Scientific Names

Pyan works at Menara Esso, so once in a while (which is twice) he drops by to have drink together (he came around to my office yesterday and I was taken for a ride for a while).

We had dinner together (with the usual suspects laa....) tonight and inevitably the same stories that have been told hundreds of time were revisited again.

This time it was the recap of all the scientific/semi-Latin self proclaimed names some people either smacked across any white walls they could fine in the already-limited-clean-wall-MCKK, or those names they carved on their desks etc. etc. etc.

Basically last 2 days, while on the way to lunch with Allen & Co. (the Medina Club), I bump into Wong, doing the usual client relations work (not prostitution - he can pass for a pimp, not gigolo) with some of his clients (obviously laaa...). He got really excited when he saw me and quickly dragged me towards a group of people who I did not recognise at all - all the way kept babbling that there was someone he really wanted me to meet.

Lo and behold - it was my bedmate for 2 months in Form 1, one Shahrin Jaminan (E44), who when he was in F5 went by the name VINCENT *************** (the surname was way too Russian or too Latin for me to remember, but I will check with Wong again the exact surname).

Wong being Wong, began circulating this vicious rumour among his clients that my nickname in koleq was Vincent (I bet he found that really funny). So words somehow went around until it got back to me, and it was only last night I realised that my middle name was Vincent but I was never bothered to use it.

Anyway - so most of the conversation revolved around trying to remember the scientific names that our batch members had (we still failed to recall Shahrin's Russian/Latin-like surname, but were very sure it must have at least one "Q" in it ha ha). Pyan admitted that he did claim "P-i-e-r-r-e" at one time, but that could not be considered scientific as it was the Kelantanese pronunciation of his name (hmmmm..... not convinced).

But the winner must go to Hansen Derova, from Sungkai With Love. Not only he was one of the most "istiqamah" in claiming the name, he was also the most diligent in making sure his legacies stayed forever, through tireless work of vandalism. I am sure if you were to go to F3 classes, you would still find the trademark Hansen Derova all over the place (most people mistaken Derova for Drebar - it was meant to be Italian people, so spell it correctly, it's D-e-r-o-v-a). In fact each time we passed through Sungkai, we would laugh at the whole Hansen Derova story.

Unfortunately, not many that we can recall tonight. Even Zahadin's Delano was without first name (I wonder whether it was born out of his admiration of Roosevelt, or he just browsed through a directory of Italian's name).

But I am sure if we dig further we shall uncover all these scientific names. I can smile broadly that I never laid any claim for any Italian, Javanese, Russian or Martian names, so this game of reminding other people the kind of obsession they had when they were young really makes me excited. For this, I shall employ Wong's service and if I have time (which spells doom to whatever I am about to announce to do), we shall compile and publish the names here.

* ps: Luckily the percentage of people with scientific names in our batch was relatively very low. By Form 5, it became extinct (well Vincent was 2 years behind). We only realised that unlike other batches before or after us, we did not pick up a Latin name for horses, or monkeys, or any reptiles - after we left koleq and then laughed our heads off that we FORGOT to do that even though we had one whole year to think about it. Ameba did suggest one time that instead of these scientific names, perhaps we should just take a Malay flower name (e.g. Kenanga, or Cempaka) as a batch name, but it was too obvious that we were ridiculing other batches before us that it did not gain much support ha ha. Till this day, Class of 94 remains a Class of 94, not Kingtho, not Arietans, not Crotalus, not Final Thoroughbred, or The True Final Thoroughbred and so and so.

** pps: I still have to blog about the PPM fiasco but am too tired about it, after all next week is the quarter final of HELP's Debate, so maybe I should concentrate on the points.

*** ppps: There will 5 people in Gen2 this weekend to Kuala Lipis through Karak, 3 are actually XXXXL. I think we need to reinforce the suspension.