I used to enjoy watching those bloody concerts on TV, with KLCC as background and "Final Countdown" as the last music blared out loud before the old year ends, and the new year borns. Glad that they don't have it this.. I mean, last year. lol. But I grew bored of those stupid concert. Every year is the same thing. Has nothing to do with new year stuff. It's getting old. Malaysia needs something fresh and new (same goes for National Day events).
[gambar untuk hiasan semata2. Shadow of Collosus]
Anyway... the memorable thing about the last day of 2009 is a silly adventure my friend and I been through. This is a true story of two young scholars in an epic quest for hazardous knowledge. After waking up and drinking my tasteless yet nutritious lunch, my coursemate (Norra) called me, asking for my company to find a legendary book.
Riiiiggghhhttt...
She said there are three of the books available in Pusat Asasi Sains UM (PASUM) stacks according to the library database, while those in the main library are no longer in the shelves. So we got our stuff ready, with me being a little late because she called me from outside my room earlier than I thought. SORRY! I'm usually punctual but I was reading both manga and Bohr's model, and I had to tidy up some things. Then we're off.
We decided to walk since the PASUM area is like... 4 buildings away from our college. If we had taken the bus, it'd waste our time waiting and had make one round around the lake. I had no idea where the PASUM library is, but from the surface I understood that PASUM layout is goddamn complicated, so I let her lead the way. She used to take her pre-U course here. However, after 2-3 years of not wandering about the compound, she has a vague memory of the location... but she knew we had to climb a hill to reach the destination.
Yes, the hill climb is quite an exercise. And it somewhat reminds me of traversing through a video game stage with the 'ancient' architecture and all. We walked by silent labroratories that looked like they're abandoned (although I know the fact that this place is still running, just that maybe the pre-U students are on a break..?). And further up was a construction site, which looked like they're building a shopping complex within the campus area. Really, it's big and like four-storey high. What worries me the most is that it's located on the hill slope, and we had several cases of landslide already. I won't be surprise if this construction crumble into pieces because of careless humans. I pray they won't go shaving the preserved forest in the middle of the campus or the monkeys will RAGE.
"There's no other way to reach the library," said Norra. Referring to the construction site, "It's supposed to be here..." [not the exact dialog but she said something like this]
"Maybe they've demolished the library to build this 'shopping complex'," I said. Being highly imaginative, I saw the construction site as 'ruins of ye olde library' instead LOL. "Let's ask the folks here..."
[gambar untuk hiasan semata2.]
First I suggested the lecturers since the lecturer's block is near, but then better ask someone nearer. We headed for the computer lab's staff room. I almost doubt no one was there because the area looks deserted. Imagine a Silent Hill ghost popping out of nowhere, despite of the blazing sunlight.
"The library....." the staff began answering our question, "....is no more..."[okay i exaggerated mood for the bad news]
Oh despair!
"Never mind..." said Norra.
But being the devoted believer of Kamina-ism (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann), I wasn't going to give up! Especially when I had agreed to tag along to search for this book, and it'd be a dishonour to drop our quest. I said, "I beg your pardon, sir! We were looking for a book and we discovered that it is kept in PASUM library! If that library is no more, then I am absolutely certain that the book(s) is/are relocated somewhere else! So, answer me kind sir; do you happen to know where it is?" [as if I really said it like this! XD]
Logically speaking, the books can't just vanish with the building =_=
"Oh, then you have to consult the office..." he said.
After thanking him, we climbed down the mossy stairs and through the lousy excuse of a Japanese-esque structure. Then we entered the next site; I can only laugh at the drastic change of theme. You know, UM has a very inconsistent building designs that's equivalent garbage in my eyes. There's a new so called high-classed toilet in my faculty that is totally unsynchronized with the faculty's old buildings. Shamefully, the flush is broken about a month after it's completed LOL.
Anyways, we asked the lady behind the counter of the PASUM office. I almost couldn't hear her voice because she's too softspoken.
"The library....." said the lady, "....is no more..." [well, the way she said it was more sombre]
I repeated the same thing about the book can be found here, and insisted about the books' location. I expected that they might have a temporary library around there. But she asked us to leave our number (only Norra gave) because she would give it to the person in charge of the library books and also suggested that we consult the folks in the main library.
"So what should we do now?" Norra asked me as we walked through the corridor that looked liked an alleyway in spite of facing the main one way road (issit called Lingkungan Ilmu?). "Should we wait for this person to call?"
"I kinda have doubts that this person to call us, we could've asked for her/his number too so we could inquire him/her," I replied. "But let's just go check out the main library."
Then we had to walk again. It's a good thing that I really do like walking even if I worry that I'd stink due to sweating. Walking at the pavements, opposing the traffic, and our vision was partially clouded by gray vehicle farts (I ran out of pretty metaphors). We passed the epic waterfall and the huge UM logo, where we last see the number '2009' on it. I thought of taking a picture there, but a cluster of students were hanging around with that very motive so I passed. So carried on walking and stepping on unnaturally straight zebra stripes plastered on the road.
Straight to the point now, the staff at the counter confirmed that the PASUM books are relocated there. SEE! I knew those binded pages full of vast knowledge would have refuged somewhere! Next, we went to the floor where the books were supposedly situated. The odd looking shelves were in the middle of the main library's standard shelves as though they're surrounded. Norra recited the book's code, and as we had anticipated, the three books of Introductory Nuclear Physics by Kenneth Krane stood together like valiant sentries awaited us!
REJOICE! Victory dance! [Nay, we did nothing more than expressing our gratitude to God that we finally found it]
But in the end, we took just one of them intending to make photocopies of them lol.
So ends the quest, and that's how my 2009 ended.
Moral of the story: ya gotta be persistent to get what ya want. and for knowledge's sake, we may have to sacrifice luxury (of transporation aka air conditioned bus), travel for miles to reach our objective (like Xuanzang in Journey to the West). InsyaAllah, may we get an A for our worthy efforts =]
bak kata norra... "kalo tak dapat A tak tahu la..."
p/s: dialog sume tak semestinya sama dengan keadaan sebenar sebab ingatan aku berkenaan kejadian ini samar2. Dialog juga diubah untuk menimbulkan suasana cerita Lord of the Rings HWAHAHA
~~~~~
End note: HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! WELCOME 2010! i suck at sappy motivational speech so just go your merry way~
[source: http://www.motifake.com/ ]
No comments:
Post a Comment