The years in Sekolah Menengah Ibrahim, a so-called premier school Sungai Petani, were really filled with fun and doing naughty things. As young adults, we were not worried about our future and were so happy doing crazy and useless things and not understanding the ramifications or consequences.
Those fun-filled activities were participated by my classmates who included Art Tarzan or his complete name was Azhar Azizan or Art Harun. This friend I think is from Yan or Baling and he was staying in the school hostel which was situated at the far end of the school compound. In the 5A1 class, which was known as the noisiest and one of the worst classes and purposely placed next to the main office, Art Tarzan would always sit not far from the intelligent boy Towkay or Sulaiman Daud. I was sitting not very far from the always smartly dressed Zaini Hashim, whose father was a Yang Berhormat of Merbok constituency or Ujang, the son of a soldier stationed at Kem Lapangan Terbang. Tarzan who would always shout out in the class for no apparent reasons was given that name by yours truly, was really smart and clearly smarter than me in the class. However, academically in the class exam, he was always second to Towkay in terms of academic performance. Leman or Towkay would always secure the position as "numero uno " and Tarzan would grab the second slot consistently. I was always number three and would go down to number 10 depending on my performance in the class exams. I was the type that was not very consistent is my academic performance unlike Towkay and Art Tarzan. But somehow during the high stake examination of MCE, I was able to create an upset and managed to get grade 1 whereas Sulaiman only managed to obtained grade two together with Art Tarzan.
Based on the results I got the chance to further my studies overseas whereas Art Tarzan, Leman and Ujang continued with Form 6 in the same school. I heard Tarzan did quite well in his STPM examination and managed to further his studies in Law at the University of Malaya and later would become quite a successful lawyer. Later in the years, Art Tarzan was more involved in social issues and now very heavily involved in politics. In Ibrahim school, he was the type that was quite sentimental but always full of drive to achieve his goals. He would also enjoy life so much and would always be stuck with his favorite guitar. One song that I always remember him singing was the song "Please don't go". I discovered somehow later in life he was a bit jealous of me at least based on my observations. He would see me as a competitor even though in real life he is always successful. All the best to you Art Tarzan.
Another good friend of mine is Hidayat Fahmi who was known as Dayat and who was one of the students in Form 5 express class, the smart boys class. He was really close to me outside the school environment. We would be very active in our residential areas doing many boys things like building a tree house in the Paya Bakau and building a sampan in the dirty river not far from our homes. We would also be fishing for mud crabs and lokan and would cook them. Wow, life was so fun with Dayat. His father was a Bahasa Melayu subject teacher driving a rare BMW 2002 in Kuala Muda. In life, Dayat was really handsome and standing quite tall amongst my friends. When he was a young adult, he looked very much like David Cassidy the actor cum singer and had a fair colored skin with hair that was quite brownish in color. He really looked like a Mat Salleh at a glance. His good-looking was a magnet amongst girls in Bakar Arang and some of the Convents school students. Girls students were just crazy for him. His handsomeness made me realize how "ugly" I was. During those years also I was made to be aware of my physical nonattractive look. I would always compare myself to Dayat and questioned God for creating me not to be so handsome.
We were very close and we would even hold our hands together while walking together. There were no sexual connotations at all but it reflected how close the relationships were during our childhood. Dayat and family stayed in Rumah Murah Bakar Arang, a small two-room low-cost terrace house, where I and my family also stayed with 7 siblings. Dayat's house was the opposite of the house of Mak Wan, a tall lady who was really a classic "Makcik bawang " who had a son by the name of Mukhlis. The family life of Dayat was a bit in disarray because his father had married another woman in Kota Kuala Muda and Dayat's mother was the one who was taking care of the family financially. Dayat and I would sometimes cook our lunch together as he was quite independent and left to fend for himself. I remember one dish that he cooked that I learned till now was "sambal telor ", in which to or three eggs were cracked open and slowly cooked in "sambal tumis ". The dish was simple but really delicious when eaten with freshly cooked rice. Dayat however, did not do quite well academically even though he was such a potentially bright student. The fact that his family life was so disorganized and from the lack of parental guidance could be the reasons for him not doing too well academically. I heard at present in life he is involved in selling Jati furniture in Sungai Petani. He brings in Jati furniture that he imports from Indonesia. I also heard that he got divorced and later remarried. I don't know where he lives exactly but occasionally I would see him appeared in the facebook promoting his furniture.
I really have to thank Dayat for being my really good friend. I also have to apologize to him for not being such a good friend to him especially during the years when I was sent to the States. I did not get in touch with him as frequent as I would like back then. Life for me that in the States was so challenging and communication was bad because of the lack of internet and communicating using the telephone was exorbitant. Well, that's just could be a flimsy excuse. I know that he was not very happy with me. But what I really want to say is that I'm truly sorry for treating you that way Dayat. You have been a fantastic friend to me. I don't think I would be able to get a friend as nice as you are.
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