JJCB

Spent a good half a day with Pak Tuan surveying potential properties should I decide to move to Shah Alam (am really sick of driving long distance each day).

Our last detour was at Section 8, by which time Pak Tuan suddenly couldn't control his bladder. Either his bladder could detect friendly toilets nearby or everything was timed perfectly, we ended up in front of Taufik's house around 630 pm.

It took a few calls before Taufik came down. He has this habit of not locking his gate so any Tom, Dick & Harry can park right in front of his newly painted purple hatchback, supposedly a Valentine gift to Maria (the wife, in case some of you speculate something else). Ha ha I like the idea of giving a makeover to my car for my wife's (hypothetical notion for the time being) present :-)

Anyway, what was a short trip to toilet ended up quite a long and chatty catching up with a friend. The last time I met Taufik, must be during 2005's reunion (Back to School Reunion).

Taufik is very politically aware (and enlightened - ha ha depending which perspectives you evaluate his opinion) and it was unavoidable that our conversation would venture to catch up on his dad. Taufik's dad is one of our batch's pride and joy (ha ha loser giler batch ni, dah tak de pride and joy sendiri pi adopt bapak batchmate jadi pride and joy!) for his long and fruitful service in the judiciary. An old boy in his 60s, he paid a heavy price for leading a righteous life, not bending when others around him jockeyed for favours. He was denied promotion for a very long time and we are but a few of people, among a sea of other people in this country, who find his quality a rarity and inspirational during this part of our nation's history.

So, we should not be blamed if we want to tumpang the romanticism attached to this particular judge, through the connection of his son in our batch.

Anyway, Taufik was one of my earliest close friends in MCKK. His deskmate was Awie in 1 PK 1, in the end both ended up being wackos (ha ha). Together they threw the only surprise birthday party in my life, over a small cake from Warong Kek Jaya and fried kuew teow from Saudiah. That kindness, you will not forget although life has taken us onto different path i.e. Taufik has growned a lot slimmer (see photos below), while I become a lot fatter. Even after 19 years, Taufik still remembers the minute details of certain things I told him when we were in Form 1.

Posing ala-ala Tok Cha (Kelantanese' name for Tok Sami), masa kat koleq this is Taufik

Posing ala-ala Miss World, lepas the weight loss ha ha

It was good to catch up - normally I would lament a few hours lost not doing what I would think as productive work, but once in a while paying respect and tribute to the people who were really nice to you was worth every minute :-)

POSTSCRIPT

1) Taufik's full name is Mohd Taufik bin Hishamuddin, so go figure (wink wink)

2) Taufik suffers from diabetes and is often warded from time to time, so we should make a point to drop by once in a while. I am arranging a lunch with Aiwa some time next week, since all of us are quite nearby in Shah Alam