Kepupusan ASAS81

ASAS81 includes all former students from Sekolah Alam Shah, Kuala Lumpur who took SPM ( O level equivalent) in 1981 and thus qualifying them as ASAS81 members. And why did I use the word "Kepupusan" which is literally translated as extinction? Please read on...

The boys of Alam Shah School are considered privilege kids who excel in their primary school education/examinations and come from all over the country to pursue their tertiary education here in one of the premier boarding schools in the country. The school used to occupy a beautiful site in Bandar Tun Abdul Razak@Cheras  which is next to few other educational institutions before some high level decision to move the school to another location in Putra Jaya with a pristine new facilities and brand new identity called Sekolah Menengah Sultan Alam Shah.

With the transfer of SASKL to Putra Jaya and the change of name, many of the SASKL Alumni are in the opinion that the spirit of the old school has faded away as it can be seen in the low turn out of certain batches  during ASAS annual dinner. What's left from the old SASKL are only the school badge and certain memorabilias inside the new school galleria.

For the SASKL puritans, the memories of the old SASKL are still fresh in their mind. The gymnasium cum masjid for Jumaat prayer, the Tembusu Camp, the murals on the wall, the isolated Block C, the dining halls, the library, the MPIK track and swimming pool ( not ours but part of our so called heritage) and few others. I could vividly remember the smell, the sound and the atmosphere of the old school at any time of the day.

To understand the Alumni's dilemma, let's look at the initiative to modernize the native people ( orang asli) and to assimilate them into the mainstream population. The native people would be relocated and given brand new houses in a housing scheme with all the modern amenities as a trade off for their ancestral land which could be developed for various reasons. It sounds like a win win situation for everybody, the natives get their dough and the developers get their pie. Buy why complaining?


The new generations of the native people would surely benefit from this re location scheme but these benefits are at the expense of their own cultural heritage. The new generations would slowly abandon their cultural root and the old ones would find it difficult to practice and continue their old life style and cultures. Even the "bomohs" among them find it hard to get the materials to practice the craft when the resources are no longer around them. The young ones would be roaming around with kapcais and jeans but the old ones would be left hanging in the blues ...sounds familiar?

So, when the steadfast SASKL decided to move on with her new life and new identity, the ASAS81 members became more  disillusion and to add salt to the wounds, their old home has been occupied by the brothers from 


different  mother  hopefully the same father. The ASAS81 members were nothing short of achievement during the 1977-81 tenure. Their achievement in the SPM examination 1981 was only second in the nation losing to SSP with far less candidates than SAS.  ASAS81 members were not only synonym with the academic achievements but also excels in sports and other activities during the period of 1977-81. There were achievements in soccer, volleyball, tennis, softball and track & fields in the district and state level. The same year in 1981, we won the PM's trophy for inter boarding school English debate defeating MCKK in the final.


With all the achievements and accolades, ASAS81 started heading their own separate ways. Majority of them ( more than 75% ) went to pursue their studies overseas, leaving only a handful to stay back in Malaysia either to do matriculation courses, continued with lower six or went straight to further their studies in local institutions. They were our only hope to continue the ASAS81 flag in Malaysia. As perfect the plan might be, the ASAS81 members kept on failing to show up and regroup after their tertiary studies. Even a good number of of them in one building ( the tallest twin towers in the world) but none showed up in our last ASAS annual dinner. Perhaps they have changed allegiance to their spouses former schools. If you look at the below picture of 5 sc 2, there is only one  person who did not pursue his overseas education right after the SPM 1981 and  i think you can tell who..

Hence,  I must say with regret that the spirit of ASAS81 can only be seen with only a handful of hardcore loyalists  (less than 15% of the population)  who keep the camaradarie among us alive, the ASAS81 by showing up in the ASAS annual dinner or impromptu gatherings ie: golf or eating outs. Kudos to you guys and al fatihah to two of the ASAS81 loyalists who passed away in recent years, saudara Syed Azis Hashim and Saudara Saifuddin Jabbar. Amin!

stupid "smart tag"

This one really pisses me off long time already. Every time i pass through Smart Tag, i need to almost completely stop before  the bar raises up. Why can't they put the sensor  few meters a head of the bar instead of right above the bar?

The current Smart Tag sensor is no different than using Touch N Go card with the later needs to open up the window. To the Smart Tag operator, please be smart and stop being stupid.

The day our fish dies..

Finally, our fish succumbed to the bacterial infection that ate up its fins and scale and it died early morning yesterday.


