The joy of teaching

Maybe I have been too long in this profession. But today's workshop on supervision and thesis writing had brought back the joy of teaching and imparting knowledge (not that my daily/weekly classes are no fun) but having a highly motivated group of students would take you up on a different level of joy.

And all those years of experience supervising and being supervised came back with lots of laugh.Hey, I can do this for another 100 years. :))

The guy from a (foreign?) TV station rang to remind me of tomorrow's interview (the time's changed). Malam ni kena rehearse la sikit jawaban-jawabannya.Maklum nak tayang kat Europe. :))

I'm ready to move forward with other new projects, folks. Watch this space.

Bruce Bennett In Memoriam

Prof.Quayum sent me an sms around noon today asking if it were true Bruce had passed away.I told him I had not heard and asked for his source.Kirp.It must have been true and googled for the news.

True enough.Bruce Bennett is dead.

I may not know him as long as Quayum did but since Manila 2007 (or it could have been 2 years earlier in Singapore cos' I remember him joining the night safari ), I met Bruce every two years at our Asiapac conference which meets every two years in different cities.When I offered to help host the conference in KL after Manila, Bruce was one of those who was the most encouraging (even after dicucuk2 oleh someone not to give it to me.Mark,Harry,Lily and Agnes were equally supportive when I got very upset by this back-stabbing episode by another fellow academician from another uni).Bruce (and also Dennis) stood by me and said they'd be in KL to support me all the way.And true enough, both Bruce and Dennis came despite being confronted by illness (Bruce was sick himself, Dennis' wife was also very ill).

Bruce would always remain in my mind as a gentleman, sincere, committed, kind-hearted and very, very graceful scholar.He had moved the world in his own quiet ways, putting Asiapac literatures as equally important as mainstream ones.He (and Dennis) were constantly speaking of passing the torch to younger academics like Q, Kit, me, Lily, Isabela, Agnes and so on.It will be a tough act to follow, Bruce.

I'm glad I was able to meet him in Perth last December and had the opportunity to pay tribute to what he had done to literature and art in the region at our 2009 Asiapac conference in KL.

RIP, Bruce. You will be sadly missed.

 Bruce was the first to arrive for the conference.Here, with a student (Shahrul)

Bruce with NZ High Commissioner's wife, Gillian at a dinner reception at the HC's home

Zaiton Othman

She was one of the fastest women in Asia.A Malaysian who grew up poor,had to walk to school and had poor nutrition.

Today, she's one of the best motivators in town.And in a conversation with a friend who attended her talk today,what struck me most was her courage,determination and focus as well as finding the balance in life.

My friend was telling me how Zaiton enjoyed being chased by an angry dog cos' it gave her the opportunity to run quicker than the mad dog.

I guess THAT was how she trained to be one of the fastest women on Asian track in the 80s.

We had many great athletes in the past....very colourful personalities too.

Your blog worth

I had a bit of a laugh recently after finding my blog worth and its rank in the USA.Who would have thought! I mean I write to capture certain moments in my life.Much to do with my family and friends.This blog is worth almost USD1K. :)).Well, at least some value.Thank you for your support (for those who are regular here).

It's been a hectic two days in which I had meetings spreading to the evenings.I think I have over committed but a promise is a promise.Will just need to execute whatever promised well.I had meetings with my caring society's group in my neighbourhood then another evening with other neighbourhoods in PJ.Jeff is so good with community building.It is such a joy working with him.Found a new friend,Minoo.We clicked! :)

And last night's meeting with my filmmaker friends went well into 11 pm.Nagat's suggestion of having a few workshops was good.Azrain would give me the figures.Wan and I would look for moneh and participants.Prof Abushouk agreed to give us promo panel in his Oct conference and we had at least 4 exciting personalities to invite.And Wan will work on producing a short film for the fest..our very own.I hope things will work out accordingly.

Fulbright Public Talk: Prof Alan Lew had agreed in principle to talk on tourism but probably would have to do it just after his conference towards end of June.

seizing the day, carpe diem

I have written a lot on my experience as the Director of CERDAS.Of my 24 years of working, I have to say that this is the most challenging and exciting post I have ever held.

I learn to swim when the office is sinking (the meeting on Monday is now postponed to another Monday in 3 weeks).But the best of all is learning how to be an enterpreneur (against my will but possibly this is by the will of Allah.Everything happens for a reason). I learned how to do clean business (without riba).Always mindful of NOT devising too much profit which will be oppressing our clients.What matters is our targetted groups learn something new and become better Muslims/people after their encounter with our progs.Social enterpreneurship, gitu.

Dr Haslina and I were laughing away at my reminder after editing a PhD thesis (from Uni. of Hong Kong) on Islamic Finance and Maritime Trade.There was a section on riba.I also heard on IKIM types of riba.So in our biz at CERDAS, we try to observe this.It's a feel good feeling lah after a task completed.Part of riba is hidden cost.It's a no-no.We were perplexed when Dr Azman (himself an Islamic Finance Consultant with one of the banks) revealed all our costs to our smart partners.Dr H asked me why would he want to tell all.Now we understand better. No hidden cost -- everything must be transparent (so Air Asia, read this!)

Also you cannot have a biz which is misleading (this I heard from IKIM radio) eg. selling a brand which sounds or looks like the original - Abibas vs Adidas, Coach vs Croach, etc is HARAM cos there is an element of deceit/misleading people.

We are (also) doing our best to act on complaints by students (much to do with admin. shortcomings).CERDAS does not make all the decisions and hence, solutions can be quite slow.For that, I have been called many names (by one or two students). Hey, it's part of the job and I accept this, humbly (I had accepted the post relunctantly when nominated, knowing how difficult it would be with only 2 staff at hand but my Dean said it was only for short term).

But as my term comes to an end, my conscience is clear.I HAD GIVEN MY BEST.No regrets.And I treasure the friendships I made with my fellow colleagues.Dr Haslina especially (who's like my shadow, day in, day out); Dr Riza who often comes rushing to assist despite her busy schedule taking care of her parents and her health, Prof Istiaq who will sacrifice his family time to help out when I holler, Prof Azman who often comes out with brilliant ideas on Islamic courses.Last but not least, Hasnah who has kept files in order and can just pluck one on demand.Simply amazing.
And our new Manager, Zul who would have late lunches cos' work comes first.

Alhamdulillah.

Can life be so jinxed?

I'm beginning to wonder now!

But it could be just something in your head.You become what you think.Negativity invites negative vibes but de Bono highlights on negative energy as a force to solve your problem, creatively.We are trying our best to paddle, OK? :)

Zul and Dr. Haslina found out some happy news with the auditors' report/s (Monday will be an interesting day when I am called to menghadap Tan Sri Aziz). The figures keep changing.I hope we are right this time.Working from evidence.

Tupin Aishah is a glamorous name.I want to write about her in my next short story.She's my great grandmother, said to be a princess from Sumatra in the 17th century before Dutch invasion.There were kingdoms and we owned one.Muahaha.Anak raja gondang. :))

I just found new second cousins. Was bonding with my mom over this and she wanted to know if I had met any of them in person.How I met them etc (what curious mind, this Rawa Queen).

Facebooks and blogs have their plus points.This is all I have to say.

Inspiring moments

I met 3 interesting and inspiring enterpreneurs today.M is from Cambridge, Ir Dr. F is local but was trained in NZ and then Oz.Wht a coincidence!Prof B is from London.I hope the workshop we hope to do together will work out.

Pelik juga how they are connected but they are strangers to one another.I came out feeling motivated and stronger.These successful people said they'd had more failures than successes before making their first million.Ahhh..wht a feeling.Dr Alizi and Dr Harris were laughing at my CERDAS stories over lunch.Prof B pun tompang sekaki.Haha.Mmg funny.

And I found a tukang urut who urut the hell out of me..sakit bukan sedikit but we agreed to meet again.:)

I enjoyed listening to Mehboob's talk and even more listening to Dr Fauzi's stories abt how he began until he gets to be so big (people travel from all over the world to learn from him and his org)

I can only say alhamdullilah that I had the opportunity to meet and know these people closeup.

Breaking news

a lot! a lot!

1.The new Manager is here.Trained as an engineer and has an MBA.I pray to God he will stay a couple of years with us.

2.Auditors came to report on their findings.We agreed the balance sheet/s prepared earlier were faulty (I warned them at the beginning).The new Manager and CERDAS team will revise and send a more accurate one.

