7th Rotaract Club of UTP Installation Night

The title says it all. Yes, I attended the 7th Rotaract Club of UTP Installation Night yesterday. Besides me, Josiah, Ivan, Aaron Lai, Penny and many more UTP students were present too. The reason why we were ever so willing to attend the Installation Night was because of a special person who has left UTP and accepted the Bank Negara Malaysia Scholarship to study in KYUEM. Her name is Lim Qian Pink, better known as Pinky.

Yes, Pinky was present, too. Despite the fact that KYUEM, located in Lembah Beringin, is about two hours from Ipoh, she had taken all the trouble to follow her seniors to Ipoh. We had a most wonderful time together trying to catch up with news and asking about her new life in KYUEM.

Before the programme started, we were rather disappointed to find out that some of us UTP students are separated from one another; one had to sit with Rotarians from Selangor whom he knew nobody and another was assigned a seat with Public Relations officers! Eventually, luckily for some of them, they just came to Table 13 (the table where most of us UTP students were seated) and sat with us throughout the whole programme. They felt so lonely and unbelonged when sitting with strangers.

Anyway, on our table, there was also a lady from Rotary Club of Melawati who sat with us at Table 13. Being a Rotarian herself, I expected her to be an outgoing and very sociable person. However, all was contrary to what I anticipated. She said not a word to any of us, did not introduce herself at all and ate hardly anything that was served, while we, who are feeling so at home, just continued to make ourselves feel more at home. I, on the other hand, tried my best to have a conversation with her and perhaps make a feel more comfortable, but she was just contented to have some shark’s fin soup, a couple of vegetables and sending SMS almost throughout the dinner. In short, my impression of her was that she was just a pompous lady. Eventually, she left the table and nobody knew or bothered to know where she had gone.

The installation night started of quite interestingly with some performances by MGS and ACS. Both performances (one instrumental and one dance) were mediocre. There were also speeches and the installation of the new President of Rotaract Club of UTP (RACUTP) began. When the new President was installed, the new Board of RACUTP was also installed, as well as its Past President. During the installation of the new Board, many people became restless and started ignoring the proceedings of the ceremony. People started to take pictures and had some quality time of their own that we became quite noisy and one point. However, a “hush” was sounded and all became silent… for a while.

During the lucky draw session, Ivan and Josiah managed to get a voucher for a fitness training in KL worth RM600. However, it was of no use because how would they be able to find time to go down to Desa Sri Hartamas? Plus, the voucher is only valid till 31st of August 2006. So, it will be just another bookmark, I’m afraid.

The whole ceremony ended with a Banghra dance by Sangari, Jaspreet and the other dancers. It was a hit! Everybody, regardless of what race, enjoyed the dance immensely. They were so flamboyant and so synchronised that the whole performance was almost flawless. Even I, for a moment, felt like I wanted to join them in the dance. But what do I know about Banghra?

After the Banghra performance, the emcee announced that they would have some activities. The VIPs on the other hand stood up and began to leave. I immediately took this chance to take a few pictures with some of the VIPs if possible, because it so happened that I recognised two prominent characters in Rotary Club of Kinta, namely Rev. Robin and PP Arthur Yeong. However, Rev. Robin left too early so I missed the opportunity of having a picture with him. However, I cannot bear not to have the honour of taking a picture with PP Arthur Yeong, for he was also wearing a Chinese outfit. However, his outfit was, by far, more “Chinese” than mine! His outfit was exactly like that of the Song Dynasty outfit. I’ll scan them and post them up in the blog once I get the pictures developed by next week (I’ve got some more films kept for The Hunchback of Notre Dame).

Overall, that night was indeed a memorable. My main goal was achieved (that was to meet Pinky) and some of my optional goals were also achieved. I had a wonderful time there, not to mention that I even managed to meet one old friend, Sook Fun, whom we haven’t met for the past three to four years since entering Form 3 (we were tuition mates).

I shall be looking forward to the next Rotaract Installation Night.