80s Song Hafal-thon

Let yourself loose and enjoy this office drama.

Set location :

Office on the 4th floor over looking the lake. Dominated by IT professionals. IT rules in this office. Always so busy, especially when projects are in full bloom.

The only neutral domain was the Human Resource area. Human Resource as the name has it, has always been the neutralizer between the IT and non IT professionals.

Main casts :
Chatters@work comprising -
1 Finance Assistance (FA) - age 30 something
1 Project Manager (PM) - age 40 something
1 Technical Manager (TM) - also 40 something
1 HR manager (HRM) - age late 30s
1 COO same age as project manager and technical manager

Scene in the office:

Buzzing for the past 3 days. Tensed. Tender submission. Lots of folks going in out in out the Mission Operations Room. Some of them have not slept on their own comfy beds for the last 1 week. Even Mr COO has been very much involved in this tender process. A very hands-on person and the COO of the year award awaits him.

The last document for the tender submission was just compiled seconds ago and Mr COO gave his final go for all the documents to be sealed. Next thing to do was to load everything into the car and do the drop off at the tender submission office before noon. The Project Manager was confident that they‘d be able to make it before the cut off time.

Say a prayer people, and with the utterance of Bismillahirrahmannirrahiim, off they went. The tender document carriers were out of the building, accompanied by an outrider in German make MPV. Fuhh…kalah lori bawak duit siling Bank Negara.

Mr COO came out from the Mission Operations Room, giving one big sigh of relief. He walked over to the HR Manager’s cubicle and met up the rest of the gang. The Project Manager was there to enquire the fundings for the another upcoming project. The Technical Manager was there to submit his expense claims.

Background music :

ERA radio station morning playlist. Current tune Nubhan’s “Aku Untuk Mu”

And the drama went like this....

FA : Iyer Puan..nak check funding eh?
PM : Ha lah…bila nak masuk ni? Project XYZ dah dapat and about to start dah ni...
FA : By next week kot.
PM : Kot? Kot dapat or kot tak dapat?
FA all smiles....no words from her.

PM sensing the tense, immediately changed the topic and commented on the tune on the background.

PM : Eh…u suka ker budak Nubhan ni?
FA : Ooo...ok lah. Suara pun ok. Ni je kan satu lagu dia?
PM : I think so lah. U know budak ni sedara I... Satu kampung with my mother (chewah…promote la pulak)
FA : Iyer ker???
HRM : Wah…puan u got a celebrity as a sedara…glamour lah u
PM : Cheh…mana glamour nyer…I hardly know the boy. Mak dia I pernah lah jumpa.
FA : His voice serak-serak gitu.
PM : Ok lah….if digilap bakat nyer tu…boleh kot ganti Anuar Zain (on second thought…tak lah kot. Pitching lariii lah, ekkaw Nubhan)

COO walked towards the happy chatters.

COO : You know a few weeks back my son wanted to make a scrapbook. School assignment and scrapbook is to compile lyrics of 10 songs.
PM : Waaa…sekolah mana ni? Boleh pulak cari-cari lagu. (cisshhh..laser max si PM ni)
FA : Alah ...untuk language learning kot puan....
PM : Iyer ker? (still skeptical about the whole scrapbook-lyric thingy)

