L to R Ismail Mat Ghazali, Che Rahmat bin Abdul Rahman, Yasin bin Kamarul Jamal, Ahmad Zamil bin Mokhtar

A friendship rekindled

After spending sometime with his box of memories, Ismail Mat Ghazali, an avid photographer shares with us a picture of himself with Che Rahmat bin Abdul Rahman, Yasin bin Kamarul Jamal and Ahmad Zamil bin Mokhtar. He then realises that he has lost touch with Ahmad Zamil. “Anybody know where is Zamil now?” he asked on WhatsApp.

Nor Izham bin Aziz was the first to respond when he said “Zamil was in Seremban years ago. Lost contact. Wife dia pun pathologist.  Ade story siket. He is distantly related to me. Orang Perlis”

It was a surprise to realise that all this time, Zamil was in the same WhatsApp group. “Salaam semua… a million thanks Dr Ismail and Dr Nor Izham for mentioning my name… I am Ahmad Zamil kalau ada yang masih ingat … masih di Seremban … practicing alternative holistic medicine dan sekarang teramat uzur dengan rangkaian penyakit kronik”. “Waalaikum salam Zamil said Ismail . All this while you are in this group.Macam Shaidan bin Sulaiman kata, kita yang lain pun chronic2 belaka….

Yasin Kamarul Jamal, Ahmad Zamil Mokhtar dan Ghazali bin Othman di luar Pusat Rawatan Homeopathy Ampangan, Seremban

Yasin Kamarul Jamal, Ahmad Zamil Mokhtar dan Ghazali bin Othman di Pusat Rawatan Homeopathy Ampangan, Seremban

Social media  being what it is, can reconnect and rekindle friendships virtually in an instant, but humans,  being who we are, nevertheless, find that a face to face meeting is even better. And on 24^th March 2022, Yasin Kamarul Jamal travelled all the way to Seremban…… “berjumpa dengan Ahmad Zamil Mokhtar  dan Ghazali bin Othman di Pusat Rawatan Homeopathy di Ampangan @ 10.00am”

We lead risk free lives….

It is said that your health and happiness will both benefit from reconnecting and staying connected. In a review of studies over 34 years, researchers concluded that feeling isolated or lonely increased your chances of dying young by about 30 percent. It also increased your risk for diabetes and heart disease. So since we are in our sixties and seventies, there is no risk of dying young and since most of us already have heart disease and diabetes, theres no more risk of that too. So if you think about it, we actually lead risk free lives and what better way to celebrate than to renew friendships over food, most of which we are not supposed to eat !!!

Aziz Zain, Azmi Salleh and their respective wives

Nasruddin Jaafar and wife with Wan Asim and Zalina. Also present is his sister in law and her husband

Abdul Aziz Zain met with Mohd Azmi bin Hj Mohd Salleh over a meal on 18^th March 2022 while in Melaka,  4^th March 2022, Abdul Halim Ramli was able to renew friendships as well ( most likely over food as well) : “Thank you Aziz & Anis, Jamil and Amir for coming to Melaka to visit us this morning. Jangan serik datang lagi.”

Over in Kelantan Nasruddin Jaafar  bonded with Wan Asim Adnan and Zalina on their roof garden overlooking Sungai Pengkalan Datu while Wan Asim, Aziz Zain, Che Rahmat, Amir and Jamil bonded over breakfast at Aziz Zain’s place which also overlooks the same river. Diets were pushed aside while they gorged on a typical Egyptian breakfast with Kelantanese overtones. Then the same group bonded once more over tea at Wan Asim’s place. Bonding can be bad for the diet !

It goes without saying that friendships are a strong bond that sometimes get put aside as we each take different paths. It was natural that family and career took precedence over these friendships but the bond we had in Egypt was never really broken. Now we have been given the opportunity to rekindle and sustain these friendships Alhamdulillah.