Riding the LRT from USJ to KL Sentral on a date with this well known lady! We started chatting on WhatsApp just yesterday.

Now, we are meeting up. The rendezvous at NuSentral was her idea.

Using the LRT is a fantastic way to travel instead of driving, especially to KL Sentral where it is notoriously difficult to find parking. The LRT is comfortable and relaxing. Hence, I am getting this article phone-screen tapped / written.

This lady is not unknown to me. We first met some many, many years ago. She always caught my attention whenever we met. She was a very fast writer at that time. So, if I was distracted for even a little while, I would lose out to what she wrote down.

It all started when I received a Whatsapp message, “Mrs. Siva here. Just want to know how are you and family getting on?”

At first I wondered which Mrs. Siva was this as I didn’t know anyone by that name. And her telephone number did not pop up from my contacts list.

Then, she sent a group picture of the La Salle Klang secondary school teachers with Bro Harold Reynolds.

“Aahhh. My Form Two History teacher”.

She told me that she changed her phone number. So, that explained why her name didn’t show on my phone when she messaged me.

I said that we should meet soon. She replied that she would love that.

The next morning, I sent her a message suggesting we meet for coffee that morning itself, someplace that was convenient for her. She suggested NuSentral.

Had one of the loveliest meet-ups in a long while. Mrs. Sivakumar was looking as radiant as ever. We greeted each other with a warm hug. She looks really wonderful, even more so, then when she taught me history when I was in Form Two or Year 8 (14 years old at that time).

We met in front of the food court and decided to go to Nyonya Colours – a restaurant which focuses on simple local food. Neither of us were hungry, so she ordered a tea tarik and I had an iced Nescafe. I forgot to tell the order-taker that I wanted it black with no sugar. Nevertheless, it tasted quite good.

We sat outside the restaurant by the railings; which gave us a panoramic view, both wide and deep (height – many floors of shops); of this shopping centre. This mall was not particularly crowded at that time of the morning, though it did have a steady flow of people moving in almost all directions; going about their way.

This was the first time that I got to know more of Mrs. Sivakumar and family. She was transferred to a few schools after La Salle Klang, in her illustrious teaching career. She was already married when she taught me history, which meant she got married at quite a young age.

I learnt that her late husband was with University Malaya and that she has 3 daughters, two in the United Kingdom and one in Australia. One of her daughters lived in the U.S. for a while but now resides in the U.K., of which her husband is a native of. Mrs. Sivakumar makes use of the opportunity to travel and visit them.

She talked about her late mother and her siblings, too. I exchanged stories about my family, especially about my brothers, since they were in La Salle Klang, too; though she never taught any of them.

An hour and a half whizzed by so fast. We said to each other that we will do meet-ups like this more often. She said that when I suggested we meet, and that it be today, she liked the idea. Spontaneity.

From Nyonya Colours, she walked me back to the section where I was to catch the LRT back to Subang Jaya. She on the other hand, would walk back to her condominium, which was 15 minutes away. NuSentral is the place that she comes often since it is close by to where she lives.

We hugged and wished other goodbye. While she referred to herself as “Mrs. Siva”; I have always fondly known her as “Mrs. Sivakumar”.

NOTE:
1. USJ is in the city of Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
2. NuSentral / KL Sentral is in the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
3. Klang (now a city in the state of Selangor) was the 5th largest town in Malaysia in the early 1970s.
4. “Teh tarik” or literally “pulling tea” in English; is an art of pulling or stretching the tea from one glass to another, to sort of cool it down just a little bit. It sort of makes it taste better.