So near yet so far

On Wednesday night, my daughter and I came back from Ipoh and saw a familiar figure at the Indian temple’s multi-purpose hall. She thought he is her ex-classmate’s father. I went to ask him, “Excuse me, are you with the CID?” He nodded his head. I continued, “Do you know Yamini?” He smiled and nodded his head again and said, “She is my daughter!”

I quickly waved and gestured to my daughter to come over. After the usual introduction and exchange of pleasantries, we got down to asking where is so and so. The good thing about being in a small town is that, everybody we asked about, he or his wife knew where they are or what course they are taking and so on.

A surprise was that another good friend of my daughter, Tenmala, who had lost contact with her since they left school, is a roommate of Yam in Ukraine. One of their school teachers, Mr. Toh, has a daughter also studying medicine in the same university. Since the recent announcement of non-recognition of its medical degree by the government, it is unlikely that any more Malaysian student will be enrolling at the University of Crimea. Such a pity.

Coming back to my topic. From the information we gathered from the couple, the biggest surprise was that an ex-classmate, Bhuvan, who got married just 2 days ago, had actually hosted the wedding dinner at the same hall! My daughter and I actually got back from KL on Monday, around 7.30pm and noticed many cars parked outside the hall, along the lane leading to our house. How could she have guessed that her ex-classmate was actually all dressed up in her bridal gown in the hall? Similarly, how could Bhuvan have guessed that her ex-classmate had just got back from UK and was hardly 30 ft away?

I used to joke that each time the temple hall is being used to host a wedding dinner, we should be invited as a matter of course! Now, it is more like, we should look and check out who is getting married in case we miss something so unexpected.