Thursday, September 11, 2008

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?

8 comments:

Ezza Aziz said...

Salam dari klang
Kay,panjang nye entry you ni. Tapi best baca sampai habis. Bab anuar zain ni makcik makcik suka ni betul la kot,hehe I pun suka. Yang lain tu,ada yang ingat ada yang tak tau... Ok salam perkenalan dari akak ni.

kay_leeda said...

Hi Akak,

Bak kata Tan Sri P. Ramlee, umpama lagu dan irama .. tak dapat dipisah, andai dipisahkan rosak lah lagu, pincang lah irama. Music colours our lives, tak gitu?

Memang banyak lagu-lagu zaman 80an yang dah terlupa. Antara lagu-lagu evergreen Melayu yang masih segar adalah yang dibawa oleh Alleycats, Aishah, Azlina Aziz dll.

Anuar Zain...uummppp suka sangat lagu dia yang dalam movie "CINTA".

Selamat bersahur and thanks for dropping by :-)

Kak Teh said...

Salam, give me Alleycats anytime! My family dah overdosed with my renditions of Alleycats' songs. Kesian depa.

Muni Samad said...

You forgot Wham ! Careless whispers... oh the 80s.. such nostalgia.. terlalu banyak kenangan..

'you're once, twice... three times a lady....'

Madam Tai Tai Again said...

Cis...Dia kata Anuar Zain makcik2 aje yg minat!!

Oopss..I'm 40, so I guess that puts me in the Makcik-makcik category, huh? (Baru tersedar sedikit yg kita ni dah tua..)

kay_leeda said...

Kak Teh,

Alleycats tu sampai bila-bila pun tetap dihati. When we were studying in the US, lagu-lagu Alleycats lah yang menjadi pengubat rindu ke kampung halaman. Almost every song has an incident, happy or sad, attached to it.

Alleycats..dulu, kini dan selama nya!!

Muni,

Shhyyy..."you're once, twice three times a lady.." to boleh cerita dengan si dedicator nyer je. Faris & Farah could be stalking in here...heh..heh. Kang terpecah plak cerita cintan cintun Mama & Daddy they all.

Tai Tai,

Makcik pun makcik lah...yang penting maintain. I think I'd still be "going after" Anuar Zain even after the big 4 turns to big 5 or big 6. Harap-harap panjang lah umur sampai ke big 6 tu :-)

Waterlily said...

Salam Kay

This is my kunjungan balas :-)

Alamak..this entry makes me feel ancient laa... few more songs yang terlepas - Lady by Kenny Rogers, We Have Tonight by Sheena Easton and Kenny Rogers, Island in the stream - Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

Eh..?! Baru I realised sumer lagu kat atas ada Kenny Rogers..tua nyer aku..oohhh tidak..

kay_leeda said...

Waterlily,

Jangan kata "tua", say seasoned, it sounds better although they somewhat give the same meaning :-)

There are many more songs that could be added to this list. Kenny Rogers is one of those very close at heart. Paul Young, Debarge, even the Osmonds..ha ha. "I'm a little country, I'm a little rock and roll..."

Macam Raya pulak eh...berbalas-balas kunjungan.