[Continued from An Interlude ... ] In Penang, 26-27th July 2009
I arrived in Penang all groggy, and quite repulsed by the world.
I guess that’s what a death and no sleep will do to you.
Everyone annoyed me on the plane, out of the plane, in
the airport … even the man who was just smoking outside,
waiting for someone like I was.
And then I saw her shiny purple beauty.
There Kat was in her gorgeous Toyota Corona Liftback,
all custom zhng-ed to suit her personality.
(Zhng, or Zhhnngggg as I say it, is ‘pimped up’ in Hokkien
Ah Lien/Ah Beng-speak aka “Zhng My Ride” or “Zhng My Phone”)
I’ll tell you something, seeing one of your most favourite
friends, smiling like sunshine in a car like that is quite something
else.
As they would say, the clouds lifted.
I hopped in, we hugged and did the usual ‘Yay, you’re here!’
and went on our way.
Kat said she was sorry she had to basically drag me to
whatever she was doing today and I told her not to be silly,
I wanted to spend this weekend doing stuff she loved.
I’d be her assistant or anything she wanted, I said, I would
gladly just be her shadow.
I also wanted to record this for her as a birthday present.
the Katmobile!
Kat was producing the Penang run of the Five Arts production
‘Gostan Forward’, along with her art collective Ombak-Ombak.
Gostan Forward, a performance lecture
by Marion D’Cruz (which is directed by Mark Teh and also stars
Anne James) had had a successful run in KL, and this was
their show in the Pearl of the Orient.
She was enthusiastic about it, and I was just as enthused for her.
I had missed the show in KL, and I also know Mark, so all this
made the little trip even more meaningful.
In the car we talked about Yasmin’s death.
She was to find out through me, (since it was early in the morning
and it just happened the night before) so I detailed everything
like a little machine, already all cried out, already
tired with sadness.
She said that everything had moved so fast,
the Gostan Forward crew had just been talking about
her being admitted to hospital, and now this.
I told her I had not expected my own reaction to her death.
Kat listened sadly, the news sinking in.
I think for anyone, the news of Yasmin Ahmad
passing away needs time to sink in.
. . . . . . .
It was a nice, balmy morning, despite it all.
We first went to breakfast, which was held at a little
kopishop in Little India.
As per usual when we catch up, we spent
the first hour or so updating each other with
the latest layers of our lives.
It is always later, in the still of the nights,
that we venture into the deeper and more intense
conversations about love, life and the like.
So for now, we would talk about work, plans in the near future,
her marriage and my er, single status. Things like that.
We talked about frustrations with work, but how
we have also learned how to make the best of things,
and how we have grown in our careers.
To learn, to not dwell on the negatives, to look
forward and to see how we can benefit from what
we have been through, what we have observed,
by meeting the people we have met.
Of all my friends, I think I come out of such conversations
in the best possible ways with Kat – we tend to
zoom out and appreciate events for what they
are, and try to put them in context.
You know how some people ask you questions
without really listening to your answers, because
they are actually setting themselves up to talk
about their views on something?
She’s definitely not like that. She’s one of those friends who really
wants to know what you think, she’ll ponder about it for
a bit, and then ask the right questions. You can see it in her
eyes – she imagines herself in a similar situation, or thinking
it through, and then offer an opinion
or thought that gently pushes the conversation to another
level.
I know this all sounds rather elementary, but
I really do believe that some friends offer you conversations
that will reveal more of you to your self than you know, and give
you more mental light bulbs. Kat makes me think.
And of course, we always laugh in between serious
topics. Kelakar lah she sometimes :)
. . . . . . . . . . . .
We leave the coffeeshop, suitably armed with each other’s
latest fortunes and misfortunes, all up to date.
We leave for Panggung Sasaran, at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
You have to see this theatre, she said.
I was most happy to.
[To be continued in Kat Tales ...]
