Kepoi

Kepoi, squatting extreme right... My left arm is visible at the left of the picture.

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I just came back from JB a few hours ago, had something to do there at that university down south.

It was a good trip, one reason being, I managed to meet a very dear old friend of mine - Kepoi. Don't ask me how his nice real name became that, one of those things a long time ago..... But it started with Clairol and went downhill after that......

Now Kepoi and me were part of the quintet - the others being Ding, Che Man and Gigi - in that one-eyed rugby team a long time ago. Kepoi came from that school in Jenan, while Ding, Che Man and Gigi came from that school in Ipoh and of course your truly from that school in KL, all powerhouses in that game, though Ding, Che Man and Gigi outnumber us every time we got into the argument about which school is the best. Once in a while we'd catch one of them alone and we'd - Kepoi and me - get our pound of flesh. He was the flanker, Che Man scrum half, Gigi standoff, Ding inside centre and I'd be the outside centre. In the inter-faculty games, I'd play with CheMan against Ding and Gigi and Kepoi would be all alone in the land survey team. Of course it goes without saying, the land survey team would be sayur.....

The last time I saw Kepoi was in 1986, yes, 24 years ago when I went to JB for a job interview, right after returning home. Now, being jobless then, money was a bit tight, so when it was time for me to go back, I had just enough money for the bus fare and maybe a few ringgits more, but not much. So I asked him to loan me RM 10, for any contingencies on my way home.

We compared notes - mainly on the kids and life nowadays, so long after those days when we were young. I had to leave after a short while as I had a 3-hour drive back home and with work tomorrow staring at me.

"Poi, jangan tunggu 24 tahun lagi ye?"

And I paid him back the RM 10. We had a good laugh. What are friends for. Laughs, for sure.

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