BluE Scrubs

3 weeks ago last year, I had the pleasure of attending the much overdued gathering. A debut after an auld lang syne.

This week a second gathering will materialized in a form of a picnic and I am going to miss it.

It was 10 years ago that for some of us, the farewell that we bid to each other really meant that we were not going to see each other again.


It wasn't until last year that somebody stumbled upon yahoo group and started the domino effect of recruiting, beckoning those who call themselves thoroughbreds to rekindle the spirit through the wonderful world wide web.

So we communicated, we planned and soon it was time to meet up after a long long time.


I arrived late, very late because I actually went for a hair appointment. To be honest, being in the job that I am in, hair appointment exists only as one of the things to do but never actually transpired as something I would religiously do, it's just virtually impossible.


So in all fairness I was good to have managed to turn up to one.


I sat in the chair in one of the Taipan's salons, flipping through some dog-eared magazines. In the end the chinese guy told me to stop explaining what I wanted because apparently I contradicted myself so much I gave him headache and my English was weird.


He promised me he'll make me beautiful. How dodgy was that. However, a girl left her seat and strutted towards the counter with a fabulously bouncy, healthy looking , nicely chopped hair, and he did that. He can' be that bad I thought.


My ride dropped me off at the venue said on the invitation. From the outside the white building looked toned down and subdued.


Lights were ample in technicolour arrangement around the roof of what looked like a 1950's British bungalow. A dampened noise of all sorts came from the inside. My stomach paused in mid peristalsis. It knotted and splinted my breath and I felt the need to take a deep one.


I entered the front door which was colossal, adorned with fancy decos. To be honest I was so anxious that I can't recall the details to date, but the door was the only gravitation I felt ,defying the eye steering Petronas twin Tower in the background, towering the roof of the building I was about to enter.


We know the majestic towers would steal the thunder of anything dare stand next to it, but my vision was tunneled and fixed to the door. It was magic, the noise became louder and louder as I walked faster and faster.


As I entered, a few Indian men stood around the atrium of the entrance with glasses in their hands.


'Elloooww adekkk, you mau join kami ??'

Eh, salah tempat ke ni?

Pooh pooh pooh!! I frantically fished for my mobile phone for rescue. Then logic kicked in. I looked to the left and there it says 'TKC 10th year reunion'. I let out a sigh.


I made an agonizing entrance and prayed that nobody would see me so I could sneak in, stealthily, and just ease my way into the crowd, camouflage and blend in.


I would pick up a drink and adopt an attitude of somebody who had warmed the seat and probably half bored already. Alas. The entrance actually led into a mini stage and there I was, spotted by everybody, absolutely everybody, no chance.


A loud shriek came from the crowd on the right. I hopped off the dais and hugged and kissed and sobbed and frantically salamed everybody.


I felt a displacement of previously inflated anxiety by a comfort amongst the 'us' feeling. This 'us' feeling was there with me for 5 years, untarnished, unshaken, only grew stronger each year until in the final year, the goodbyes we uttered to each other was an absolutely shattering, robbing feeling a 17 year old girl could have ever felt.


The party was gorgeous, the company was even more so. I saw aggregations formed, as the night sailed through. I could see the same groups forming again.


I guess, this will always remain a phenomena only chaos theory would dare explain. I too found my 'group' and we talked and talked to our hearts content. I never felt more belonged.


I saw some faces changed, into more softened, glowed and attended features.

I saw some speech toned and fine tuned to a more demure level.

I saw curves and accentuations on the appropriate places enhancing the figures of these women I never noticed before, underneath those nicely starched pinafores and white kurungs.


Everybody changed and none were for the worse. I was proud.


"Wahhhh....so gorgeous you sekarang, got freckles freckles, hair also nice", was probably what I had to bear all night. I don't do compliments.


"Wahhhh, so big this bump, when are you due?", was my reply. Very inappropriately put acrossed, but they knew some things never changed with me.


Always clumsy with words but I always get away with it, because I meant well, at least I think so.


Little that they know, this was not what I was like normally, the brownish spots were from the avid sun worshipping sessions and the hair was a 2 hour jobby, it's not always like this you know, but it was so nice to get credits for my effort.


I left that night feeling much relieved , joyous and content that I delayed the flight to be with the girls again. We laughed, joked, sang songs from Mrs Ho music classes, and of course reminiscing about all sorts of things.


On my ride home, my heart sank thinking about how badly it was to get my ass cooked in the 13-hour-flight back to reality. Cold and unfriendly. It yawned abyss.