2nd Serdang Sunshine Gathering

UPM,

Started out as an agriculture school that was opened in 1931, was upgraded to 'Kolej Pertanian Malaya' in 1947. After going through the phase of World War 2 and more upgrading, in 1971 Universiti Pertanian Malaysia was formed focusing on agriculture, forestry and veterinary. In 1997, the name was changed from Universiti Pertanian Malaysia to Universiti Putra Malaysia in accordance to the emphasization on various sceince and technology courses offered in UPM other than agriculture.

I'm actually typing right now with my numb fingers in a cyber cafe near to my uncle's house. A bit... nostalgic I would say since the last time I went to one for netsurfing was ages ago. Straight to the core of the topic.

Yesterday was the 2nd Serdang Sunshine Gathering; ie: UPM Alumni. Initially, it wasn't my plan to join in the dinner but since Ms Lee & Mr Lok was insistent, I went. Of course, both of the graduated from UPM too and that was how I was called for an interview in the first place. Decked out in my best clothes and my 'Cinderella' shoes, I rushed out from my uncle's house thinking that I might be late since I didn't know where does the Grands Straits Garden situated at. The restaurant could be seen from the main road and I was so relieved.

Reaching there, I was among the earliest people. Looking from the list, I was the 5th. First impressions are almost always inaccurate. In my case, it was totally out of line. At first I thought that I would be sorely left out when the crowd comes in as I saw the attendance list as they stated the year of graduation behind our names. I know that most of the attendance would be from the 70s class, few from 80s and I know I was the youngest of all - 2004. I was wrong. I went out to the balcony to find a senior graduated in 1980 smoking his cigar. We talked about our job swapping business card (I forgot to refill my namecard before going, baka me) and in the end he was asking for my CV. I didn't realize that I was being interviewed in the first place though the questions that he asked me was actually mind boggling.

My bosses rang up, worrying that I might get lost getting to the restaurant and I went in to mingle with the crowd. I was very wrong thinking that I might get excluded. They looked at my name tag and start joking about giving me a 2nd round of orientation from the super seniors since of course I was the youngest. Everyone was very warm and friendly and I could almost see how all of them were back in college. The eldest senior who came was YAB Dato' Mohd Noor who graduated in 1955. I learnt that our eldest senior around is 92 years old and couldn't come due to his health. Back in those days UPM was known as the countries' (and some say region) best agriculture school around. From the conversation I also learnt that lots of UPM graduates from the 70's made their way to work overseas, teaching and handling their own business.

The dinner started later than the itinerary with all the mingling and catching up in the crowd. Mr James Ho, the chairperson and also a close friend of my bosses told me earlier on to sit at the VIP table, but I kind of freaked out and sat next to Ms Lee. To think that I would be safe? Fat chance. I was jarred out of the conversation when Mr Ho said through the speaker, "Nadiah, your seat is here at the VIP table. Don't worry they won't give you a ragging - that much." There I was seated among Dato' Soh Poh Sheng, Dr Rohani Abdullah, Dato' Mohd Noor, YB Lim Kee Moi and boy I was nervous thinking what would I do if I managed to make a fool out of myself when I eat.

The food was nice. As an appetizer there were baby octopus, eggs, shellfish, fishcake and shrimp. 2nd dish was sharkfin & crabmeat soup, followed by roasted chicken with prawn cracker, sea-bass cooked in chilli (super hot and spicy, I love), fried rice, shrimp in chilli, an unidentified sea-food (looks to me like cow's foot but not) and more that I forgot the menu. One thing I know, I could barely move when I was done eating. We had a short introduction on ourselves and honestly I felt like UPM is like Yale or Oxford, kind of like an old school feeling. I felt that because during the introduction most of the attendance has their kids going to UPM and preserving the generation in the university. Well of course during my introduction I was proud to say that my sister and brother are both UPM graduates :D

One of the highlights in gathering was when they were showing off the pictures during the 70s orientation and what I saw made my jaw fell. The orientation that they went through was a total berserk and the pictures were funny and mostly disgusting (mostly on the guy's side). There was a picture of a senior during mealtime with 2 juniors eating with their plate on the table but they were sitting on the floor. Kind of hard reaching and seeing what were they eating and I could see the same thing in the same picture behind the table, the same thing happened. Then there were of course the fertilizer pond bath ie: mandi baja. That's the other word for 'bathing' inside a pool of cow's/bull's dump. Good thing all of us were done with our dinner as it looked so darn disgusting. Then of course some censored picture during the ragging session which made me and the rest of female attendance blushed furiously. Not giving details on that one.

Nearing the end, we sang the songs from the 70s orientation which was thoroughly bawdy and funny and sang Auld lang syne as we parted. We managed to raise RM1625.00 during the lightning donation after the meal and contributed RM2625.00 (another RM1000.00 was the balance from the previous gathering back in 2001) for the building of UPM new clock tower.

75 years of legacy.


Finally there's someone in the crowd who have a pic of me terselit, huhuhu