Imran invited me to his house for dinner last Wednesday. We just had dinner together with Munir on the previous Sunday at Setapak Central's Suki-ya, so I wasn't sure what's the motive behind this invitation when we had just met not 3 days ago. On a working night some more (esok kerjalah, gila!). But I wasn't one who could deny invitation to free food, was I lol
Imran said this is sort of a get-together to celebrate some of his friends' achievements in life. I was kind of deluded to think that Imran remembered I had just won the Sayembara Menulis Anekdot a fortnight before and we were celebrating that as well because turned out, he didn't remember it at all. He never even mentioned it once.
Imran did imply, his friends that were coming are all successful in their respective field. I never met any of them before, except for Munir and a few of his modeling friends. And on that note, for a social butterfly like Imran, it goes without saying that we (his hiking/camping friends) are his less successful bunch of friends lol
I went to his place after work after Maghrib prayer. It was raining cats and dogs, and I encountered few accidents on my way. I called Munir first, because he was the only guest that I knew personally coming. Imran and Munir greeted me at the gate, and Imran straightaway ushered me into the house, introducing me to the guests that had come earlier than me.
The dining table was already full with people. So I've gotta tap into my extrovert-ness, so I thought. I said my salam's and hi's, and Imran introduced me to someone washing dishes at the sink. 'Hi Bad, that is Alan. Alan, this is Bad.' Frigging hell it's THE Alan! The blonde lawyer slash influencer slash famous person. I was right off the bat starstruck. I literally knew him before I met him, he was all over the internet. He did some interviews and podcasts, and he represents high profile clients in court.
'Alan, the famous Alan?!' I exclaimed. 'Famous?' Alan chuckled. He was fashionably unbothered, and I, as a result, was unfashionably fangirling.
Imran brought me to the dining table. Imran's mother and one of their neighbours that I had met before greeted me.
All the chairs at the table were occupied, but some of them moved to the table at the other side of the kitchen to make space for the newcomers. Imran was busy introducing me to the menus. Chicken rice, udang masak lemak, daging masak hitam, his infamous sambal neraka. Imran told me that apart from his sambal neraka, the sambal belacan was made by Alan, who learned it from his frequent visits to Dayang's house. 'Who's this Dayang we're talking about? Dayang Norfaizah?' I retorted and laughed at that joke. They were not laughing. 'Oh shit, it must be Dayang Norfaizah then.'
'Let Alan tell you who's the Dayang.' Imran said. Them name dropping left and right really made me nervous. How big their circle actually is? (And nobody ever clarified who this Dayang is till now. But I just knew it's THE Dayang Norfaizah)
I filled my plate with chicken rice, and took an empty slot next to Auntie (I forgot her name, but since everyone was calling her auntie, we're going to call her Auntie with a capital A). If I had to guess, I would say Auntie was friends with Imran's mom's due to their closeness of age. But Imran told me he knew Auntie from her son instead, who is also a model. Imran showed me her son's instagram page, but I could not recognise him at all. We apparently don't run in the same circle, I mean, come on. He's a frigging model. I'm at best could be the 'before' model for a liposuction procedure.
Auntie wears a turban, and is very urban. She taught Imran the ins and outs of pageantry and coached Imran during his pageant days (have Imran pageant days ended though? I could not tell)
On my right side, was Shawn. The only other male guest aside from me and Munir tonight. Shawn is a literal dean at MAIWP University, as in he's a dekan fakulti yall, he was just 38 years of age (!!!). I knew MAIWP education branch solely from Fareez, who sent Auf to MAIWP primary school in Putrajaya, and from our mutawwif in Madinah who was a scholar of MAIWP. I never knew they had a full fledged university here in KL.
Shawn knew Imran from social media, and his latest project now is a collaboration with Universitas Malang in Indonesia regarding early childhood education. They just got back from Malang to visit the university, and a delegation from Universitas Malang was also currently visiting them in Malaysia. Shawn has his own personal driver, who, as we spoke, was waiting outside for him. Shawn excused himself the earliest of us all, because he had to go on air tomorrow at Kool FM. They invited him there for an interview.
Kak Su arrived later than me, but she was straightaway drawn into a conversation with Shawn, because they both work in education sector. Kak Su told us that she was involved in the latest national education blueprint, but Imran corrected her. 'Involved? No, Kak Su LEADS the team!'
Kak Su works in KPM Putrajaya, in Parcel E.
Tonight, in attendance also were 4 other intelligent ladies, who work as optometrists. One of them, Diana, had just completed her PhD. Imran met them during an IMARET camping. IMARET by the way stands for IMAM Response and Relief Team, an NGO that focuses on humanitarian relief works and outreach programs for marginalised communities (had to Google this one yall). They had made few rounds to secluded villages, administering medicines and vaccines and whatnots.
At this point, I gave up already. I shall not speak anything about myself, lest they think I'm here as a crown jester.
'Imran, why did you invite me? Are you trying to humiliate me in front of these people?' I joked to Imran. This really feels like a humiliation ritual. I've got nothing worthy about myself to tell to these people. But worst of all was Munir. He literally went to the next room and played with cats as all the conversations were happening.
Imran revealed to me that having long conversations with Alan, and watching the TV drama SUITS convinced him to pursue a Master's degree in law. Alan by the way, had also just completed his PhD. So tonight we were in the presence of two PhD holders. Isn't it great? He has a law degree from UUM, and he took a second degree in English literature at Nottingham University in Semenyih. He fast tracked to PhD, skipping Master, and he even finished his PhD earlier than scheduled. IKR?? As if you need more reasons to like him.
We played a round of UNO on Munir's insistence. This is where Munir's demeanor took a turn. He became more energetic and chaotic as we went on. I guess he just loves UNO that much. I recounted that day we played UNO in Batam, when Munir absent-mindedly uploaded his hand to instastory, WHILE we were still playing. And all of us followed him on ig. While we played UNO, one of the optometrists (I will not name names, Imran. Not even torture going to extract this information from me) said to me 'I used to be nervous to take pictures with Imran, because you know. He's good looking.'
Are we talking about the same Imran? I almost stared in wonder, it was all too confusing to me. Clearly we knew different versions of Imran lol. Imran told Shawn that if he ever needed him to participate, just tell the date in advance. I quickly rebuffed Imran 'That's a lie! I asked you one whole year before and you still wouldn't commit!' I was talking about Kinabalu of course, I asked him last year and he said 'Oh, I don't like planning too far in advance'. *rolls eyes*
As the hour was getting late, we concluded our game, took some pictures. And they cleaned the kitchen (I'm sorry guys I don't mind doing the cleaning. But there were already too many overachievers taking over all the tasks, leaving nothing else to do)
All in all, it's almost illogical I didn't at all feel inferior. I mean, if anything, these people only inspired me to be better, and to give back as much as I could. I don't know how to conclude this story, but yeah, this story is real yall. I now run in the same circle as Alan, I'm so upper echelon now you have to book an appointment just to have dinner with me lol
I guess that's how I'm going to conclude. I'll be talking about my Kinabalu trip next. See you soon XOXO
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