My "Feelings"

A modern-day letter/journal shared with my LSD friends of Lima Sains Dua 1975 with their spouses, other fellow Johannians of SJI including girls who joined us in Form 6 only. 

My Dear Friends or should I address you as My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Please take some quiet time to reminisce what I am about to share below. It's from the Feelings of my Heart. It will only take me a short time to share online as I have spent my life being a "Chronicler" that I didn't realize. This title was given to me by our intelligent friend and former Microsoft MD in Malaysia, Benedict Lee Ban Hock, not too long ago in our brief online chat.

I like to warn that this sharing is not just using multi-media technology of today,  but is also a reflection of a post-millennial era of Human Consciousness, especially of My Consciousness, that can flip from one moment of time here to there in an instant!

Some who viewed this old pic above taken some time in our 1974-75 school years together, like Chian Howe, Wooi Teck, Chuan Huat and I seen in a more current Dec 2018 pic below, were trying to recall where this photo was taken at.

In our small get together a few nights after the 8 Dec 2018 turning 60 big reunion dinner, Chian Howe thinks it's Mimaland, Chuan Huat thinks it's Camerons, I thought it could be Lake Gardens and Wooi Teck wasn't really sure! I guess we all learned as we started to discuss past memories that we really remember only the ones that we had strong feelings or emotions about. This is because they happened many many years ago and since then, many more memories have been added to our memory bank that may make the earlier ones to become more faint to be recalled especially specifics are concerned!

One thing for sure that can be stable in this online journal is about my "Feelings" shared today when we are all qualifying into the senior citizens class! Fortunately, I realized when young that I natural had poor memory and compensated my weakness with the use of photos, written records and later computer technology to index all that I wish to remember so that I can recall them any time in the future.

The last photo above from my memory was after our Form 5 major exam and we all wanted to celebrate and had a party at Kim Hock's residence at Jalan Yap Kuan Seng which is very near the KLCC today! Now the reason the red arrow points to Zubir is just a few nights ago, we had a long chat on the phone. He was the Malay boy from our special class of Science two whom I had deeper roots with as with as he grew up with me in the same Kampong of Ampang Jaya together with another Johannian named Alvin Lim Kim Chuan whom I classify as one of the many affiliates of our Legendary LSD class. Click here to jump below to the section where I will write what Zubir shared with me that helped me reawaken my Consciousness of how special our Class of 4 and 5 Science 2 was that planted something in us that made a big difference for our future. It became a rationale we possessed where each could create our own narrative that would strongly influence the decisions of our life's future after leaving school. 

I said we were  'Legendary' as this plaque we donated to the school meant to encourage others after us to follow the same Spirit of the Eagle that made us Legendary!

Now after Form 5 in 1975, we began to go in different directions as some did not continue to Form 6.

This could be the last gathering of most of us still in Kuala Lumpur in 1976

Now some started to journey overseas like this photo in London UK of 1976 Nov/Dec.

After one year at Taylor's matriculation program, it was my turn to go overseas for my education in Feb 1977. Grateful to have this pic to remind me of my LSD and affiliate friends who too the trouble to see me off!

I guess the magnet of the LSD 'Feelings' caused me to find Victor Liow whose family had migrated to Melbourne Australia.

This strong magnetic force also worked on Govind who like all the years to this day, he will suddenly show up like he did in the photo above after hitchhiking all the way from Perth to find me in Geelong Australia before finding his way hitchhiking to Europe and then finally to the US to continue his education!

This photo shows my Mom and Sister-in-Law visiting me early 1978 to check on me haha! I share this photo to highlight Lim Tong Leong who is the older brother of Alvin Lim Kim Chuan, from my same kampung who was the very reason why I chose to study in an unknown University in Geelong when my matriculation results qualified me to go to Melbourne Uni or RMIT college. I felt that he was a Johannian affiliate to LSD too due to his younger brother who is also an LSD affiliate who became my buddy for life! It was the best decision I made as from my buddy's brother, I learned how to be really independent by picking his Architect's brain and follow all the crazy outdoor lifestyle he exposed me to in Australia.

Something happened to me in Australia where from LSD mindset, just before I turned 21 in the year 1979, my life was augmented with the LDS culture, same 3 letters slightly changed in its order! LDS was the short form for the full name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After I graduated from the university in 1980, I came home to serve a voluntary mission for the Church.

My old friends of Sc2 made an effort to come and visit me in Kuala Lumpur where I was based for some time.

While serving a mission from 1980-82, I had developed the habit of keeping a personal journal

After I completed my voluntary mission for two years, I found my future wife in Singapore and we planned some holidays in KL during our short courtship with another courting couple Ben and Swee Joon who did their sixth form in SJI together

When we all finished our education, the marriage course or of course was the path to follow and here is a photo of Ben and me in our dating years in 1982 on a trip to Fraser's Hill together with our future wives!

