Ramlee's son second wedding.

Fri 28 Feb 2020.

22.02.2020 seemed a special date for the 2nd wedding of Ramlee's son. See all the "2's".

Ramlee Husain was my Operations Manager in MISC Haulage Sdn. Bhd  when I was the GM there 1991-1994. We have not met often since, but Ramlee invited me to three wedding receptions of his, visited me once in Seremban, and even gave me a "petai" seedling, which I gave to Bang Dek and has now borne fruit.

After all these years, it's always good to meet up again with old acquintances. They bring back old memories and surely rekindle old friendships that lie dormant because of separation.

In this case, the North Port years three decades ago store great memories,  of setting up the ambitious plans of the haulage operations in a brand new site, and for me, of a brand new venture quite unlike what I had got used to before.

Ramlee was one of three of the first personnel of that fledgeling company. The other two were Husein Othman, my Administration & Finance Manager, and of course, yours truly, the General Manager, fresh out of  21 years of Felda. The late Osman Abdul joined us soon after, as my Marketing Manager. 

Starting from scratch,  in the little corner office with three tables at MISC HQ in Jalan Conlay, KL, we soon moved into makeshift container boxes on  borrowed site on MISC property at the Port Kelang North Port, and later into the temporary one-floor building close by, and would you believe it, next to the Port Kelang Golf Club!   Later we moved into a spanking office and operations yard in 5 acres of land at the "Taiwan Village"  officiated by the PM, Dr. Mahathir. 

Together, the four of us built up the staff and equipment, and we even went to Sweden, Holland , London, Bangkok and Singapore  for machinery and operational studies and purchases. It was the most cherished sojourn in my entire working career. 

Osman was the star player in the marketing forays that made our presence felt in the haulage industry. Great things were planned and discussed in our weekly meetings. Sadly, I had to leave after four and a-half years, and not much later all the three pioneer managers also left the company. The rich dreams were unfulfilled, and even the company was later scuttled by the new owners, who had other priorities.

I met many of the old drivers during the wedding, and some of the other staff, including the still fetching Sa'diah, the Chinese-speaking operations clerk and a Ramlee-favourite. Too many names are lost to me, and faces no longer recognized. But they still remember me, and we took photos together. I wish someone would pass them on line to me.

I had arranged for Sam to pick me up from the Blue Wave Hotel at 8 p.m. Misrun was supposed to come with him, but the 2 wives (yes, 2) wanted to come, so Sam came alone.

The venue was the Selangor Youth & Sports Complex, Shah Alam.

This was the second wedding of this son, because the first wife succumbed to cancer only a few months after marriage. I attended the first reception, too. I pray the special date would bring happiness and long life to Ramlee's son's  second marriage. 

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