Never go to your high school reunion pregnant or they will think that is all you have done since you graduated.
– Erma Bombeck, American humourist
Finally my good friend Carter Ballang Kapong managed to meet me for a long-awaited reunion. We were supposed to gather at BDC Ah Liong Café in early July but he was in Miri. It was a gathering of former Rajang Teachers College (RTC) colleagues led by our principal Encharang Agas which I used to promote my book Longhouse To City. Seven copies were taken on that day but I reserved a copy for Carter as he was not with us. So on Sept 22, he came and I was really glad to hand over a copy of the book to him.
Carter, who now spots longhair, retired in 2016. His last post was as principal of SMK Tebakang where he served for a good number of years, possibly thanks to great support from the local assemblyman Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong who was our colleague and drinking buddy in Rajang Teachers College in 1982-83.
I remember during a drinking session, Manyin said there were so many Datuks in Sarawak that if one dines on the first floor restaurant and throws a fish bone out of the window, it will fall on a Datuk; when I first met him (as a Datuk) in 2002 I played the joke on him, asking how many fish bones thrown out of the window fell on him. He just laughed it off. Now he has three Datukships under his belt. It was a subject of laughter that Carter and I shared during our last reunion.
Our friendship dates back to 1975. He was then just 19 and I was two years older when we enrolled at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. Both of us were doing Humanities with Education students and later were favourites of our Education lecturer Dr Kho Tsu Koon (later Tan Sri and Penang CM).
Carter was doing Geography as a major while I majored in Fine Arts. Both of us graduated in March 1979 and by April I was taken by Encharang to join him at RTC, Bintangor (then still known as Binatang) whereas Carter joined us in 1980. Our reunion in that year was also an extension of our four-year cordial relationship in USM, that saw us making a common close friend Krishnamurthy, a Geography major who also retired as principal of a teachers college (Maktab Perguran Persekutuan Pulau Pinang) in Gelugor, Penang the same year as Carter – we entertained Krishna twice in Kuching some years ago.
When I led the band Revival of Elvis Presley band in 1977, Carter also joined to become my rhythm guitarist and three years later in RTC he also played rhythm while I was lead guitarist for our Rajang Sound that was an all-lecturers band. I recall when I brought him to stay for a week at our old Kedap longhouse in Saratok, he had to speak Iban to my parents and grandma whose ears were ‘non-comprende’ to English or any other language.
He was a fast learner and by the end of his stay at Kedap, he was able to converse well with them in our lingo. And now more than forty years later he is well-versed in Iban, having served in Kapit as Divisional Education Officer and then principal of various secondary schools in the state, including SMK Lutong and lastly SMK Tebakang.
So now my book reunites us – our last meeting was in 2015 during my son Jay Kingsley Gara’s funeral.
On my book, by now I have personally sold a good number of copies to friends and enthusiasts in Kuching, Sibu, Julau, Miri, Kapit, Bintulu, Saratok and Sri Aman. It is interesting that my cousin Datuk Prof Dr Spencer Empading Sanggin helped to promote the book to his UNIMAS colleague Pro Dr Ilan Mersat who also bought a copy and a copy was also purchased by Datuk Prof Dr Jayum Empaling of UPM, Bintulu, making them among the high profile supporters.
All three were sent to respective postal addresses by Pos Laju, just like most of the other purchases made by friends from Miri and elsewhere.
Carter and I met at Bombay Sedap, here in Metrocity but then moved to Makan Sari, a food street next to our New Sarawak Tribune office. So we sampled the nasi kerabu (ikan keli) offered by one of the many stalls in the food street.
We were both enthralled by the good number of food lovers who patronised the more than twenty food stalls plus three shop lots of food outlets at Makan Sari. They comprised Malaysians from different walks of life that were attracted to the stalls manned by various racial components, including Indonesian nationals. All are manifestations that food is an uniting factor.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
