A chance encounter

This week I was in Pj for lunch when lo and behold stood an old friend whom I have not seen since Varsity days in the 60s .We recognized each other immediately .YOu cant forget the face of a guy whom you saw everyday be it decades ago. GC was quite a character as we wanted to portray himself as an eccentric.His dressing and mannerism were simply out of the world.I remember we were studying in the library at night ( you know what libraries are like ) when suddenly he jumped up and let off a big scream.Needless to say everyone was startled and when questioned he just said a big cockroach bit my leg.It was of course not true but he got such a big kick out of it. We were the best of buddies sharing a lot of common interests despite his odd behavior.He came from a well off family whilst I was a struggling student.He would not hesitate to pay for our char koay teow or drinks and I would ride with him on my ramshackle Honda Cup which took us to as far as KL .There was a club called the Chinese Club in Bukit Bintang where there were billiards tables and we used to go there on weekends for a game or two. We spent lots of time together , studying , playing and planning our future>I kept telling him " You have to put up a more presentable image as society will never accept you as you are " He could not accept this saying " I am what I am ".A very intelligent guy I knew he would be headed for better things. he had a crisis in the Varsity ....he fell in love with one of my classmates , a short chubby little girl from Penang >She however treated him like a brother as she told me he was too weird for her,He went through a rough patch with her and even today he still talks of her.He aws two years my junior and when I went on to Telun Intan after studies we lost touch as we lived in a world of letters and no i phone or i pad.I lost touch with him and it was only in the 80s that we bumped into each other.He was one of the top managers of Nestle and I could not believe my eyes when I saw him with shirt and tie and a complete corporate man.I was happy that my good friend made it in life and it strikes me that we are survivors , having gone through the mill and making it in life. He is now retired and is quite contented with what he has achieved and I am sure we will meet up again to relive the good old days when we had nothing except a dream that we will be able to make it one day and the trials and learning experiences which we went through have served to make us strong and resilient to this day.Welcome back to my life GC .I'm sure we will still have some moments to share.