It feels good to get away once in a while…
Not alone, but to be together as a whole….To relish moments, to be close to each other…Moments that one day, we may cherish…snapshots to be relinquished and be amused with…
That was exactly what I did…disappear altogether to another part of the world…us (my other half, our eldest daughter, her family and I). We were about to spend two weeks together…in the UK.
Even then, I couldn’t help noticing the anxiety that hovers over my daughter’s face as she carried her laptop on her back all through the journey, thinking about the unfinished pieces of work that was expected of her from her boss….from one of those gleaming windows, up the Twin Towers…overlooking Kuala Lumpur.
I could only shake my head, for as all of us laid in bed, she was still up, in a room down below, flicking her fingers on the keyboard…and sending pieces of worksheets and financial reports across the digital connect. Alhamdulillah for the internet!
As usual, Manchester was all drizzling and grey. Little Nuha Insyirah seemed very much at home with the cold atmosphere. The rest of us reveled in our gloves and thick garments…summer there was just like as I remembered last year…cold and gloomy…
The great day came….Friday the 11th. of July….the 2.30 p.m. session
Everbody was in a hurry. Nuha Insyirah’s Ayah Cu (nickname for Youngest Uncle) will have to run right after Friday prayers, at the St. Mary’s Hospital, Oxford Road, about a kilometer away and be at the Whitworth Hall for his Degree Congregations, (at least that is how it is called over there and written on the front page of the official purple book)…while the rest of us, made our way in our ‘fine attire’ by taxi from 156 Kings Road M16 0EL. At 2.00 p.m. sharp and then the entrance doors will be closed. So, we had to move fast.
The colourful gathering, with parents in their respective national attires, siblings, friends from across the globe…in the grand hall. I had not the slightest inkling that the Co-Chancellor had handpicked my son’s session to be the one which she preferred to preside, until it was made known by the master of ceremony. It was indeed an honour to us! Yes! She! For the Co-Chancellor (the first ever female Chancellor) was none other than the Honourable Ms. Anna Ford, the eloquent anchorwoman of BBC’s 6 o’ clock news in her younger days. Those who were in the UK in the late 70’s and early 80’s (like my other half and I) would have remembered her, a familiar and respected voice and face on the radio and television.
She was elected as the Chancellor, sharing duties with Sir Terry Leahy, for the past seven years. She was a product of the University of Manchester herself (back then it was known as the Victoria University of Manchester), became the first woman president of the Students’ Union and was responsible for setting up the International Society in the 60’s to cater for the welfare and social needs of international students at Manchester's three universities. And last year, she presented the degree to her own daughter. However, this session will be her last as she will be retiring. The air in the hall was full of sadness when this was mentioned during the session encompassing avionics and aerospace and mechanical engineering graduands. Maybe that is how other people would feel and how it would be like if one has carried out one’s duties diligently, splendidly and wholeheartedly.
It was truly a pleasure to listen to her articulate speech. For having graduated in the field of economics and her own vast experience as a broadcaster and journalist, she speaks from her heart. (Such bizarre contrast from the monotonous and dry voices we sometimes tend to hear from prepared speeches here locally, by our own dignitaries…) It was short, simple and sweet yet meaningful and inspirational….
She elegantly conveyed, “It is quite unfortunate that as engineers, you and your breed are sometimes taken for granted and quite forgotten by the public….However hard it may be, you must remember these.... the planes you build must be able to fly, the bridges that you design must not crumble and the roads that you pave must lay intact… rest assured that as engineers, the duties and responsibilities that you shoulder will have to be bourn with ethics and strict discipline…A feat which I trust you will adhere to…for the rest of your lives…”.
As she took back her seat, Ms. Ford was again roused to her feet for a standing ovation and a presentation of a fine basketful of flowers…in honour of the services that she upheld within the university since 2001.
I could not help laughing when the master of ceremony mispronounced our son’s name as “Anas bin MohamED SOFAYAN” instead of MohamAD SoFIAN. As we walked out of the hall, my other half and I took a glimpse of each other and smiled a meaningful smile….And as our son and his friends tossed their respective mortars straight up into the sky, amid laughter and joy, we were overcomed with a certain kind of feeling…undescribed…..our little boy was our baby no more, for he has conquered his own odds….A new phase has just ended….and a new one is dawning…..All praises be to God….Alhamdulillah...
