The kindness of Mr Chan Peng Kin, also a former pupil of Mr Kempson Wong, enabled me to savour one of the most joyful experience from being a blogger.
When I wrote my post in 2012 remembering a great teacher, I never envisaged the slightest chance of Mr KW reading my article at all. And when I spoke to him yesterday - he's now 85 - but still "hale n hearty" ( as Mr Chan put it), it took me back to over 64 years ago when I was a scruffy 11 year-old, tagging behind him during House Practice.
Call it serindipity, fate, Kismet but who cares, it's a septuagenarian's dream come true.
Pasir Panjang English School (1955 or 1956). All my special teachers are there, Mr Chia Wai Chee and Mrs Tan Choon Lan (seated). Then there's Mr Chong Khim Siong and Mr Kempson Wong (boxed in red) , standing.
We had a lovely chat, we shared a lot of laughter and happy memories.
A few weeks ago, sometime in mid-August I made what I reckoned to be my last trip to Singapore. But I just have to go back again, for a day-trip to visit my dear ex-teacher Mr Kempson Wong and make my dream come true.
Three weeks ago at Tung Shin Hospital, the spouse and I were waiting to see our Acupuncturist Prof Moon Jae Sung. Then this petite Malay lady in her (traditional style) Baju Kurung and scarf came towards me and asked "Excuse me, are you AnaksiHamid?" I nodded a "Yes I am." Then she added, "I am Semenyih."
You could have knocked me down with a feather!!!!! The face was that of a stranger, but the name was a familiar, friendly and intelligent commentator on my blog. She said she had made several comments on my blog and there had been no response. I replied that I had not noticed any new indications of comments made into Ash since 2015.
But it was such a wonderful serindipitious contact with Siti aka Semenyih and her husband Chris. We could not get over the coincidence. We four had a lot to talk about - what a breath of fresh air!
We promised to meet again but as we're all too tied up with commitments we had to make it another day, here in Kuala Lumpur or in England. When we parted at Tung Shin, to go to our separate cars I commented "Some one up there planned this meeting" and Siti said "Allah works in mysterious ways!"
Indeed He does.
Yesterday I received a lovely e-mail from Siti in England and she mentioned once again about her making a recent comment. I felt I had to do something about this. So I opened up the Blog's desktop and discovered that Comments were now on a separate column and not on the top of the list of posts. I clicked on it and found three headings; Published, Awaiting Moderation and Spam. This was all new to me. So there they were, all this time. There were the usual rants and rubbish from bigots, losers and no-hopers, plus loads of advertisements camouflaged as Comments.
But in the process I also missed out on my genuine commentators. I am especially cut up because the son (Francis Wong) and friend ( Mr Chan Peng Kin) of my former teacher Mr Kempson Wong had tried to make contact with me,
to arrange a get-together with my dear former teacher. I spent all morning trying to contact Francis Wong, but I could not get through. I'm trying other channels too but should I fail to do so, I have to take comfort that one of my favourite teachers when I was 11 years old did get to read about how much I appreciated him and how he made my school days so meaningful and happy. Here's to you Sir.
If I could see you once again in front of my eyes, your septuagenarian ex-pupil would give you a big hug and rejoice once again in all those happy, innocent years at Pasir Panjang English School.
To Francis and Chan Peng Kin, I am so sorry.
And I ask the same of my brother Mus, good friends like Din, Irene, Awang Goneng, Baiti, Mamasita, Charlie, Puyi, and Catharsis. To all the Anons and new visitors and well-wishers, thank you for taking the trouble to add to the writings of AsH.
Finally to Semenyih - If not for you?????? Thank you being so steadfast and persisting. I shall repeat what you said : ALLAH WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.
