion.

Madad picked up a new hobby - he is now an art collector, so I had to hang around him for close to an hour going from one art shop to another, looking for something that he could invest in. With my sandal, a worn out khakis and muka tak mandi, I was in my element - and the shop assistant kept looking at me as if trying to say that I was not really welcome there.

Anyway, the dinner was on Madad - and since he did not know what kind of place Pelita was, we decided to introduce him to the poshness of Pelita (I am sure that was the first time in so many years he dined at a mamak "stall").

Suri, Allen, Fazurin, Chamat and Jita were there too. We picked a spot facing a huge TV set since a football game was on air, as a tribute to Jita's legendary accuracy with football. There was a time when we were in Scotland that Jita, as a house prefect, wanted to be kind to a group of primary students at our boarding house - so he "passed" back a ball that came across our way to the kids. Well "passed" is an understatement since the kids had to make another 100 m dash from the spot they were since Jita accurately sent the ball flying to the other direction.

Madad had not changed at all. He still laughed the way he did back in koleq - I would have called it "donkey" style (not to be mistaken with doggy style, that was for another thing); he laughed too wholeheartedly that after a while even the joke was lost. Most of the time, we were not even sure what was he laughing at.

It could also be the last time that we had dinner with Chamat. He is going to move to Chicago for good soon for a position with Accenture US. There was a sense of poignancy (is there a word?), although no one looked sad or gloomy that night.

Madad picked up the tab, complaining that the bill was not even close to 10 quid!

We adjourned early to Marriott Putrajaya since Jita and I had to attend a course in Bangi the next day. In the end, I took the hotel room Jita was booked in and he had to sleep in Putrajaya that night.

It was a good night out, although we are running out of modal to laugh at. As always, the drama of Fadli collapsing in the class from malnutrition and Suri's taking advantage of the chaos that followed, always featured highly. Suri is still as pervert as usual, maybe that's why he's with GlaxoSmithkline.

Next week is Radin's wedding - me think it's going to be another round of reunion.

*ps - Codak reported to the batch (he still holds the official reporter status) that MCKK: Impressions currently occupies the no. 2 spot at Kinokinuya's non-fiction chart. Maybe we should start asking for royalty heh?

*pps - Fadli called me from Kansas, some time in February 2005 he is going to attend a company bash (or something like that) in New Orleans and he is entitled to bring another person (ideally a girl friend or wife) from any place in the world, all expenses paid for. So if you want a trip to New Orleans for free, be very nice to Fadli....