3. All our progs made the profit of range 30% -72%.I have spoken with my Dean to regularise some events (to be parked under CERDAS.It's so easy to make money then).

4. Some chilly sauce has caused ripples.Haha.

5. Gimme projects with dough!

6.March and April: busy months with visitors from all over, London New York Manila Adelaide etc.Wough, fening.

kaboom!

and I have changed someone in the household into a rabbit! (Tanjung pulak hilang sejak semalam and I am so upset)

Don't wanna talk about it.

All day meeting with the SBU gang (we planned for a get together soon..Prof Ismail ajak durian party...I pretended to like it sebab semua org excited.hahaha...I don't like durian that it has become a family joke..on both sides..my family and Nik's cos' everyone is crazy about durian.)

CERDAS is still a pauper in comparison with the rest (told Prof Faris..nasib tak negatip..yang lain tu sibuk suruh kita bayar cukai 30% tu..haha..5 years tax-free OK?).A couple of SBUs have joined the millionaires' club. The new Manager dropped by semalam and today and seemed to have lots of ideas already.We can only pray that it would be a good year this year.

Petang : dropped by to listen to a panel discussion on the Arab Spring. Interesting juga.Told them to read Paul Collier's book The Bottom Billion.

A group of visitors from Yogyakarta (funny lot). One thot I was in PR, for passionately promoting IIUM. :))
Topics: Anies Baswedan, impact of reformasi, expanding middle class in Indonesia (yuppies), dev of arts, films and literature.I find it much more interesting having conversations wih Indonesian academics than say Msian academics. Muahaha..jgn marah!

Tersenyum sorang2 berjalan balik ke kulliyyah (the group was teasing me and I nak tergelak over a remark made by one of them :I am proud of IIUM") dan tiba2 Ali Adoun muncul siap bertali leher!

How long has it been? 2008? 2009? (some get-together with the family every now and then but last year, very rare).Biasalah Ali (who'd go..wallahi..no Prof Faridah, no alumni...hahaha) Tadi pun...we were discussing the Arab Spring.I shared with him my thots.He went wallahi ...you are right...wallahi I miss talking with you. :))

And this is how I become a passionate spokesperson of IIUM...

nb. Teja came back this morning.Bibik recited yassin 3 kali for her return.May Allah give peace to Bibik.

Post Spore trip

Wough, the whole trip was tiring.Midnite flight to KL.I got Nik to pick me up (tak larat nak mengangkut luggage turun naik train to KL Sentral.Lucky besoknya Saturday).

Besoknya: I could barely pick myself up.Rang up my Arabic teacher, telling him I'd be late.Penat woh. Dah la tak sempat buat homework, teacher buat lawak pulak and asked us to buat ayat in Arabic cerita balik lawak dia. I tried buat shortcut...tak jalan.

I thought tahun ni punya conference tak seseronok the first one I attended.Kirp was so kind to introduce me to the conference masa Kanika and team nak present their Krash Pad project (which impressed most at the conference.I had the Msian Deputy High Commisioner, an academic from Melbourne coming to me and wanting more collaborations.Good for the kids at Krash Pad and Kanika and team.We didn't expect the project to snowball like this.Syukurlah)

There were new faces and new sessions which I did enjoy.Marina Mahathir's keynote on Islam and Feminism was good, I thought (dia takda la sentuh benda2 sensitif in her address e.g safe sex pakai condom even for Muslims).

Hani (a new friend, lecturer, film maker, activist) showed us horrific short films about women trafficking and forest brothels in Spore.Rasa nak marah lah bila tengok mcm tu.The law makers bukan nak bertindak.Authorities yang patut protect, buat apa je?

I had to leave early but plan to return for the Broadway show playing till April.Wicked!(nama musical ni)

Back in Singapore

This is my New York of the East. :)

Got in very late tadi (I malas nak kensel class). There's a new boy in town dari England in my Master's class.Orang putih Muslim.He's a History major tapi entah macamana nak join my Renaissance class.Mula2 my students termalu2 but lama2 mcm biasa. Budak Thomas ni pun OK.Byk ilmu dia which we can tap also like the ancient Egyptians dah lama pandai bercukur so Tun Mahathir was wrong to say the Prophet (pbuh) tak bercukur sebab takda gillette masa tu.