However, the strong bonds of "Feelings" kept us two couples close to each other together with many of our other classmates for many more years to come:

At Benedict's first home in 1986, after being the first to be married, that we are aware of as those days there was no cell phone or internet to easily know for instance if Baldev Singh got married earlier or not than Ben and Joon. We were glad to have an informal reunion to also help him move some furniture too as helpful friends.

After that time, many of us began to become busy in establishing our careers as well as starting our own families. There were only smaller reunions that occurred for our 5 Science 2 or Lima Sains Dua (LSD) group with our affiliate Johannians until:

20 Oct 2013

Turning 55 reunion video history

12 Feb 2017

Turning 60 reunion idea thought of in a Chinese New Year lunch in PJ hosted by Thim Mun:

Video promotions for the reunion event on Dec 8, 2018 started and continued till close to the date of the event :

Sharing of the discussion about why our 5 Science 2 or Lima Sains Dua LSD class was exceptional in a phone call with Ahmad Zubir: 

Ahmad Zubir was the only one of our four Malay boys in our 5Sc2 class that I could keep in contact over the years as our roots were deeper together as I use the term, we came from the same 'Kampong' or village in Ampang Jaya. From the photo above he is 2nd from the left pointed out with the red arrows on my Malay classmates in 1975. On his right is Malek Reedzuan. Further on Zubir's left is first Darius Abdullah who is followed by Shaidan bin Sulaiman.

I would visit his home by bicycle and vice-versa. However, once we left SJI school, as time went on, we each would get busier continuing our life's journey with further education, career, and marriage.  It got harder to stay connected with each other especially when technology like Social Media, did not exist in our early days. A Malay boy student friend that I could continue to stay connected with was Ainuddin Hamid, who was not from our 5Sc2 class but was also from our same 'Kampong'. He also eventually lived not far from our Kampong off Jln Ampang as I did. So after we finished our education and came home to Kuala Lumpur to start our careers and own family, we could continue to stay in contact. But where were my other Malay friends from LSD?

I started going through my old albums and journals to find out that Ahmad Zubir and Darius Abdullah were last seen in our  LSD class reunion in 1986, confirmed by checking our Class Red Book that had a page with multiple photos of that day shared above.

Then with Social Media technology in full swing, the following video was captured:

This meet up occurred in the year 2016 and was shared live on Facebook as it happened!

As I started to follow up with my Johannian friends on the phone for our "Roaring 60s" reunion event, I had a very interesting long conversation with Zubir on the phone, my friend from the same Kampong!

We started talking about our LSD class, recalling all the wonderful memories especially amazing things we achieved like the Thailand trip especially!  Then he said something that hit me in My Consciousness...that there was something special in the combination of different characters in the class that somehow made us acquire a special/magical attribute that was 40 years ahead of our time! Those words he said that was well articulated or words I recall to this effect hit me like a lightning bolt with reference to the book I've been preparing to publish as soon as possible from an unknown aspiring author from Boleh Land haha  My book is covering the most important topic of Human Consciousness where Scientists and Religionists are giving all sorts of differing opinions and views!

While busy with all that research and writing both in my online journals as well as my book draft, I continued to follow my Heart and Mind to connect to old friends as I often wonder about them where have they gone and why I don't run into them like I can run into others. Then it happened. After finding Ahmad Zubir which was easy as he was from my same Kampong, I wondered what happened to Darius Abdullah, Shaidan bin Sulaiman and Malek Reddzuan? Then it happened....

I was in std 6A3 on the far right back and Nazli Shah is on the far left back.

I went to a lunch to celebrate Nazli Shah's birthday (middle arrow) at Bilal Restoran Jln Ampang where Kamarul Bahrein (right arrow) at the lunch was also from 6A3 but not in the B&W photo above. But guess who was sitting beside me?

Darius Abdullah and Ikbal in the centre who brought him to the lunch celebration!

I told Darius at lunch, sitting beside me, that I had been thinking about him for a long long time over the past years as we were sitting quite close together in class at school during Forms 4 and 5 years. I've never met him in all the different gatherings or reunions of our schoolboys over the years so was wondering where he had gone to. Lo and behold, he suddenly just showed up. He and Ikbal decided to stay longer after lunch to sit down with me to catch up with one another. I learned that he and Ikbal were part of a special program by the government in the 70s to place students like them who lived in villages outside KL to integrate with students who lived in the city. They lived in student dorms or 'asramas' in Malay where green army trucks would ferry the students to school and back each day. I remember seeing those army trucks parked near the school in my student days thinking there were parents who were in the military who sent their sons to St John's. After so many years later, I now know why were the trucks there and appreciate how the government was helping to improve the standard of education in the country for those who were living in the outskirts.

I asked Darius if he knew where were the other two Malay boys and he said he did contact Shaidan once before and that he was a doctor in Ipoh. Later through our WhatsApp connection, he gave me the link he found through Google here.  I followed up and soon got to talk to Dr Shaidan who is an anesthetist today.  So there was only Malek Reedzuan left who was unaccounted for.

This current work-in-progress journal post will be continued and edited where necessary...