Jejak Kasih

We still don't know where everyone is, unfortunately. As we try to get more participation, we have to search for long-lost friends, trying to find their phone numbers, which company they work for, and where they are living - for all you know, it's not much of a chore, and they might just be next door (or next to your Taman Perumahan). The conversation will roughly follow this pattern:

1. The stretched out name calling.

e.g. "Ooi, Maaaaaat, lama tak jumpa"

2. The unsureness, when familiarity has been lost to age, if you are actually of the same batch...

...despite being bunker mates (the double-decker beds of form 1, mind you), or same class, or band group, or co-curricular club which never actually did much, or being caught together by the disciplinary teacher.

3. Talking about the last time you met each other, which tends to be -

(a) Form 5 in school, 1986, which sadly is where most of us actually last met.

(b) University, if you went to the same one.

(c) The 10 year reunion during OBW 1996.

(d) A buka puasa or Raya gathering circa 2000+

(e) A trip to a night club which led to dubious after-activities, but due to embarassment, the sentence never quite finishes, leading back to mentioning a, b, c, or d.

3. The evitable mentioning of increase (or rarely, decrease) in size. Add the bit where you also mention that the other person used to be a sportsman, more pedas if he represented the state.

4. The bringing up of a trait which has long been left behind in STAR, such as a prominent piece of clothing like a rock t-shirt he never took off, or embarrassing behaviour like constantly waking up late. The target other will just meekly smile, internally screaming that he doesn't have it anymore. Such talk can be quickly recovered by...

5. ...the universal sharing of belittling somebody else in the batch, in simpler words, kutuk. Choose one who was the butt of jokes during school and still is, or perhaps a Canadian, or someone in (or head of) the news.

6. You proceed to matters about family, number of kids, whether you’ve “tutup kilang” or not, as well as finding out your sister is married to the other's wife's cousin.

7. Then talk about work, which usually starts off by one saying "Engkau kerja dengan XYZ lagi ke". This leads to a reply of a yes or, "Lama dah aku tinggalkan diaorang". Which also leads to either saying that he hated that job, or usually, hates the current job he's in and is looking for new opportunities.

8. If one of you mentions that you work for somebody prominent (unless you're the prominent one), the other guy will try to get the phone number or ask to have a meeting with your boss. Being entrepreneurial, people do try to get any leads they can get, can't fault anyone trying to rise up in this cut-throat world.

AND finally, saying

9. "Eh, batch kita organise 2006 punya Old Boy Week kan?"

10. And, without much talk about what personal effort can be given (OK, maybe some, but this is what tends to happen) is quickly ended by ...

"Kita patut mintak tolong [the head of the Certain Private Television Network] organise karnival masa tu".