Not alone, but to be together as a whole….To relish moments, to be close to each other…Moments that one day, we may cherish…snapshots to be relinquished and be amused with…
That was exactly what I did…disappear altogether to another part of the world…us (my other half, our eldest daughter, her family and I). We were about to spend two weeks together…in the UK.
Even then, I couldn’t help noticing the anxiety that hovers over my daughter’s face as she carried her laptop on her back all through the journey, thinking about the unfinished pieces of work that was expected of her from her boss….from one of those gleaming windows, up the Twin Towers…overlooking Kuala Lumpur.
I could only shake my head, for as all of us laid in bed, she was still up, in a room down below, flicking her fingers on the keyboard…and sending pieces of worksheets and financial reports across the digital connect. Alhamdulillah for the internet!
As usual, Manchester was all drizzling and grey. Little Nuha Insyirah seemed very much at home with the cold atmosphere. The rest of us reveled in our gloves and thick garments…summer there was just like as I remembered last year…cold and gloomy…
The great day came….Friday the 11th. of July….the 2.30 p.m. session
Everbody was in a hurry. Nuha Insyirah’s Ayah Cu (nickname for Youngest Uncle) will have to run right after Friday prayers, at the St. Mary’s Hospital, Oxford Road, about a kilometer away and be at the Whitworth Hall for his Degree Congregations, (at least that is how it is called over there and written on the front page of the official purple book)…while the rest of us, made our way in our ‘fine attire’ by taxi from 156 Kings Road M16 0EL. At 2.00 p.m. sharp and then the entrance doors will be closed. So, we had to move fast.
The colourful gathering, with parents in their respective national attires, siblings, friends from across the globe…in the grand hall. I had not the slightest inkling that the Co-Chancellor had handpicked my son’s session to be the one which she preferred to preside, until it was made known by the master of ceremony. It was indeed an honour to us! Yes! She! For the Co-Chancellor (the first ever female Chancellor) was none other than the Honourable Ms. Anna Ford, the eloquent anchorwoman of BBC’s 6 o’ clock news in her younger days. Those who were in the UK in the late 70’s and early 80’s (like my other half and I) would have remembered her, a familiar and respected voice and face on the radio and television.
She was elected as the Chancellor, sharing duties with Sir Terry Leahy, for the past seven years. She was a product of the University of Manchester herself (back then it was known as the Victoria University of Manchester), became the first woman president of the Students’ Union and was responsible for setting up the International Society in the 60’s to cater for the welfare and social needs of international students at Manchester's three universities. And last year, she presented the degree to her own daughter. However, this session will be her last as she will be retiring. The air in the hall was full of sadness when this was mentioned during the session encompassing avionics and aerospace and mechanical engineering graduands. Maybe that is how other people would feel and how it would be like if one has carried out one’s duties diligently, splendidly and wholeheartedly.
It was truly a pleasure to listen to her articulate speech. For having graduated in the field of economics and her own vast experience as a broadcaster and journalist, she speaks from her heart. (Such bizarre contrast from the monotonous and dry voices we sometimes tend to hear from prepared speeches here locally, by our own dignitaries…) It was short, simple and sweet yet meaningful and inspirational….
She elegantly conveyed, “It is quite unfortunate that as engineers, you and your breed are sometimes taken for granted and quite forgotten by the public….However hard it may be, you must remember these.... the planes you build must be able to fly, the bridges that you design must not crumble and the roads that you pave must lay intact… rest assured that as engineers, the duties and responsibilities that you shoulder will have to be bourn with ethics and strict discipline…A feat which I trust you will adhere to…for the rest of your lives…”.
As she took back her seat, Ms. Ford was again roused to her feet for a standing ovation and a presentation of a fine basketful of flowers…in honour of the services that she upheld within the university since 2001.
I could not help laughing when the master of ceremony mispronounced our son’s name as “Anas bin MohamED SOFAYAN” instead of MohamAD SoFIAN. As we walked out of the hall, my other half and I took a glimpse of each other and smiled a meaningful smile….And as our son and his friends tossed their respective mortars straight up into the sky, amid laughter and joy, we were overcomed with a certain kind of feeling…undescribed…..our little boy was our baby no more, for he has conquered his own odds….A new phase has just ended….and a new one is dawning…..All praises be to God….Alhamdulillah...
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