With information and communication technology, affectionately abbreviated to ICT, the four-dimensional barriers of the physical world are broken down. Physical distance is no longer an issue. Even people separated by time difference can communicate these days.
In fact, as I have experienced, we can even get in touch with people from our past. No, I'm not talking about contacting dead people - to me that's a load of nonsense. What I'm talking about is reconnecting the friendship between people who have not seen each other in ages.
Through Facebook, I have managed to trace back and get reconnected (as well as reacquainted) with long lost childhood friends. Since early September, I was able to be in touch with old friends like Yusrin Faidz, Sabeen Wasi and Adeline Er.
And thanks to an old picture put up by Yusrin Faidz, another good friend from the past, Shamsul Anuar, came in contact with me. I was in the same class with Shamsul in 1982 and 1983 before his family moved away. I lost contact of him, until we accidentally bumped into each other in the autumn of 1992 - in London of all places.
I was already in the UK at that time. I was in London during the short break before the start of university, and was walking somewhere near the old Malaysia Hall. A few Malaysian students walked pass me. A couple of seconds later, one of them turned his head back, and I, too, stopped and turned my head. There was an air of familiarity on that student. And almost simultaneously, the two of us called out each other's name.
After close to a decade, that was the first time I saw Shamsul since our primary school days, and unfortunately, it was also the last. We kept in touch using the traditional way - snail mail - but somehow, we got disconnected over the years. I received his wedding invitation circa 1998 or 1999 (can't remember now), but I wasn't able to attend. I gave him a call to congratulate him though, but again, unfortunately, that was the last time I managed to speak to him. [I had somehow misplaced his number, silly me].
But alhamdulillah, earlier this evening, I received a message over Facebook from Shamsul Anuar, who apparently managed to trace me. I am glad that I have been able to reconnect with an old friend again. This time, I will make sure not to loose track of him again.
What a small world indeed. And I am indeed thankful for it being that way.
1 comment:
Shaikh - you are too kind.
My excuse is that I've been based in the UK and any contact info I've accummulated kinda got left in Malaysia. But I know that's not a good excuse.
How about this - the contact details I had was with your old employer, so it's no longer valid. Yes, that sounds bit more plausible. Definitely !!
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