From Left to Right round the table : Specs Pang Seng Meng, White shirt : Albert Heng, Apparoo Surendran, Me, Michael Tan Joo Liang (specs), Chew Ping Nan (white shirt and organiser), Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, Andrew Lee, Kenneth Fong, Chandrakanth Mahawar, S. Thulasidas, unknown, Paul James Ezekiel.
As I hit my '50s ; there is a more urgent need to reconnect with the friends of my youth, which are the 'boys' from St Andrew's Primary and Secondary. So every year (or 2), my friend Ping Nan, faithfully rounds up the Usual Gang of Suspects (who are the 'boys' of the class of '78 Sec 4 Saint Andrews) and we make every effort to go Back to School and reacquaint ourselves with teachers of old, the classrooms and of course our long lost 'band of brothers' whom we played marbles with at the school yard, swung by the Banyan tree beside the school, played truant with the then discipline master Mr. Victor Wee, played mid afternoon soccer in the school field and coming in to class stinking to high heaven.
These are what our collective memories were made of. We cannot go back but we can always reconnect and have a laugh about the 'good old times'. While some people think aging and growing old is scary, it is a rite of passage of life, so we need to accept life, as well as death and the ups and downs which we are given in heaps and doses.
Are there 'winners' in life ? Or are there 'losers' ? I am still pondering that question today. But in the meantime I cherish every meeting with my old 'bros' of yesteryear.
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