May I?

May I be quiet?

The current pandemic is supposed to teach us how to be wiser. Things do not seem to point in this direction. Presently things are not ok. It would have been abnormal not to be perturbed by them. Rising new infections of Covid-19. Uncertainties abound politically and economically. Divisive viral issues that could have been avoided - even staying quiet can be wrong. I certainly fear the kind of future that I'm leaving my children into. Despite all this, one can only act within our sphere of influence, do our best and hope (and pray) one has a better future.

Yesterday was overall good in my personal sphere. First, my PhD student, Umair had his viva examination in the morning. I was there as his supervisor and observer. By around 11am, the viva is over and Umair has unofficially passed his viva examination. Much thankful for that. Umair is my 8th PhD student (as main supervisor) and 23rd graduate student (inclusive of MSc student and several of them are the same person who later did PhD with me, just like Umair). Snapped a few photos (see below).

During the viva, I saw a message coming in my mobile phone regarding an update of my brother in the hospital. I did not read too much because I was focusing on the viva. After the viva, read the message and it was another piece of good news of the day. My brother Ahmad Tajuddin has came out from his coma. Was happy with my eyes swelling with tears. I hope he will recover and be back to normal but this will certainly take time and we will continue to pray for him.

After the Friday prayers, I chaired the Departmental Seminar which is now under my watch. Earlier I was ambitious and wrote that I would like to do this every two weeks. Now, I'm contented to have it once a month as suggested by our Head of Department. So, the speaker that day was a junior lecturer, Dr. Adilah, who had joined our department relatively recently. Below is the poster and a pic Dr. Rabaah took during the seminar.

We also recorded the whole talk and am waiting for Dr. Adilah to give her consent for the video to be uploaded in YouTube.

Just after the talk, Dr. Yap Yung Szen messaged me about some collaborative matters that he had emailed me earlier. Initially I only had relayed the message to my younger colleagues given that I will be retiring. I did not know that it was rather urgent. Right after the exchange of messages, I messaged Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jesni in IIUM about the matter to see what he thinks. Later that night, we had a long chat and in principle, we decided to go for it. Despite my wish for a quieter life until retirement, this is probably an opportunity too good to miss. Let us just hope that this will work out. While my mind and body is tired, I still believe that there should be efforts to have quantum science and technology in Malaysia with a firm, sustainable footing in our national science agenda. This is the only reason I'm pushing this through.

Today came in another surprise message. It was another initiative that I began while I was still the Deputy Director regarding another collaborative matters with China. However this should be dealt at the university level and since I am no longer in the management, I have conveyed the message to the administrative officer in the institute.

Despite the Saturday and being the Labour Day, got myself in a lot of thinking that leaves me mentally exhausted. Zzzzz