Faces

Somebody called out my name as I was walking back to the office after Friday prayer. “I was your junior at KTJ” he said. I recognized the face. He now reads law at AIKOL.

I am so terrible at remembering names and faces. From time to time on campus I’ll come across someone with a familiar face, who will come up to me calling my name and striking conversation, and I will have absolutely no idea who they are. “You don’t remember me, do you?” asked one guy a few months ago. It was really embarrassing.

My mother says that people will think that I am arrogant, rude and selfish. I can say that I don’t care about what others think, and really be arrogant, rude and selfish. To a certain extent everyone is arrogant, rude and selfish anyway. But really, who remembers their juniors in high school? As a direct-intake student at IIUM I was out of synch with the rest of my class; if anyone can tell me which class I belong to in the first place. Students coming from the matriculation program, following the practice of their seniors, tend to take the university-required religious studies courses early on, and register for extra courses over the recommended workload so they can graduate early. I was in no hurry to graduate, taking only the minimum recommended load of five courses every semester, and treated the university required courses as fillers to complete my workload after having registered for my program courses. So, I often find myself in classes among students who are either more senior or more junior. I don’t think I should be expected to remember the people I only saw in class two times a week over fourteen weeks some years ago.

But they remember me, my name.

I suppose then there really is no excuse for me not to remember them in return, except the fact that I simply don’t. If that makes me arrogant and selfish, then be it. I'm just terrible at remembering names and faces.

Ramadan Karim - Happy fasting everybody!