Meeting with a long lost friend

She was sitting in front of me in the next table under one of the lunch canopies. She was in tudung and floral green blouse.

From that distance I still could read her name on the name tag - Wan Esah. She was also doing the same thing - reading my name on the white and maroon corporate shirt that I was wearing.

Then almost instantaneously both of us raised our hands and waved at one another.

"Azahar!" she called out. "We were classmates in standard five and six" she told her friends.

I walked to her table, leaving a plate of rice with rendang ayam kampung and beef opor.

She introduced me to her friends telling that we were classmates in SK Pusat Kemaman.

"How long ago was it Azahar?"

"Well, it has been 42 years..."

Actually we have met when we were in UPM in the seventies. She was doing Degree in Agribusiness and I Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

She was petite then. However, I did not know why, we just never speak to each other then. Perhaps I was still shy when it came to talking to girls. That was one great disadvantage of studying in a single-sex boarding school. Still remember similar incident between Royaltlady and me many many years ago.

We were on the same Thong Aik bus from Kemaman to Kuala Terengganu. I looked at her and she looked at me. We knew each other, but nobody broke the ice and talked. We were tongue-tied. So we missed one rare occassion of meeting each other after leaving SKP.

Besides, she was always with her boy-friend then and I was too busy with my study.

Now she has put on weight and no more in skirts...but the smile is still in her face.

Though we have not met since UPM, I always keep track of her whereabouts through my friends in RISDA and lately did communicate through e-mails.

After the unexpected meeting I quickly sent an sms to Royaltlady. She was surprised that both of us still recognize each other.

Early next morning I also sent an sms to Wan Azlan, another memeber of the famous nine. He told me that Wan Esah's husband is his classmate in STAR. What a coincidence!

It is my sincere hope that one day all the members of the famous nine (or better still the entire standard six A - I have the old picture) will gather, most appropriately in our old alma mater, SK Pusat, and get to know our family members before all of us are too old and weak to travel the long distance....