PM : So letak lyrics lagu apa?
COO : My son & I GOOGLE lah lagu-lagu hits terkini. Found a couple of interesting songs. Apa lagu tu yang bunyi nyer “Oo..oh, kamu ketahuan…pacaran lagi..”
FA : Ooo…lagu group MATTA tu..
PM : Group apa? MATTA? Indon ker? Yang I tau MATTA ni MATTA fair je...(tengok tu what’s in the head of the PM...nak gi jalan je...tender documents tadi belum pun sampai ke destinasi. PM dah nak jalan-jalan lagi!!)
COO : I dapat lah lagu from groups like HUJAN, SPIDER, HATTAN…ada lagi lah I tak ingat. And then my son was short of one song. Teacher asked to put 10 songs. I told him letak lah lagu Anuar Zain.
PM : Which Anuar Zain song would that be? (macam lah she knew all of Anuar Zain’s songs. Chit…Oh by the way, Anuar Zain was the ultimate jejaka idaman se Malaya of PM..masa she muda-muda dulu lah. Before Anuar Zain was Nasir Wahab….konon nya ex boyfriend school days looked like Nasir Wahab....gosh so, so belia…eeeyewwww!!!)
COO : My son didn’t want to include Anuar Zain. He said Anuar Zain makcik-makcik je yang listen to!!! (ha..kena you sebijik PM…)
PM : Ok pe Anuar Zain (chewah…macam nak kena kan daku je ni)

COO : Eh you all listen to what type of songs eh? (looking at FA)
FA : Entah…semua lagu dengar.

COO : Ha…group BONEY M tau?
PM : Lagu “Ra..ra…rasputin” I know lah. (apa hal COO ni tetiba je mention BONEY M pulak tu)
FA : Huh? (giving a ultimate non comprendo facial response)
PM : Ha...Sting or POLICE tau?
FA : Tak

PM : Gosh...this is difficult man. REO Spedwagon tau?
FA : Tak tau

COO : Rick Springfield tau?
HRM : Who is that?

By now the 80s song hafal-thon was dominated by the COO and PM. Iyer lah…orang seangkatan tua..hehe..hehe.
PM : Ingat tak group JOURNEY?
COO : Of course. Lagu “Open Arms” kan? MAN AT WORK tau?
PM : Apa pulak tak tau nyer…hits dia “Down Under”.
COO : John Cougar Mellencamp..lagu “Jack & Diane” and “Hurt So Good”.
PM : Alan Parson Project tau? Lagu “Eye in the Sky”. Intro of the song best wooo… (macam she was the one who composed the song la plak..)

COO : There was this movie…lagu dia up, up something.
PM : “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes in the movie “Officer and Gentleman”.
COO : Woo…u boleh remember all those?
PM : Hey I studied CS (Computer Science that is ) lah dulu. Bab-bab menghafal ni dalam tangan daaa... My Chemistry teacher in school last time told us this masa nak sit for SPM. “Tak payah faham, hafal sajaaaa….”.

COO : Ooo..who sang ”What a Wonderful World” ? That big black guy…
PM : Ummpp…ummppp siapa eh his name? (Actually the name Louis Armstrong did emerge, but wasn’t too sure coz another Armstrong name came about. Neil Armstrong..gosh itu the first man who set foot on the moon lah!!! )
COO : PRINCE tau?
PM : Of course… lagu dia “When Doves Cry” tu…also lagu “Little Red Corvette”

COO : Female singers masa tu …..MADONNA…and another one, her look alike but tak menjadi tu. Who was it?
PM : Cyndi Lauper lah….song was “True Colours”
COO : Eh u all don’t know ka these singers? (Looking at FA and the HRM)
FA : Tak tau lah Boss. Kalau MICHEAL JACKSON tu tau lah.
PM : One last chance AIR SUPPLY tau?
FA : Also don’t know lah…..ni mesti sama time with my hubby ni….
COO : Gosh…tua dah kita ni.
PM : Heh..heh..tau tak pe....

Anyhow, the TM who has been keeping quiet thought out the conversation seemed so amused by this hidden talent of his superior and colleague, respectively. Perhaps he wasn’t much into music, so unlike the other two (especially the PM lah).

The COO then walked into his room to make some phone calls and chatters@work resumed with their tasks.

Agak-agak nya who could be given the Music in My Head Award? Anyway, this story is purely FICTION. Sikit saja kaitan with yang hidup atau mati.

Nonetheless, didn’t you think the 80s song hafal-thon was indeed a good retrospect down memory lane?