"...verily, mankind is loosing. Except for those who believe and do righteous deeds and recommend to one another to the truthful..." Al-Asr, 2 and 3
I am at the end of my time. Accordingly, my place has been set when I was first conceived some 53 years ago. My name has always been on the list. Where, how and when has already been written.
What will I leave behind?
Knowledge? Not much. A little to my children. An autocratic educator that educates with a whip! Or did I? The proof is in the pudding, so they say. I shall wait and give the pudding(s) more time.
A little bit to those who did work with me.
They might remember but then again it doesn't matter since the knowledge that I passed on is probably lesser than the size of a quark. So many things I have learnt, yet I yearn for more!
Go to China if you have to...sayeth a Hadith. I did not. But I did gather some along the way. More of culture (working culture, mostly), way of life, idiosyncracies, language...
What did I do with these information or knowledge or experience? Some, I shared in my incoherent ramblings. Others, I put to daily practise for those who worked with me. Some, I spoon fed them (teach them step-by-step), others I left them by igniting a small spark (giving them ideas), some with a "big bang" (engineering a crisis was the phrase some liked to use).
Unless you are an educator, you would have passed on your knowledge to thousands (from your own class alone 25 students x 30 years) throughout your 30 years of your career - a most revered career indeed. I envy you.
I can recall my classroom teacher of Standard 1, Standards 2 to 5 (my Sulohan Classmates can verify their names), I forgot those of Standard 6 (The Bears can testify), forms 1 to 3 (Rajendran, Zainuddin, Hanafi...can jog my clouded brain due to 20 fags a day), but not so for forms 4 and 5 (FFFers - come forth). Those that I remembered left indelible marks - for life. (Some of them did tell us that we will remember their words for life)
My parents, both primary school teachers, continue to receive adulation from far and wide even after more than twenty years since they left their chalks behind. Their students comes bearing gifts usually during Eid. Once in a blue moon, someone new would appear at their run-down abode and announced that they were students from a particular class or year. You should see their tears! Each drop brings bitter sweet memories. The best students or the worst would jog my parents' fading memory.
I guess that is why they do not want to leave their home of 50 years lest their students can't find their frail teachers.
The best profession indeed! Two or is it three professors in my midst, scores of teachers reading this can testify right?
Nowadays the school children are required to recite their daily "doa's" which are dedicated to their teachers. It wasn't a practise in my era! Would you not want at least 25 people to pray everyday for your well being for 30 years of your life?
What I have of my own religion, is probably smaller than a "string" (latest quantum theory). Even the converts have more knowledge than I despite being born and raised as a Muslim! A pitiful Muslim, I am indeed.
Until the age of 15, I did not even know the meaning of the words I recited by heart. Once, a self-proclaimed Irish agnostic did point that I knew not what the muezzin's call was all about. Shame on me, indeed.
I, like millions of others, recite by heart verses of the Quran in our daily supplication and yet I personally do not know their meaning!
Yes, I have read the Scriptures, Book of Revelations...but I have NOT understood the Quran. My lame excuse was I have to read in Arabic and its translation in English whereas the Bible was in English. How stupid of me!
But it is never too late to learn. Afterall, I managed to pickup Hokkien, Cantonese, Urdu, German, Javanese without attending a single formal classroom... (self-gratification ok?)! Arabic should be a breeze. Unless of course I choose to read only the translation of the Quran first...
My own challenge then was to be able to recite by heart 83 verses. Only decades later, I have started to memorise the meanings. Shameful existence of an ungrateful servant of the Almighty, won't you agree?
Why is that? Overwhelmed by work? My existential being dedicated to gathering wealth here in this borrowed lifetime? How lame can that be?
It is still NEVER too late
23:40, 7th November, JB.
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Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone
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