Worldly Pleasures of Mine: The Return: to UM & RPKJ

Last weekend, I was at my alma mater - the prestigious University of Malaya.

It was not actually my event. It was MM's niece's graduation. She was in the Rancangan Persediaan Khas ke Jepun, or RPKJ, a term we, the UM people often use to refer to them, the students of the programme. It was just a small scale event but being there, in UM to witness the graduation, brought a lot of memories back to me. And thus the time spent there became such as nostalgic experience for me.

The graduation ceremony was held at the Dewan Tunku Canselor, or the DTC, as it was fondly known by all of us. A long time ago, one of my lecturers called it the Dewan Tak Cat [the Unpainted Hall], at which we hilariously laughed. Yeah, it was "tak cat" [not painted] for a while until it caught fire on one unfortunate day. After that, it was nicely refurbished till you couldn't help feeling proud of it.

The feeling of nostalgia was nowhere near me when I entered the hall, for it was not my first time there after leaving the UM. I was back in UM in 2003 after obtaining my first degree and was in the DTC four years later for my own graduation. So entering and being in the DTC that day had not so much effect.

And then they had this slide show of the RPKJ students' activities. And I saw, after leaving them many years ago - the tutorial rooms (where I had my classes once in a while), the lecture halls (which I entered at times, including when they had the same graduation ceremony for my RPKJ friends at that time), the staircases and the small mounds by the classes (on which we also stood many, many years ago to have our pictures taken), the Varsity Green. My heart fluttered with pride (for I had been there) for a while, then it choked with sadness, a sense of longing and nostalgia.

Yes,those were the good old days. The happy times. The times that I miss - the times when all that we really did was attending classes, going to Pekan Buku, walking under the hot sun by the DTC before class or after class or to go for games at Varsity Green, having meals -breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea - at Pekan Siswa or Plaza Siswa... this space might not be enough to mention all that we did... Then there were the RPKJ people. My RPKJ friends - Irwan, Mat Pui, and there was one girl whose name I forgot, and there was this boy I know by the nickname Awel. There were others too, actually, but unfortunately due to time and memory lapses, their names have somehow faded away..

It was those times, the times that I could never return to. The times that only remain in memory and would always be treasured and cherished as among those things that made me who I am today. I'm sad for not being able to go back and enjoy all those days again, but I'm also thankful for having been given such times to forever remember with happiness.

I will let the pictures I took on that day tell you about the rest of the RPKJ 30th batch's graduation ceremony.