Johnny started to have the infection 2 weeks ago



Johnny lying dead at the bottom of the aquarium



It was indeed a sad moment for my kids because the fish a.k.a Johny was practically part of their daily and weekly routine for the past 5 years ie: daily feeding and Saturday outing to the aquarium shop  to buy "ulat" as the feed. The trip to the aquarium shop also exposed my little daughter to many other living creatures that were on sale there.

To honor its contribution to our lives for the past 5 years, we will bury Johnny under the lime tree in our garden and perhaps Johnny can still contribute as the best fertilizer for the lime tree.

Some memories with Johnny as highlighted in my previous posting.

Healthier Johnny 5 months ago.

  

Annoying List & Ego

There are many things in our lives that we can be annoyed with on daily basis ie: people jumping queues ( any queue),  noisy exhaust pipes, body odor in the public, slow drivers in the fast lane, hogging ATM machine or cash deposit machine, double parking's, asking directions at toll booth, high rentals, high food prices, lousy foods in fancy restaurants and etc...

Hell for road hogger

These are the things that you wish the perpetrators will be punished in  hell .

There are also self created annoying list  such as seeing our neighbor bought new Lamborghini while we are still driving old Tiara, seeing ugly men with pretty girls, seeing old men with young women, not getting enough sales for the month, having the stupidest guy in your primary school as your new boss or the company owner and many more jerking situations that you're facing in life.  Unless the person is so naive or dumb, ordinary hot blooded human would feel the challenge and start being grumpy or being in the state of denial, " i think he is with his grand niece,  his dad is rich,  my friend cheated, it's a borrowed car, must be lottery winner or probably that girl has a mental problem and etc...."

Whatever it is, our ego is the biggest enemy in us. Our self annoying list  is 100% coming from our own ego. It is not the two horns Satan who kept whispering to you, but the inborn or so called template ego that makes us self annoyed or what the Malays say , PHD ( Perangai Hasad Dengki). The detractors would say, " No, we are not jealous but we are just purely annoyed because the others are cheating and we are playing by the rules. Now they are getting something that is supposed to be ours!!"  Okay, that's a valid reason to be annoyed but remember, you have to be smarter from these smart Alexs. You will not gain anything by being grumpy, but you will gain if you have proper strategy in life, As for ladies, you certainly have the advantage of being good looking but it's only for a head start and if you are not smart enough, you are just another trophy for some unscrupulous men.

Above all, be thankful and grateful for what you  are now and hopefully the reward will come later in life.



perhaps happy life somewhere in Lebanon...



The Lonely Guys Club

The name of the club was inspired by the 1984 movie starring Steve Martin titled " The Lonely Guy". True to the movie's spirit, this bunch of "gooks" from Utah State University decided to experiment with the concept and started promoting their  house as the Lonely Guys' Club. Decoration ornaments being put up all year round, the music and the atmosphere of the house bespoke the latest trend  during the mid eighties with Duran Duran and Sade 's music took the center stage.

Having a cool DJ like Mr Chong and Thiep, as always,the live wire of any party, the Lonely Guys Club took up the reputation as a cool place to hang out ( BYOB) for friends and other selected guests. Rule # 1, girls can only bring their boy friends with the permission from either one of the Trustees of the Lonely Guys Club. Otherwise, leave your boy friend at home....


To give credential to the club and to protect its safety, we engaged a couple of Footballer friends ( American Footballers Offensive/defensive linesmen are on average 280 lb / 6 feet 5 inches in height) to  frequent the place as our special guests and we also made sure that all our immediate neighbors were in the same wavelenght with us. Rule #2 : No drugs are allowed with the exception of what's coming out from Thiep's little pipe.  

With all the party ingredients in place, any slightest event could trigger endless fun in the club ie: ice cream party during winter, birthday party, halloween party, home coming party, farewell party, end of semester party and etc. The place also became sort of information center for new foreign students and  its reputation benefited us as well. We regularly received home cooked food from our visitors and there was one particular dish that i liked so much, a slow roasted beef from this Japanese girl ( couldn't remember her name)  who was a big fan of  Katsutaka Murakami, the rare Japanese with permed hair ( he replaced Wan Mohd Nor a.k.a Wan Jus as one of the Trustee for The Lonely Guys Club after Wan's graduation). Katsutaka however had a fetish for American girls, specially one high school senior who looked like Madonna the singer. Because of her, Katsuka religiously pumping iron to build his small frame and hoping to impress her.  Long story short, with all the romantic gestures and new macho appearance, Katsuka was heart broken when  Thiep the smooth talker managed to intercept "Madonna" from him and that incident almost brought the halt to the LGC activities.Rule #3 : Do not take relationship seriously and personally especially when it involves the club trustees.  

