Monday, 11 February 2008

Old schoolmate Subramaniam

Arising from the informal get-together with my OldFrees7072 pals last Friday on Penang island, I've been in sporadic contact with another old schoolmate by mobile text messages. It's always nice to reacquaint oneself with people that you haven't met for a long time. In Subramaniam's case, it must have been at least 35 or 36 years ago. 

When we were still at school, I used to visit my aunt at Irrawaddy Road. Staying nearby at Chow Thye Road was Seng Oo but just slightly down from my aunt's house at the government quarters was Subramaniam. He had a funny way of mispronouncing certain words, one of them was "sekeretary" instead of "secretary". 

  Why, today, he is the secretary-general of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) political party. He hasn't changed much outwardly but I hope he has overcome his quirky (mis)pronunciations. Anyway, at the MIC website which was hacked recently, I noticed that Subra is not only the MIC's secretary-general but also the Member of Parliament for Segambut. That's almost a full-time politician's job and I wonder whether he still has time for his medical practice. 

Apart from him, is there any other schoolmate that has gone into politics? He still remembered that I stayed at Seang Tek Road and he asked whether the apom seller beside my old home was still around. Dei! The apom Aneh had left for the old hunting ground in the sky a long, long time ago. It's remarkable what old memories of care-free years can dig up.

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