An unnecessarily sad Sunday.

 Sunday 5.6.2022

It started happy, but ended sad. Unnecessarily so.

This last Raya bash this morning at the OPA House, next to the Saujana Golf Resort that once-upon-a-time I was a member of, had been long planned. To make the long plan a reality, the month of Syawal had been stretched to 36 days. Otherwise how could this be the Eid in Syawal ? So it was a happy occassion, indeed. I was happy to be the first to arrive at 10 minutes to 11 a.m. I was happy to see Halim Rock Foundation beaten to 2nd place, to make amends to what he did to us on 26.5.2022 at MINDEF. I was happy that Azat,(I named my first son "Azat") Nawawi, Mat Sham and other familiar faces from the "FMC PD" group quickly filled the alloted tables. I was happy that the boys and girls on duty kept our tables filled up with food and drinks. I was happy that the sudden heavy shower had lightened, and a boy with an umbrella kept me dry as I made a quiet exit without Nawawi's knowledge (he might have prevented it, I'm sure) but after telling Halim - I'd promise to see No.2 Son before 1 this afternoon. It was 12.

Upon reaching his house, after an ominous (the huge traffic jam was later endured on the return journey) long crawl from OPA , a journey that normally wouldn't take more than 15 minutes ( at least at the time I was in PJ, last here 1995), No. 2 Son drove me to Alang Ipin's house not far from Subang Parade. After some searching, we got to no. 12, Jalan 11/1F. No 2 Son got out, and called Alang Ipin out. I saw him looking out from his 2nd floor window of his bedroom. He came down to meet us at his front gate. 

Then the sad part happened.

In the car, as we were coming, I told No.2 Son I've had the urge to pay Alang Ipin a visit for some time. We have not visited each other for decades, although we have met a few times in that period - a very few times. One reason for this "urge" was that Ombong Azi, Alang Ipin's eldest sister, had told me many months ago that he's "unwell". This on top of the fact that when we were in school (the same school) we spent a lot of time together, in school as well as out of school. We visited each other often. I slept over at his house in Kubang Rusa many times.  He was an athlete at MCKK. I tried to be one in FMC. I didn't succeed. S.U.O. Arthur Samuel "advised" the "B" company boys to buy running spikes for athletics, and I did. When they didn't help me, I gave them to Alang Ipin because he said he was active in MCKK.

I had expected a happy reunion. He would welcome the surprise visit. We would recount the lost years in joyous spirit. Everybody would be so happy !

That didn't happen.

The first salvo from him ? You can't simply come without telling me first ! No handshake, no happy smile, not even a "how are you?" 

I tried to ignore the admonition. "Let's go in" I suggested. "No. We talk here" We were just standing behind the 2 cars parked in his small porch.

We carried on the small exchange of trivia with no attempt at being a host whatsoever. on his part. Until No. 2 Son saved the day and suggested we leave as we had some stuff to buy. And we left with no handshake, nothing. No angry words or angry gestures came from any of us. We just left, like the postman, having dropped the mail.

I told No. 2 Son it was good that he was a witness. I told him once Alang Ipin complained (not to me because I was not there) that he visited Ayet, his late younger brother, on a Hari Raya. Ayet was upstairs in the 2-storey house. Until Alang Ipin left at the end of that visit, Ayet never came down. Now he's doing it to us.

We gave him a surprise visit when he was with Petronas, decades ago, in Kertih. We were welcomed then. He went to MCKK, and studied in West Germany. This bad behaviour was unnecessary. Sad.

I'll never visit Alang Ipin again.

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