I can go on and on with the Lonely Guys Club activities, especially with the other characters like Fung Wai Yin aka Jasmine, Alex "the Doc" of HK, our white water rafting trip in Jackson Hole, Wyoming  and loads of  other fun activities during the one and the half year of LGC's existence. Where ever you are guys, especially the founders of the Lonely Guys Club, the experience that we went through made us a better person in life now...     

Judi punya pasal !

It happened during the summer break of 1986. Four buddies from Utah State University, Virathep Thairind, Kasutaka Murakami, Fung Wai Ying and myself decided to try our luck in Wendover, a casino town in the state of Nevada just across Utah border in the south. With little money we had, in no time we lost all our money in the casino. Then came the idea of finding jobs in the town to cover our expenses for the remaining summer break. We went from one establishment to another until we came across Motel 6 chains and asked for the job opening there. The owner/manager politely declined us but he told us that the other Motel 6 in Green River Utah was looking for the room cleaners or shall i say chambermaid...


We took the chance and headed back to our University, borrowed some money from other friends and with everybody chipped in to the fund,  we started packing for our  new home for the next 30 days. We headed 200 miles ( 330 Km)  Southwest from Logan to a small desert town of Green River. This town is in between Moab ( 40Miles away) and another nearest town of 60 Miles away. There were no other services available in between these two towns and Green River became the popular stop over for those traveling in the harsh but scenic region ( the utah desert area has similar scenic view you can find in the Grand Canyon  plus more...)


Upon arrival, we were given a room to stay for 4 of us. No cooking facilities were available, so we had to survive on cold sandwiches for the next 30 days. Our jobs as the room cleaners /chambermaids only took  about 4-5 hours a day with the remaining time were spent lazing around the Motel's swimming pool. I took the opportunity to learn swimming from Thiep. On some days, we were joined by the local girls who took advantage of free swimming pool, hot weather and our kind hospitality...


Apart from daily swimming, we made our way to local high school dance party over the weekends, thanks to our connection with the local high school girls who frequented our motel's swimming pool. The local boys were however not amused with our presence, some of them even calling us "gooks" but they didn't dare to touch us because we were with JD, our work colleague who was one of the "cool" guy in the town. Oh yes, before i forgot, our other activities were to sneak out at night and steal watermelon and pomello from the next door farm plot. Never thought of being caught then....


Speaking about our motel co workers, we had all sort of people working there starting with John the laundry man, a retired marine who served in korean war and an outcast from New York after his  conviction of a murder case. He didn't speak much, with occasional laughter showing his toothless gum. We had Shirley May, the head Chambermaid ( not the maid from Manhattan) who taught us to dig into toilet bowl without even using brush (very gross act indeed) but believe me, after a while , we didn't feel that gross anymore. JD,  the cool guy who spoke about girls most of the time and the "fishy smell" terminology. Sarah, our office / finance clerk who took us to party in her trailer home and briefly tangled with Thiep and almost get caught by her own brother. Tony, a general helper in the motel, a witty old man full of interesting stories.We also had the manager / owner husband and wife team Dave and his missus who were kind enough to throw us farewell party with specially cooked Chilies.


After a month in the Motel 6 , Green River, it was time to say good bye and to collect our pay cheques that could survive us another 1 month of  1986 summer break. We celebrated with a big dinner in one of the japanese restaurant in Salt Lake City, Yes, after 30 days of cold sandwiches, we finally got our decent meal, so to speak.


Before i pen off, let me introduce my friends. Thiep, the ring leader from Thailand, then already spent 6 years in the college without finishing his engineering degree. I heard he managed to finish his engineering degree on the 8th  year and now residing permanently in USA. Katsutaka, a rare Japanese with permed hair. Another Japanese guy who came to USA believing he could get American girlfriends by being a romantic person, he was wrong. ha ha ( that's another story). Fung Wai Ying a.k.a Jasmine a smooth talker from Sarawak who spent his high school days in Singapore and spoke good Indonesian because of the number of Indonesian in his Singapore high school. He effectively using kretek ( then considered exotic cigarettes) to entice high school girls during parties, another lost soul and not traceable until now. The final member of the group was me, the final year Accounting student who was full time fun seeker and part time student.

The moral of the story, just take any risk and worry about it later!!!!!!

Tribute to all my teachers

In conjunction with the teachers' day, Monday May 16th, i would like to dedicate this page to all my teachers, past and present. Everyone can be a teacher if they have positive value to contribute to others and not only confine to the vernicular school       system. Cheers to all my teachers!!