Talk about a fateful coincidence...

Gosh...Has it REALLY been a year since I wrote this?

If it was "23 years on" for that posting, it is "24 years on" for this posting then. Yes, today is Ayah and I punya 24th Anniversary of Knowing-Each-Other. MrsNordin was saying, if we were to get married 24 years ago, our kids dah nak kawin dah! How true...but, both Ayah and I would rather see it as, "Our kids dah keluar Universiti dah!!! (Rather than kawin! Hahaha!)

Where do I begin? Bits and pieces of my epic Hindustani love story with Ayah can be found in the abovesaid posting, that is if you all want to know more. There have been a few who had requested for a sequel. I guess I will take this opportunity to fill in the lacunae and give a clearer picture of what actually happened 24 years ago on 26th April 1984. But, brace yourself - this is going to be a looooonnnnggg entry. If you all don't want to be hooked to the storyline like those people who were hooked to Winter Sonata and the likes, my advice to you all is, just hop to another blog NOW.

To those who are still reading this, here goes :

26th April 1984 was the date I FIRST received a letter from Ayah. I was in a boarding school in JB, while he was in a boarding school in KK. We were both sixteen at that time (well, I wasn't quite sixteen yet ;)) I can still remember that day VERY clearly.

It was lunchtime, and I had gone to the staffroom to check my mail, when I saw an envelope addressed to me. Unfamiliar handwriting - but VERY neat, at a glance it looked like it was typed. Perplexed and curious to know who the sender was, I opened it immediately while walking to the dining hall. I began reading it, and I have to say I was totally lost and I just could not understand what this guy called "HHK" from that Sekolah Melayu KK was trying to say!

Bits and pieces from the letter -

"Assalamualaikum -I'm HHK - not sure if you remember me but, we spoke on the phone about a year ago - didn't think you really existed then - thought you had given me a false name - a person with a name THAT long surely didn't exist, la di da di da...(for those who know me, you guys know what he meant when he said my name was LONG, right?)- but then, I was at the PPM meet at SMSS - was going through the magazine and I saw your name and pix in your school debating team - tried looking up for you, but didn't see you - anyway, was wondering if you don't mind if I write to you - exchange exam papers, la di da di da, etc..." (By the way, the letter was written in full BM, okay? With "saudari" here, "saudari" there, you know?!)

(And oh ya - only my pix went to PPM that year. Tuanpunya badan tak pergi - long story :))

I was so confused and was trying really hard to remember any phone conversations which I might have had with this "HHK", or any other guys for that matter! And then I remembered - Hmmmm...couldn't be, because if it was true that we had THAT conversation, my Abah would have killed me, and I would not have been around to read that letter then.

I quickly went to get one of my closest friends Y*s, and showed her the letter, and she said, "Hmmm...this guy saja make up stories, and nak tackle you ni. Entah apa-apa entah. Tak payah layan laaa orang macam ni, etc...!"

All that happened on 26th April 1984.

For a few days, I was contemplating whether to reply the letter, or not. Finally, I sat down with Y*s who helped me compose a very nasty letter to this HHK guy.

Lebih kurang -


"Errr...Hello Saudara HHK! Tolong sikit. I'm not THAT kind of girl, okay? I had NEVER spoken to you over the phone OR any other boys for that matter. Tak ada tactic lain ke nak berkenalan? La di da di da, etc"

Put a stamp on it and posted it to Saudara HHK of Sekolah Melayu KK.

A few days passed, and I remember that afternoon. I was in the Hall practicing for our inter-house Drama competition when Y*s came and pulled me to the side, and she said -

"I'm SO sorry!!! I think I know who this HHK guy is. I just remembered - Z* (her sister) told me sometime last year about a phone call she made to her tuition mate in Sekolah Melayu KK! She called the number for the New Hostel Common Room and one of the seniors answered and started asking her for her details - name? calling from where? etc. Z* was quite annoyed because that senior seemed so kepoh to know her details! So, she flicked through the address book in front of her which had the phone numbers of friends of everyone living in my parents' house, and saw YOUR name in it - which I wrote, but she thought it was our Mom's friend's name - Aunty Wan, and she gave your name to that guy thinking that it was Aunty Wan's name! And when that guy asked her where she was calling from, she immediately thought of my school and she said, she was calling from S*F, JB!!!"

I didn't think Y*s actually took a break to inhale some oxygen in between her sentences when she said ALL that to me.

I was speechless. Talk about coincidence - MY name and MY school! And suddenly both of us started to laugh and started to garu kepala and our thoughts went straight to the nasty letter we wrote to that HHK guy! Alamak!!!! Kesiannyer!! Sudah teruk kena hantam!!! And it was all a case of a mistaken identity!

Again, it took me a few days to come up with a "short-of-apologising" letter to Saudara HHK explaining to him that I knew who he spoke to the year before, and that it was a case of an innocent mistaken identity, and hoped the matter would be put to rest. Mesti control macho and pride, right? So, apologies pun macam bukan apologies sangat laa...Hahaha! Put a stamp on it and posted it to Sekolah Melayu KK. And I never expected to hear from Saudara HHK again after that.

As it turned out, our letters berselisih, and the next day I received a letter from Saudara HHK. Apparently, he had, at his end over there, also made some enquiries and had squeezed out some info from Z*'s tuition mate (which the fated phonecall was really meant for), and he managed to put the pieces together. And feeling that he had made a fool of himself (Hahaha! Jangan marah saudara HHK :)), he wrote a long apology letter, and asked if we could start fresh....

And the rest, as they say...is history.

To Y*s and Z* - if you guys are reading this, THANKS SO MUCH FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS...*

Depending on my mood, I might blog about the pusing-pusing, and the ups and downs of our relationship in the 10 years 4 months and 15 days before we finally got married on "9994" - Sequel gitu... ;)

Anyway, to celebrate our 24th Anniversary of Getting-to-know Each Other, Ayah brought me out on a date just now. Just the two of us. We left the kids at home with Daryati, and went to watch the 11:30pm show at GSC.



And we watched The Forbidden Kingdom.

Romantic giler tengok Jet Li and Jackie Chan berkungfu....HAHAHAHA!

HAPPY 24th ANNIVERSARY, SAUDARA HHK. I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH.