End of Industrial Training, 31st Anniversary and Conference Invitation

The previous Friday, we picked our youngest from UniKL since it is his last day of industrial training there. He was happy to get home, after two weeks of not coming home, helping with student registration there.

Last Monday was also our 31st anniversary. The day was 'celebrated' by me going to the Health Centre in UPM, hoping to do my regular check-up and get a fresh supply of meds (we thought that we will go to the IOI Mall thereafter). This time I was sent to Room 3, seeing a different doctor. She was quite particular, checking my medical records. On checking my blood pressure, it was on the high side. She asked to do blood tests and even an ECG. So this took up the whole morning. Due to the increase in blood pressure, she prescribed me a new med with higher dosage.

Since I was told to get the blood test results the next day, we cancel the thought of going to IOI Mall. Instead what I did was just to buy a cake in Seremban to celebrate.

On that day too, I got one of the books that I have ordered from Amazon Singapore, which I need for my teaching.

So, the next day, we went back to get the blood test results; it seems that the results are better than the ones last checked apart from the blood pressure. Was happy with that. Thereafter we went to IOI Mall to buy things and have our 'special lunch' at NY Steak Shack.

On Wednesday, Ihsan came back home from JB. We brought him to the new Mee Tarik eatery that we have gone to in the last weekend. This evening, he drove back to JB.

Perhaps the most surprising thing that happened to me was the invitation to SQST 2024 and it was Areeya who wrote the e-mail on behalf of the committee. (Note: I reached out to her for EQuaLS during the Covid year.) Seriously, I thought my conference days are over after my retirement. I could not give a straightforward yes then because I will be at that time doing part-time teaching in Xiamen University Malaysia. I wrote to the head of the department and sometime this week he gave the green light. Today, I confirmed with Areeya that, God willing, I will be going and they immediately send me the invitation letter.

Well, now I have much work to do ....

New Eateries, Old Guard and Teaching Anew

Last weekend, as my son Izhar came home, we decided to explore new eateries that have just opened in Centrio. First, was Mee Tarik restaurant serving the famous traditional Chinese Muslim cuisine. It is located nearby the US Pizza restaurant there. We did not know what to expect but my sons ordered rice with chicken and me with my other half ordered fried noodles. To our surprise, the fried noodles were really spicy and we could not really finished and shared it with our son. We had to order extra drinks (air kosong) to help cool our mouths and throats. Perhaps we should have taken the noodle soup instead, maybe next time.

The other eatery is a Nasi Kandar Daun Pisang restaurant. It is located nearby the 99 Speedmart there. It used to be our breakfast location for roti canai and nasi lemak, operated by young Malay guys. We were told that they have moved elsewhere (Senawang?). The new restaurant do not serve roti canai but only dishes served with banana leaf including nasi lemak. The food was good.

Few days ago, somebody posted a picture of the first generation of lecturers at the Physics Department in UPM. I decided to put this here for my own keeping.

From left to right in the back row are Prof. Mohd Yusof Sulaiman, the late Tn Hj. Shamsuddin Mahmood, Dr. Jamil Suradi, an international lecturer (name unknown), another international lecturer (name unknown), Dr. Poh Lee King, Prof. Azmi Zakaria. In the front row are AP Dr. Wan Daud Wan Yusoff, AP Dr. Zainal Abidin Sulaiman, the late AP Dr. Shaharin Ibrahim, AP Dr. Salleh Harun, Dr. Rahim Omar, Prof. Kaida Khalid, Prof. Mohd Maarof Moksin. I was fortunate to have met all of them when I joined UPM, except the unknown international lecturers.

This pic had me initiated to find a pic of the late Dr. Osman Ese, the first theoretical physicist in the department. Unfortunately, I could not find any but instead I found these online from UPM Annual Reports for 1973-74 and 1974-75 respectively:

So, I did not know that Wan Sulaiman Wan Harun was our first head of department (at least acting). I had the impression that Dr. Osman Ese was our first head somehow. The second head was Dr/ Wan Daud, with whom I have commuted from Seremban to UPM in the past. I am not sure whether the younger lecturers at the department know about all these. This generation of lecturers deserve our respect for building the department from scratch.

Failing to find a picture of Dr. Osman Ese, I looked for his PhD thesis and I can only find the following:

It seems that it is not available online and one would have to request for it (and probably pay for this). The papers of Dr. Osman Ese are however available (need subscription).

I hope that our younger colleagues will be able to collect these documents for historical records.

Just yesterday, I received the contract letter for part-time teaching in XMUM and thus, will be my second time there but now in the Maths Department. In the beginning, I did not expect I will be teaching there again since I was hoping to get a job elsewhere (seems not forthcoming). Then some weeks ago, the head of Maths Dept contacted me if I would be interested to do part-time teaching. Not having a job and I could use the extra income to pay my bills, I agreed. I will be teaching Quantitative Methods (which is essentially Applied Calculus) and Linear Algebra. So, yesterday, I ordered the two reference books online and they cost me a fortune (around RM1300). Hoping I will get to teach well this time.

Family Events and Remembering Rawa Roots

This week was pretty uneventful and coincided with a low point in my life. Nevertheless life goes on. Last week was different; full of activities surrounding family matters.

First, was the readmittance of my other half's brother-in-law (Pak Teh) into IJN HDU (high-dependency unit). He had his stitches opened after a week of the surgery. From what I heard, there was some bleeding and he was advised to be readmitted. My son, Ihsan from JB, in his last stay at home, was not able to visit Pak Teh at the hospital. So, he decided to come home again to visit Pak Teh at IJN on early Thursday morning. He reached Seremban sometime at 3 am in the morning after his work hours, so that he can go together with us to IJN after Fajr prayers. We went there so early just to beat the traffic congestion in KL and to get a parking space (comfortably) in IJN.

Because we have rushed off early in the morning, we forgotten to bring our face-masks. As we arrived in IJN, I rushed off to the MyNews store there to get a box of face masks. The first one that I bought was for kids and thus I had to buy another one for adults (they told me that I can't exchange for the adult ones).

I decided to put these on the table near the seats as we sat waiting for the visiting hours at 12 noon. Just did this simply if anyone would need them but of course nobody came to ask.

Here is a pic of my other half with her sister at the IJN cafe.

Here is Ihsan with Hitam at home. He didn't get to see Hitam before because Hitam was warded.

Just the weekend before, my other half and I went to Grand Beach Resort in Port Dickson for my other half's half-day seminar (on Saturday). Normally this will be counted as points for renewal of her APC (annual practicing certificate). Later she found out that there were no points given for it since it did not meet the necessary requirements.

The next day (Sunday) we were in Rembau for her friend (used to be her staff in the Rembau clinic) wedding invitation at Restoran Sungai Rembau. 

The weekend after the IJN's visit was also special for me, since all my sons came home. Here we are at a local mamak restaurant having our light dinner.

Last Sunday, we were also at Avant Court to meet my sister who just came back from Hajj. They organized a gathering which is also in conjunction with their 50th anniversary.

I was also told by my sister to meet a long lost distant relative in Tapah, Zulfahan. I don't think I have met him but here we are at the function.

I wasn't so sure how I am related to him but he brought up the name Lokman, son of Pak Deris, whom (the latter) I know during my childhood days, visiting his shop (Pak Deris') just meters away from the my grandfather's (Udin) place. Zulfahan told me not to forget my roots. I can only reason (for myself) that I was only in Tapah during brief visits with my mum and brothers and sisters. Not only I was largely absent in Tapah but for most parts of my life, I was not even at home (being in boarding school, and later abroad for my Bachelor and postgraduate studies). Even as I returned from UK (after my PhD), I was sent to Bintulu campus. Of course, the other reason is my low social skills and I do not mix around very well and always have kept only a small circle around me. In some way, I do feel that I betray my parents for not keeping close to our relatives and forget my Rawa roots (see also here). My observation is that we often assimilate and adopt cultures of our spouses. I will try to do my part to give some knowledge of Rawa to my sons.

Moving Away From Social Media

Social media is bad for me though I will not completely turn them off because I do get useful information from them. So, I had limited myself to read social media when I'm completely bored or during those times I find myself idling. For instance, I was at IJN yesterday to visit my other half's brother in law who was readmitted in HDU (high dependency unit). While waiting for the visiting hours, I found myself scrolling through posts and reacted to one 'dyon' post, which I thought was strange but later I thought that I did not really know the context in which the post is made and regretted I made a remark there. Social media has really made us reactionary, many times egoistic and even make personalities turn to the dark side. Here is a pic that I posted yesterday during the ait (more stories of the visit in forthcoming post).

The following is a draft post I made more than two months ago about why I prefer not to go into social media too much. I hesitated to post this but here goes. I made a knee-jerk reaction to a post I was reading (I can't find that post anymore). It was about giving benefits to those who kept themselves healthy in response to those who are not but receiving medical benefits. It might sound logical but if one examine the argument in a larger context, it seems to assume that we are in complete control of everything. If one carried the argument further, will one say that the sick/diseased is rather undeserving of the benefits that they get because they can't keep themselves healthy (even genetically)? Maybe I say this with my own predicaments in mind; no one wants to be sick voluntarily. Actually, I have seen this kind of argument in many other places. For instance, once I have an acquaintance who speaks about being initiated on uplifting one's economic status. This may sound sensible. Just like before, if one carries this argument through, one could simply blame poor people for not doing enough. However, one should realise that not everything is within our control and every outcome (success or even failure) is by the grace of God, a confluence of right factors (not really at our own disposition). Opportunities do not come uniformly even if one attempts to impose as such. Throughout my life as an academic, I saw these too; with many of my efforts being unfruitful and even ridiculed.

This brings to the main thrust of this post: the knowledge that (we think) we possess. It's easy to think that the knowledge attained is purely a product of one's own efforts. In-built, in the Muslim psyche, knowledge comes with the Grace of God. Even when one has knowledge as such, the Muslim knows that it can be taken away easily. I have always mentioned this to my students: remember the moments that one simply forgets a Qur'anic ayat due to probably a deviation of utterance of a word or the moments that one forgets the raka'at of a prayer due to sway of one's attention. That's how easy it is. Even if we take a not-necessarily-Muslim viewpoint, we barely understand how our mind really works (many theories, of course). It is again the confluence of opportunities that helps us understand knowledge as we grow. It is thus disappointing to see students and colleagues become arrogant as they begin to accumulate knowledge. Much 'debate' online tend to demonstrate this and those who are on the receiving end of mockeries will quickly adopt fight or flight response (it is rarely 'want to know the truth' stance for whichever side). I will probably do the latter mainly because at this age, I would not want to waste my energy. Hence, I tend to be more quiet these days, ignoring most of the viral issues and focus only on things I know well and those I can really take effective action.

I say the above not to say that I'm wiser or cleverer or more religious. Far from it. I consider myself as an average person with plenty of ups and downs. I am neither an angel nor a satanic demon. The only thing that I can say is that I will always try to be a better person irrespective of the many failures and weaknesses. May Allah help me be the better person I want to be, away from fitnah and be granted husnul khatimah.