Tulsa, Zulrushdi & St. Louis
Last week, I was, as usual, enjoying a puff on the staircase of my office building. Not a sanctioned smoking area, but the pleasure of having nicotine and whatever else in a stick of a cigarette, running in my blood veins was still a pleasure, nonetheless.
And as always, I had a smoking buddy with me. Smoking alone is something I don’t find amusing, except when I am at home (Thank god, nobody else is picking up my bad habit!). Tulsa, a good friend of mine from downstairs was puffing away with me. (He used to study in Tulsa, hence his nickname. I gave him that nickname and I think I am the only living soul who calls him by that nick name.)
Quite strangely, he was rather quiet. He looked like he was deep in his chain of thoughts. No stories during his college days in the US. No tales about the American way of life. No rundowns from a page of US sports almanac. And, for the longest minute, silence was seemed to be the order of the moment.
“You know a guy by the name of Zulrushdi? I think he was from UMSL in St. Louis”, Tulsa’s voice suddenly came into play, breaking the long silence. I was trying to recall the name from the top of my head but at the same time, shaking my head.
“I read his blog and I know this guy was from St. Louis and he’s one year older than you are. He is a cancer patient, currently final stage and the doctor gave him 1 month to live, and his blog is about his final journey”, Tulsa explained without pausing to catch his breaths. And, that was it, the end of our smoking session. I promised to check the blog out before I left.
I went on to check out Zulrushdi’s blog that afternoon while waiting for my son. I went directly to his photo gallery to check out his old college photos. One photo was enough to confirm that he was indeed in St Louis. He was from Park’s College, an engineering college under SLU, which was famous among Malaysian students for its Aerospace Engineering and Aircraft Maintenance Engineering courses.
I didn’t recall Zulrushdi or his friends but at least I remembered Abang Jeme whose house used to be the venue of our Hari Raya gathering in St. Louis. I remembered that his wife was my brother’s course mate in ITM. I remembered that they did catering business and we (my housemates: Razif, BJ and Zul and I) used to be their customers. I remembered that Zul used to date Abang Jeme’s sister in-law, Shikin. I remembered a whole lot more about my life in St Louis and the people I used to know.
Zulrushdi’s blog was indeed a great one. And, I shed a lot of tears while I was reading the stories. It was so powerful and I will definitely talk about the blog in detail but in another time and on another day.
I called a few friends that night with Zulrushdi as an opening topic, friends that I have not talked to for a long time. I spent the night thinking about St Louis, both good and bad times. I dreamed about the Arch, Forest Park, Riverfront, Laclede’s Landing and Busch Stadium. I dreamed of North Grand Boulevard. I dreamed of Grand Towers.
Darn, I missed St Louis.
Chazz
Please visit zulrushdi.net.
And as always, I had a smoking buddy with me. Smoking alone is something I don’t find amusing, except when I am at home (Thank god, nobody else is picking up my bad habit!). Tulsa, a good friend of mine from downstairs was puffing away with me. (He used to study in Tulsa, hence his nickname. I gave him that nickname and I think I am the only living soul who calls him by that nick name.)
Quite strangely, he was rather quiet. He looked like he was deep in his chain of thoughts. No stories during his college days in the US. No tales about the American way of life. No rundowns from a page of US sports almanac. And, for the longest minute, silence was seemed to be the order of the moment.
“You know a guy by the name of Zulrushdi? I think he was from UMSL in St. Louis”, Tulsa’s voice suddenly came into play, breaking the long silence. I was trying to recall the name from the top of my head but at the same time, shaking my head.
“I read his blog and I know this guy was from St. Louis and he’s one year older than you are. He is a cancer patient, currently final stage and the doctor gave him 1 month to live, and his blog is about his final journey”, Tulsa explained without pausing to catch his breaths. And, that was it, the end of our smoking session. I promised to check the blog out before I left.
I went on to check out Zulrushdi’s blog that afternoon while waiting for my son. I went directly to his photo gallery to check out his old college photos. One photo was enough to confirm that he was indeed in St Louis. He was from Park’s College, an engineering college under SLU, which was famous among Malaysian students for its Aerospace Engineering and Aircraft Maintenance Engineering courses.
I didn’t recall Zulrushdi or his friends but at least I remembered Abang Jeme whose house used to be the venue of our Hari Raya gathering in St. Louis. I remembered that his wife was my brother’s course mate in ITM. I remembered that they did catering business and we (my housemates: Razif, BJ and Zul and I) used to be their customers. I remembered that Zul used to date Abang Jeme’s sister in-law, Shikin. I remembered a whole lot more about my life in St Louis and the people I used to know.
Zulrushdi’s blog was indeed a great one. And, I shed a lot of tears while I was reading the stories. It was so powerful and I will definitely talk about the blog in detail but in another time and on another day.
I called a few friends that night with Zulrushdi as an opening topic, friends that I have not talked to for a long time. I spent the night thinking about St Louis, both good and bad times. I dreamed about the Arch, Forest Park, Riverfront, Laclede’s Landing and Busch Stadium. I dreamed of North Grand Boulevard. I dreamed of Grand Towers.
Darn, I missed St Louis.
Chazz
Please visit zulrushdi.net.
0 comments:
Post a Comment