ONE AFTERNOON AT BAYU LAKE

Shamsuddin Zahid invited all of us to the Hari Raya Open House on Deepavali day. The usual suspects came. Hadi Endut came all the way from Kulim. Later Datin Sharifah Aminah brought along our juniors (Datin Tengku Maimun, Faridah Hanam and Atan).
Tahlil prayers were made for departed classmates and "Doa' Selamat" was read for Hajjah Rokiah who is going for haj next month.
Pak Daud, unable to leave his goats, sent his sallam to all.
Enjoy the slideshow. If you do not fancy waiting for You Tube or if you want to download the pictures, please go here.

SIRA's SUDDEN DEMISE

Our friend and classmate, Sirajuddin Abu Bakar passed away suddenly after asar yesterday barely two days after responding to my reply to his email. He was amused that his cucus enjoyed reading my blog and he wanted to compile a list of Terengganu words that he felt were becoming extinct and sending it to me.
I have not met Sira for a while. The real satisfying meeting was at our reunion in Marang Safari Park. That was years ago. When we started this blog, Sira wanted to contribute even though he was not familiar with the way the team could post. He decided to just email me his articles.
Last month, when attending a wedding in Kuala Lumpur, Sira promised to come to my place. He never did. He did however talked to me over the phone later and promised to get together on his next trip to KL. I wanted so much to meet him and listen to his adventures in the US.
We all remember Sira as a soft-spoken, quiet person. That is how I will remember him.
Al-Fatihah to Sira and our deepest condolences to his family.

Tan Sri M Yusoff Bin Mohamed

Some of us may have heard the sad news that Tan Sri Yusoff died yesterday. Al Fatihah.

Arwah was an ex student of SSS and if I am not mistaken he was the first Sulaimanian to be appointed the State Secretary of Terengganu in the early sixties or late fifties. I remember him giving a speech at Skoloh Kuala Liba (must be during a Speech Day) wearing a suit and a songkok. He was known as Yusoff Che Mat Tinggi to the locals in Kuala Terengganu.

I remember arwah as a nice man, pleasant disposition; a man of few words and never raised his voice. He must have been a man who believed in life long learning because some time in the 80s when I attended an Arabic class at UIA (in PJ then) as part of a course I was pleasantly surprised to meet him there. He had been in retirement for some years already. I met him again later in a matter involving his house in Johor Baru.

I also remember him as a man who liked "makan nasi lauk kampong". During one of my regular trips back to Terengganu I met him at the famous kedai makan "ikan patin masak asam tempoyak" in Termerloh (Karak Kuantan Highway was not around yet). That reataurant was famous for masak asam tempoyak ikan patin asli. There he was with his family just finished his meal when I arrived. He must have arrived early in order to beat the crowd.

Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat kepada roh nya sebagaimana yang dicucuri kepada roh mereka yang soleh dan beriman.


Som

AMINAH HJ ROSE

I have to confess that I have a strong urge to post this picture of Aminah Haji Rose. After we posted the picture of Miskiah I thought the next one must be of Aminah. If she reads this post I hope she does not mind. Aminah was one of my favourite girl classmates because as I remember she was really "one of us" meaning she was friendly to all boys and girls in our class. Of course there were the naughty boys who "nngusek lebih lebih". But she took it all and she gave back as good as she got. At the back of the picture she wrote "For my dear Som. With best wishes for a happy bright future. Classmate Aminah". I remember she had a younger sister in the school and I also remember she had a close friend named Fuziah (cannot remember from which class) who lived in the same area as her (Ngadang Akor?). The last time I met Aminah was at our get together at Marang Safari. She married Alias our senior who worked in the Terengganu Civil Service. I wonder how many anak and cucu she has.

May Allah bless her with strong iman, good health and every happinness.

Som

FOND MEMORIES OF TEACHING DAYS

(Contributed by Ahmad Sirajudin)

(Photo by Pak Idrus of idrus.blogspot)

On the way to school one afternoon, I stopped at a road side warong that sells crispy goreng pisang. When I was enjoying them in the staff room, a student came in to hand in his assignment. I offered him the goreng pisang. "Thank you Sir" he said and walked off with the whole package of goreng pisang. I was not at all annoyed with what happened but amused instead. And I am still amused at the incident today.

In another incidence a girl stopped me on the corridor "Sir, I want to be a doctor. I must get A for English" she told me.
"Good" I said "I will think of something. Come and see me tomorrow".
When she came the next day I gave her some story books including "The Count of Monte Cristo" and I made her come to the staff room to discuss the story. She got an A and is now a doctor.

I have hundred of anecdotes like the above. Teaching won't make you rich but you are rich in different ways, in job satisfaction.

POK OD

Pok Od was in town yesterday for another of his flying visits. He will be going home to Kuala Terengganu tonight.

Pok Od shares with other classmates a few of his images form the earliest (the one with the twirly moustache) to the latest.

FRIENDS GOOD WITH NUMBERS

At the end of our school days there was a rush to capture memories, to distill all those happy days into some images that would help us go through uncharted days ahead.

Aziz, Naguib and I did just that. I do not remember exactly where and when this photograph was taken. I do remember the shirt though. It was a fine shirt with an obscure brand - "Lifting". It was green and it was bought in a big shop somewhere along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur.

Aziz Abdullah (Now Dato') and I applied to do 6th Form in MCKK. Aziz was accepted, I was rejected and sent to STAR Ipoh instead. Naguib went to Penang. he had illustrious relatives there. Unlike me, both Aziz and Naguib were (still are, I guess) good at Maths. Aziz, after a short stint at UM got sent to where most of our electrical engineers studied then- in Brighton, England (thanks to Som for jogging my memory). Aziz was with TNB all the way until retirement. Even after that he was still helping TNB in one form or another.

Naguib, nicknamed "Silvertip" by our teacher Mr. Gopal had his degrees in Mathematics and lectured in UKM.

I fervently hope that Naguib and Dato' Aziz come across our blog and give some feedbacks now that they are featured here. As it is, there is only a handful of contributors and commentators who is keeping our blog alive. Considering that there are many classmates out there with access to the Internet, I would expect more to comment, if not contribute.