Meeting Dr. X

Today I can’t focus on my work. Still feel exhausted after recovering from flu. I took a short nap. After waking up, I felt like writing what happened yesterday. There you go..

Yesterday, my ex-GM (Dr X) was here for some business trip to have a short meeting with Institute where I am currently doing my study. He is now a big shot in one of the local Universities related to company that I work with. Although I never really worked closely with him in the past except having him to approve some relevant matters when we were in the same subsidiary before, but a lot that I heard about him from his staff and colleague. But I know that he was the one involved in approving my pursuing study as the chairman of the committee. It was a blessed from Allah that I do not have to work hard to get approval for my study. I was asked if I agree (since the management want to propose my name) to it then the rest was done for me. Sometimes when thinking about it, I feel weird because others can see my potential better than what I can see myself. It could also be the case that I see my potential in career but I was not very happy in some other part of life which I think more important than building career.

Coming back to Dr. X, no matter what perception that I had on him before and knowing what is his style, I always accept the fact that people will change as they go through their life cycle or there is always a reason why people behave certain way. Similar situation is happening to me. How we perceived people before may not be true at present. Another point is that we could not judge person very well until we really get to know the person.

My powergen invited me to join meeting with Dr X together with head of department and other senior staff. While I have nothing to do with their business but I would be delighted to meet him. Receiving anyone from Malaysia here in my institute, I feel like as if bringing energy and aura from my beloved country to me. Some kind of motivation or encouragement for me to keep going and aim to get it done and be back soon…

I understood the position of people a.ka. the management of this institute as I am one of the linking point to subsidiaries within my company although I am just a student here. That is the special treatment that I receive to be a matured student.

I dressed up formal with suit since I will be involved in the meeting although I wish I could just wear jean and sport shoes to be comfortable running in and out from the lab after meeting.

While waiting for Dr. X and his staff to arrive in the meeting, Head of dept (prof. P) came to the room and said ‘Hi’ to me and mentioned that Dr. X is not here yet. I told him that he is on his way and will be arriving in 10 minutes time as I was informed by another senior staff. In the meantime, I was looking at my organiser and filled –up what I need to do and prioritise.

I heard Dr. X voice from outside and the door was opened for him by Prof. P to enter the meeting room. Before Prof. P could say anything further, Dr. X was so happy to see me and shake hand with me saying that he was happy to see me here. Of course he knew that I am here. He mentioned to others in the room that I am one of his staff when he was with my company before. He asked me in front of others including my powergen “ how long you have been here? Is it 10 years already”. That is his style. He just bluntly said whatever comes out of his mind. I smile at him and said “ Oooo…I think you really miss me a lot… not reaching 3 years yet…but close to 3 years” . The irony is that when every time I was back to KL and got involved with any company function, most of the senior staff will said that they have not seen me for ages….and asking me to be back since they needed me for projects. In my mind, I thot that I am quite lucky because I am not one of the case for OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND as yet.

The meeting continued while I was just listening and my powergen sat next to me. At one point he went out for a while and he came back with his notebook so that he could do his work. I knew that he also felt bored for not so much involved in the meeting. Our part was to bring Dr. X visiting our research facilities. After the meeting, we took Dr. X and his staff to visit our research. Powergen explained what kind of research we were doing and several times he highlighted which work that I involved in and directed to me to explain further. Just before leaving the lab, Dr. X again asked me in front of powergen when I am planning to go back. Spontaneously I said “I wish I could finish now, but I can’t do that”. The third time, in the absence of powergen before getting into the car, he asked me again and I explained further what I had done and what I plan to do next. He said “don’t worry, I will inform Datuk A about your request and making sure that you have sufficient time to finish”. We then parted.

Last night, staff from the university had gathered to meet Dr. X for dinner. This also included several undergrad students from various sponsors. Dr. X also brought along his 2 sons with him. Dr. X advised the student to finish their study within time and come back to serve. He kept on stressing that it was a wrong doing for just disappearing after lots of money being spent to support the student to pursue studies here. One point that he mentioned, it is very important that everyone kept his/her faith in Allah. Don’t forget to pray as from his point of view he would not respect people who did not pray no matter how good and smart the person is. For him, that is the principle of his life where he will always asked Allah for giving him a good life, wonderful family and able to make a right decision in everything that he did in his life. What came into my mind at that time was there is no question about it. When we (especially matured student with family) are here without relatives or father and mother, not many friends around us to directly support us …we feel so lonely. Our day in and out was just doing the same thing. Most of the times we are out of touch from outside world.

The wonderful part last night was having a moment with him to talk about his children, his family, how he maintained his health and about education system and many more. I shared with him what I did everyday and some life that I went through here being student.

What I found interesting about him and of course I provoked him to share with me was that he did not push his children too much for their study and not expecting them to score the best in school. For him those are just the ticket for entering colleague. But his focus is more on preparing the kids with a good faith, a self confident and develops their natural talent for them to be able to survive in their life.

He said that he was so lucky because his wife came from very poor family yet is good in many ways in term of guiding and teaching the children in many aspect of Islamic way. His own father was a head teacher cum Imam for many years and he observed his father doing everyday although his father never pushes him to follow the same. Based on that he copied what his father used to do as a good principle of life. In term of money wise, he saved all of his money to support his children education and yet he is still blessing with comfortable life. Every year, it has been a normal practice for him to spend several thousand ringgit especially close to raya, to buy the tudung, baju and other basic necessity to contribute to old folk house for them to enjoy. A lot of sedekah for those in need…

A lot more points that he shared with me which I could not properly write here as I lost word how to describe it. All in all, I had a really wonderful time meeting Dr. X and knowing him as a person and learning from him his good practice in life. He has been blessed with so much energy and enthusiasm and more importantly he is a good father to his children. I adore his principle and I will copy into my life…