Malaysia Day - My Final Celebration

15th September 2015. A very wet Tuesday. It was still hazy but the situation had improved considerably since last month. Now it was the southern states that were badly affected. It was a day of celebration for the closing ceremony of the 58th Merdeka Day celebration and Malaysia Day the next day. It was a mixture of fun, gaiety, sadness and a sense that it would be my final stint of joining in this celebration. I sang with gusto the usual Merdeka songs especially "Warisan" by Sudirman. I sang together backstage with the performers' choice of Merdeka oldies. I did not realise that the school photographers caught my happy, carefree self singing those songs. I just laughed at them. I was not an easy target for photographers. In fact, over the years, most of the yearly school magazines had very minimal photos of me in it. Oh well ... this was my last year. :-))

It was supposed to start off with a parade of the uniform bodies in their full regalia and followed by the decorated motorcade. The heavy rain dampened that plan. So, everybody gathered in the hall and watched the performances, the choral speaking finalists, speech by the Principal and a special and surprise performance by a group of boys - Bar-Rism. A new fad in town - street workout calisthenics. I was very proud of these young guys who requested to perform as they were not in the itinerary. They wanted to promote this form of work out which worked on team-work, strategy, agility and trust. For our students, this was an achievement in itself.

We had a cake cutting ceremony celebrating those students and staff born on 31 August and 16 September. The usual paraphernalia to celebrate was there - the balloons, the colourful, sparkling confetti, birthday song and blowing party horns. We finally sang the Merdeka theme song -"Sehati Sejiwa" and walked out of the hall with the strains of "Warisan" accompanying the exit. What dampened the day was the back to their lessons that followed after it ....hahaha ... back to reality ... I really felt that it should be a whole day celebration just to get into the mood. But ... exams are just around the corner. The school, teachers and students are already under pressure and stressed for time ...

It was a good celebration. I had always loved celebrating my country's any festival or special days. This would be my last time singing all the patriotic songs publicly with the students. After this ... I guess I would just be glued to the television and celebrate with it ..... ;-))

The students sat in their respective uniform bodies wearing their T-shirts

The finale .... a hall of students singing the theme song "Sehati Sejiwa"