Datin Seri Marina Mahathir will be the conference's keynote besok.But I'm looking fwd to attending workshop percuma on management...(I was told I boleh attend percuma....haha..me cheapskate!) Malam kita dine at Swiss restaurant.Jangan jeles....

I'll update my findings.Watch this space.

of IOK and a missing rabbit

The 4 of us: me, Dr. Haja Mohideen, Dr Ismail and Dr Mahmudul shared a panel on IOK and English.I thought it was fun.Mahmud ni kelakar and had everyone in stitches dgn lawak selambanya.

Teja went missing dah 3 hari. I have decided no more pets after this.Tanjung will be given to anyone who wants.Enough heartbreaks (every time rabbit mati, every time rabbit hilang).


I'm letting you go, Teja. Fly, good memories!

Poster competition

My Kulliyyah hosts this year's IRIIE and Mei and I submitted a poster.Thanks to friends in Prizma for giving ideas and helping out..Din Amri and Fudzail for recommending Din.

The fun bit was meeting other exhibitors from kulliyyah of sciences.best..kita belajar pasal commercial products mrk dibuat dari pokok sintok.kita siap beli.haha.We also taught them about Literature.

Yang tak tahan bila judges datang interbiu kita.Mcm pi viva. :))

Back in class, we did a session on hellenistic philosophy.Berasap kepala but pretty interesting when the students spoke of their readings on al kindi, ibn sina, ibn khaldun, ikhwan safa and we compared their ideas and influnces on modern thoughts.I think hellenistic philosophy ni over-ratedlah.

I think I'd sleep early tonight...long day,mah.

My Arabic class

CERDAS runs an Arabic class meant for busy people till May,about 60 hours for close to rm2k.I signed up cos was so impressed by the teaching tehniques shown in the corporate video.haha..i'm easily sold,kan?

But I've had 4 classes already and I think I can read and write better now as well as speak a bit walaupun ada masalah lupa.haha

Hari ni teacher bawak one lady from Holland to share with us how she survived the learning.she goes to yemen and stays there for a month annually and does an hour or two daily.sekarang she dtg msia cos the teacher lives in msia now.wow.mike tanya wht do you do for a living.i thot that was a funny question.haha.but jawabannya funnier.lady ni pilot helicopter.we went waaaaaahhhhh....

Today's lesson was very challenging.teacher suruh ambik barang2....sometimes mineral water bawah meja,kunci atas kerusi,bag mike,air mike,kunci khairunnisa.i rasa nak nangislah!then we had to construct sentences verbally.

And masa nilah kawan kita kat Spore jemput I pi conference 3 days all paid for.I said Saturday cannot woh..sayang my arabic class.Thursday and Friday line clear.It'd be good to see friends in Spore again..We'll see how.

The little, little things in life...

You know it's been one stressful experience, kan these last few weeks?

Just when my day was ending yesterday, Mei came to pick up some stuffs from the office.With a nicely wrapped gift for me.

Waaaahhhh...ini yang dikatakan rezeki datang dari arah yang tidak disangka-sangka.
She said Tania and she picked the colour I like.What, the black and white wrapper?

No..the purple leather purse, from Germany ke dik? :))
Waaahhh..thank you so much Mei!

Mei ni PR dia bagussss.She also wrote this:

Because you are so inspiring! Simply the greatest woman of the 21st century!

Haha..I thought I record this cos' it's the little, little things in life that will help cheer you up on bad days. :)

Mei, like most former students (now a colleague) has gone through ups and downs with me through the years (termasuk the recent crazy days in Perth). The purple purse is a tribute for all those years, gamaknya.

Terima kasihlah. We never expect material returns but if our students do well, kita tompang gumbira.

Dari dapor Mawar

Dr Mawar, saya sudah ciplak resipi asam pedas Dr.(diambil bulat2 dari blog Dr.):


Asam pedas ikan tenggiri


1.Lumatkan cili kering+bawang putih+bawang merah+halia+kunyit+lada hitam+belacan+jintan manis

2. Tumis campur kerisik+halba

3. Tambah air asam jawa, renihkan sambil masukkan ikan.

4. Tambahan petua Chef Wan, kisar daun kesum dan bunga kantan untuk serasikan dengan tumisan


TK!

