Wed 7.6.2023
This sad week I'm bidding adieu from afar to 2 close friends - Rahman Tahir and Aman Shah Khalid. Their passing was last weekend. I only got the sad news days later. Rahman lived in Kajang. Aman was in Perlis. I could have gone to Rahman's funeral. Regretfully, Perlis is just too far away. A long time ago we were close.
Monday 29th. last month Maulud received news from Dato' Shahbandar that Aman, his younger brother, had died before he could reach him in Perlis. He had been seriously ill after a fall, which I heard from Dato' Shahbandar himself at the club.
Aman and wife, Salomi, made a surprising visit to my house 10 years ago. They were visiting relatives here, and Aman wanted to pass to me his book printed 2 years earlier "Yesterday, Tomorrow, Sharing My Thoughts". But they were in hurry. There were other visits to be made before the long drive back to Perlis. I learned then that Aman had a stroke 10 years before that.
I'd written about Aman before. This friendship started in 1968, more than half-a-century ago. The internet had kept us in constant touch. There were a lot of those naughty exchanges, but the friendship was genuine. The distance kept us apart.
Rahman I'd also known at the same time as Aman. He was a house-mate in 1968-69. We were renting the 2nd floor of his elder brother's house in Kampong Baru, KL. My younger brother, Fadzil, and Aziz Kadir made up the four tenants.
We were there when the May 13th race riots happened. In fact I witnessed some of the more gory scenes on the 2nd day of the rioting.
Fadzil later became the Group Managing Director of the Felda Group. Aziz went on to do his PhD in the US, and later became the No 1 in the RRI. Not bad for the Kampong Baru tenants.
Rahman later served in the Malaysian Embassy in Belgrade, before the country's break-up. He had 3 daughters, all graduates and doing very well in their current positions. One is in the US, married (the only one) and has bought a house there. Looks like she's putting down roots. She came back on Rahman's demise, but didn't make it in time for the burial. It was the daughters who insisted that their dad, suddenly falling very ill, be admitted to the expensive and private KPJ, where he died.
I'd last visited Rahman and Aishah in January 2020. I just had a sudden urge to see him again. I'd been to the old house of Aishah, and also the present rebuilt one, before. I recalled we had a happy reunion, this time. When I left, I hugged him and tearfully said "when will we meet again, Man ?". It was the last time.
I'd kept track of Rahman's well-being through Jay, his younger sister. We meet at the club regularly. She's a keen golfer. When Mat Salleh, her husband, was still playing, we had even played together a few times.
I knew Jay through Rahman when still in Kampong Baru. That was years before she knew Mat Salleh. Rahman joked "if you want Jay, you have to give me a diamond ring". I was single, but she was in Seremban. I had no diamond ring. Years later at the club, I told Jay the story.
Rahman was a "Romeo". He was in the PM's Department. KL was not the traffic hell it is now. He would ask me to join him for movies with girls he knew. One even came to our rented place. Another one we took for durians in Cheras or Kajang, I forget now. There was also a girl working in a carpet shop on Batu Road (now Jalan TAR,of course) he would visit at her rented place, taking me along. Aishah and marriage came later. I know it was a happy one.
Aman was 1 year my senior. Rahman was 86. I'll always remember them. Both came into my life at the same time. Now they have also left at the same time. Relentless Time plods on. I try to hang on to the memories.
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