Thursday, November 01, 2007

Past Friends, Retrospect Review

Was chatting with Amiable Aix today and somehow the topics headed down the road to an old friend that we've long since lost touch with. And honestly we've long lost touch with this Medic friend we met since our first day at choir in IMU together. As friends go he was an interesting character, someone different to talk with (heck, he wouldn't have found anyone else that shared similar interests with him in our batch so thank goodness he went to the Medic batch). He was also the first person we ever met who knew how to play the violin - and what was more surprising was that he learned to play it all by himself (nope, he wouldn't let us try playing the violin, a smart move as anyone who doesn't know how to play the violin would probably just end up snapping the strings).

It was quite rare for us to actually mix with someone from the Medic group - after all Medicine and Pharmacy run on different timetables so the only way you get to know someone from the other course was to know them beforehand, like say since college or something. Just as well that we stayed there in Vista Komenwel - so we could pop by each other's apartments every now and then to say hi.

We find it interesting that, for the fact that both of us have nothing much in common, we managed to stay friends for a long time. After all we're not an extroverted person where we can really make small talk or remember details all the time. To say that we shared an interest in music, well, his level of interest is way up there (yes, very much like Amiable Aix we find) while ours is way down here. Definitely we didn't talk much on medicine and such. Maybe it's because he could talk and we could listen. Well we just clicked lah. If there's anything else to say about him we might have said it elsewhere already.

Funnily enough, after leaving IMU we've never really kept in touch - each going their overseas way to finish their twinning programme. And it didn't help that we forgot how his email was spelt, so we couldn't really correspond online. And that after a while even the festive greeting cards came to a stop (oh yes we were so stingy that we never bothered writing normal mails but waited to send a greeting card and then cram all we would say onto it). Since it's the family home address we're not sure if the family actually keeps the cards aside for him, or forwards it to him, or dumps it aside to be forgotten.

It's been some 5 years now that we've lost contact. In fact, our last reminder of him was when we were in the midst of our housemanship. A medic batchmate of his was collecting some medication and recognized us as his friend (yes well we're not too sure but we think it's not very easy to get to know him). However, she too didn't have an inkling of where he's gone and hid himself.

Google him up? Well luckily for us the first hit brought up something almost useful - an article he wrote (on music, which helped confirm we were looking at the correct feller). So unfortunate that it was dated 2001, we have no idea what's he been up to recently. The second just showed that he was in the Dean's List in the uni webpage. Again, not too much that's useful to us. Gotta resort to more direct measures (which we shan't say what).

Well he's someone we would like to catch up with after all these years. See how things have changed. More likely, see if he's alive or not. :S

8 comments:

hrugaar said...

'All these years' is only five la, you make it sound like much longer! Is it really likely he's no longer alive? :\ And is contacting his family out of the question, if you had the home address?

Last year I met up again with a friend from university, we'd only exchanged christmas letters in the intervening time. He said "after all these years" one time too often and I read him the riot act, heh.

savante said...

If he's a houseman, he'd probably go back home for his posting. Have you guys checked there? The hospital there, i mean.

William said...

Should try less mundane methods like Madam Zorra's Scrying Service.

Sam said...

LOL @ William! :P

Been there done that really - lost a couple of friends as I moved all over the place (especially email adds and phone numbers!) that it's almost impossible to try and track them down again. Google's the best bet really.

David The Man said...

Typo mistake I made...

"Madam Zorra" + Google + Yahoo + snail mail + email + friendster = Got your results?

No? Then, Senor Soldat (Mr. Soldier) would have to look for some better methods to search for his long lost friend. Hmmm... Use spy satellite, you say? Now, that's really a desperate search, I would say! muahahaha...

Alex said...

I hope you find your cool find someway somehow.... You can also hire a detective or go to Jejak Kasih...

Ganymede said...

I've been moving around 4 states of Msia. No lasting friends then. Save for C. He lives near me. No choice. :P

Janvier said...

Hrugaar: So far five years is like, a fifth of our life. Heh. And we don't know his family.

Savante: That's if he comes back to do his housemanship lor.

William: Ada recommendation?

Sam: Already Googled. Just as well we aren't in the mood to track down everybody.

David The Man: Spanish and French? In Spanish you'd just be calling us Mr Soldat.

Oh spysat quite the canggih. Cannot afford and don't know where to start looking!

Alex: Jejak Rasul we've heard of before. But Jejak Kasih? LOL. :S

QR: Well, he's a friend we made in uni. And you're now in uni. :D But seriously you won't find yourself in such a situation until you're in such a situation. :P