In control

We learn to take charge of the chaos in the office and hey, true enough,we are now able to laugh at things.Dr Haslina had figured out how to key in the marks, I found my way to work on the matric cards and had struck a deal with the smartcard centre to have pics taken on registration day next sem. Dr. R is working on how to collect overdue fees in an effective way.

I told Hasnah, when everything is over and done with, I'm taking a week's break..no phone,no internet..jgn sapa berani kacau.Haha.Hoboy, I need this so badly! The gals and I also plan to go to a spa, mandi bunga..go away bad vibes!

I think things happen always for a good cause. Challenges are opportunities,so the cliche goes.And I think we came out stronger and more confident out of the crisis.

Well, until we hear from the auditors again of cos'.

At this point, ada aku kisah? Carpe diem.We accomplished much today.Syukurlah.

Z in Hanoi

Z left for her History trip to Hanoi on Friday.We tried calling her but gamaknya ph dia not roaming.

Hari ni Sabtu jam 10 malam lebih, dia telefon menangis2.You know the first fear every mother would feel kan when anak gadisnya di perantauan begitu dan di tempat2 begitu? I tell ya..suspen habis!

Rupa2nya purse dia dicompet org..habis credit card and duit USDnya.What can I say? Nik and I dah berkali2 pesan not to bring everything bila keluar, jaga handbag tu bla bla..and bukan dia tak pernah travel overseas (sejak setahun lebih OK?) dan tak tau habit kita bwk apa yang patut je bila keluar dan selebihnya simpan dlm peti besi kat hotel...unless hotel depa ni cikai takda peti besi??

I was like cacing panas trying to locate my Hanoi contact, Chan.Minggu ni minggu conference which I was supposed to be also (tapi sebab audit ada..aku terpaksa tak pergi..grrrgh!)Finally managed to locate Chan via the net.She promises to look into the matter sebaik conference dinner habis.Jgn satu Hanoi dia bungkus utk Z sudah.I knw Chan ni pemurah tersangat.

My Arabic class is getting tougher but fun.Kita tengah buat plan nak buat rombongan Cik Kiah ke Yemen utk perkukuhkan lagi bahasa kita.Duduk dgn keluarga angkat..mudah2an diizinkan Allah.

Thank God besok cuti panjang but will have to balik Raub with my sister on Monday.To fetch my mom yang balik 'bercuti' di rumahnya sendiri. :)

In the attic

The interview session was fun.Lots of laughter .There were so many talents and great personalities.If there were money, I'd employ them all.
The rest of us tried our best coping without the Manager.Someone likened the situation as a household of young kids whose maid had run away.I had to laugh at that despite the high level stress trying to locate files, visa forms, marks to be keyed in...I told my team, let's hope this time next week we'd be able to laugh at what had happened today.

We stayed back very late.I had to SOS our Spore partners.Razali was in Milan, Lake Como. Wah I envy him.Nak juga a holiday in Lake Como esp now!! Imran tak pasal2 being dragged in.Azwadi promised to drop by besok.See? There are still very nice people around.

And my colleagues were very cooperative whn asked to submit twice wht they had submitted earlier.Kalau I, I'd say go fly kites. :)

Could not have survived the day without Dr H, my PA and our part time Assistant.Besok lagi gila.

Cepatlah hari siang! Not answering calls,OK?

Sabar is when you...

...try your best to cope when someone leaves you in a sinking boat.

A colleague left us in a hurry yesterday.X didn't even bother to drop by my office and say the usual stuffs.I didn't expect a thank you but at least say hola, I'm going now.

Gen Y disease...Nik said he had a staff like that too some time ago.He said these are the angry 'kids'.They blame the world for their inability to cope.And the office is in a real mess.My PA looks like she's having a nervous breakdown.I told her to sabar and hang on a wee bit more.The worst hasn't arrived (the auditors will come day after tomorrow and I'm sure there would be ugly things everywhere).

What can be worst than NOT having any support system? They can blame (me!) for everything but put anyone in our position, I doubt if it's going to be any different.

Well, another possibility arrived in the email this morning.Life goes on.I have loads to do once my term is up in May and I pray to God, no more admin work for me.I have enjoyed the beautiful stuffs while on this job(meeting wonderful people and linking with different orgs) but I don't think I'd want to be in the same sinking boat unless they give me tools to fix it. :)

Sabar is when you know it's time to move on. Haha.