#reunited

This unfinished draft, popped up on my ideaSketchpad or sort of popped up; an essay that I worked on in December 2022 / January 2023. Now, to add the finishing touches.

This was on our (Jeannie , my wife, the Batik Influencer) and my trip to the U.S. to visit our No.1 daughter, Laura; for the first time since August 2019. We were there to also attend her graduation from university.

We were met at the O’Hare International airport in Chicago, by Laura’s university swim coach, Dr. Duesterhaus; who drove all the way from Decatur (about 3 hours south-west of Chicago) to pick us up and take us to Decatur. American hospitality – unmatched.

Our meet up with Laura when we got to Decatur was immensely wonderful. Four years, well; almost four years of Whatsapp video calls, Whatsapp messages, emails – and now, in person. What joy!

*8.00pm, December 1, 2022, U.S. time. Reunited after 30hours of travel.* *The scientist from the movie “Back To The Future” looks like me here, except his hair is white.*

The picture above was the first family together reunion shot as we got into the house. We didn’t want to take any pictures outside because we could not wait to get in the house. It was freezing cold. Decatur winter. Thank goodness it was just a breeze and not the infamous winds blowing that night. It would have made it all the more uncomfortable to get from the car to the house.

Picture on the left ↢ of me in the bedroom, already at work, putting an article together, while at the same time, trying to catch up on reading.

There is nothing like reading physical books, being able to flip pages, and hear them flipping at the same time. get the smell of the ink on paper (the smell may no longer be there. You can imagine the smell of ink as the letters, words, sentences and paragraphs, newly set ((printed)) on paper dries up).

Reading from a screen is alright for a few minutes, I guess; before a notification, message or advertisement pops up to distract you. It is the only 1 (one) time you’ve got; and everyone, company or distractor is trying to get a piece of the action – your time. Here’s the thing: you don’t have multiple lifetimes, whether running concurrently or one after another. You’ve got one shot at making the only life you have – spectacular; which means using it the way that it is going to inspire you, and others, too.

Don’t forget to grab my book when it hits the shelves in the near future.😁

The picture on the right ↣ of the “Windowed View Of The Outside World” gave me a glimpse of a real live view or what I otherwise saw on tv of an American neighbourhood. Winter, trees without leaves, snowfall flickers on and off, lightly. Houses were basically square or rectangular, mostly 2- or 3-storey, many with a mix of brick, stone, concrete and wood.

This view was my view for a month, as I sat at the table each time, with the window not going anywhere, right in front of me. I am a dreamer. I love to stare outside and let “my mind is my playground” wonder. Think of it: There are no two 1 seconds, or two 1 minutes, or two 1 hours the same. Every moment that has passed is already a different phase. If there is a camera fast enough to capture the transition from one moment to another, you will notice the difference.

It is here at this table, that I wrote a couple (or more) of articles on how robots, like a trojan horse, is taking over the world. I also wrote about how we are easily giving up our rights to decide things for ourselves without putting much thought into it – all in the name of making lives easier for us. Food for thought articles. And more. I found it fun writing those essays.

*A must have for this writer – coffee in many forms. In this case “Kopiko”.*

*Getting some work done at the Coffee shop. I think this was the River Coffee Cafe.*

Laura introduced us to the local cafe, the River Coffee Cafe in Decatur town. It was a cool place to hang out, chill or get some work done. The atmosphere was right, great place to have coffee, some light bites and for us, to do some light work.

In this whole time we were in Decatur, I missed my good friend that I met in my last trip to Decatur, Dick Black. He had just moved to South Carolina a few days earlier. We are still very much in contact through social media.

Spending time with Laura when we were there – there was magic in every moment. I think we cannot or should not spend time trying to think up of what to do or plan what we should do with big chunks of time like weeks, months and years only. Let’s start with the little fellas like moments, seconds and minutes in the present.

U.S.A. – Would I? Definitely!

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”.

*Mrs. Sivakumar is seated in the front row, third from the right.*

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.

leatherpotato

The future is now. Live it!

THROWBACK – U.S.A. DECEMBER 2022

“Mrs. Siva here”