Che Tam Makes A Come Back!

If you reflect how many things from the past make a cameo once in a while, it's a wonder.

Che Tam is back in Kuala Kangsar, but this is not Khairul Azmi Hamzah from our batch a.k.a. Che Tam. It's actually a black cat, but named such in tribute to the Real McCoy's Che Tam.

Smash and family (Smash was our coach back then and Che Tam was a long time researcher in the debate team, hence the close connection) visited my parents in Kemaman some time in November. Our house always has all sorts of stray animals taking refuge - usually cats, tupai, musang (you name it, we also used to have beruks and wild boars to complete the koleq zoo! Anjing je tak de) - as nowadays people quietly and discreetly abandon cats in front of our gates, most probably because the house looks empty all the time.

It so happens that this one particular cat was well kept and black, we never knew where it came from but it always lingered around the house. Smash's children, co-incidentally, just lost their pet cat themselves, so they decided to adopt the cat and called it "Che Tam" (to a certain extent a tribute to Che Tam too).

On another instance, my mentee at work is also my own junior, Zack (Class of 1996) so during our obligatory mentor-mentee session last week - it was a lot easier because I have known him all along, he was one of my own juniors in Dorm 21 back in 1994. But maybe as a sign of how much we have moved on, there was not even a single point of conversation which revolved around MCKK.

On other things:

1) Blog roll (is this what you call it? I risk sounding like Fadli, the epitome of buta IT/buta tech in this world) has been updated with new blogs, including 2 from our very own "AJ" (woi banyak masa kau, siap maintain 2 blogs!), not the usual AJ; the other AJ haha; and jeng jeng jeng Aiwa ha ha!

2) We all had a teh tarik session to meet Mior who is back from Australia (he has settled down there at least for the time being, Mior attached to Caltex Refinery while his wife with one of the Big 4s in Corporate Finance) for a short holiday. It was dominated overwhelmingly by Leman - myself, Epit, Joe, Radin, Mior himself, then from other houses - Awie, Bala @ La'ba @ "H" and (this is priceless) Cop ha ha. It's been a very long time I haven't met Cop, rasanya the last time was the 10-year reunion.

3) Someone came up with another idea to collect points for Sukantara i.e. those who manage to track down long time MIA and bring them back to our fold will be awarded points to their respective houses. So far Epit and Rifdi have claimed points, for tracing down Wawa (the ever smiling Shahril Azwa) and Slam - though because of lack of locus standi so to speak, none so far of the self-proclaimed Committee (overwhelmingly Leman) dares to award points ha ha, lest we are accused of biasness.

4) Spent some time talking and discussing with Kichi (Class of 96) who together with Ayul and Nadir (Class of 96) have come up with some brilliant ideas. I realise there is some kind of generational gap on how old boys view old boys' contribution and participation in MCKK's affairs; a distinct difference in worldview between the younger ones and elders. KE's (Class of 1992) comments, reposted at Class of 2000's blog, summed up adroitly the general feeling of many old boys of the 90s I am acquainted to so far. No point arguing really, my view is so long the efforts are redoubled and the approach is refined and it works best for MCKK; we should proceed.

5) Joe, Epit, Chibiok, Idzam etc. have finally committed. Now it's the phase to put everything in place to make it work.

6) The efforts on Ezrin/Pyan/Ikram's side on strengthening our Islamic foundation and conviction so far run smoothly, the weekly gathering organised by them has been well participated. I have yet to join (ha ha jangan kutuk, sebagai ex-Pres BRU I still have some "maqam" left) but Insya Allah one of these days.

Being 30 hit us hard - suddenly as a group, we realise that time is against us. Suddenly 10 years before reaching 40 seems so short and there's just not enough time to do what we have to do, if we were to live up to our own expectation.

The amount of "initiatives" going around between us is frightening. The interesting observation is as we suddenly shift to gear 3 from the proverbial gear 1/2 before - the level of skepticism falls drastically and there is a unison of purpose that if we don't buck up now, we'll be like this at 40.

Age is staring at us, time is taunting us.

Kubur menunggu kita.