BEST MORNING AT THE PARKING LOT OF MY LIFE!! in conversation with prof s__d...

i was blushing.

my face was as red as it could be. "kau ni jumpa crush ke apa?"

he was walking towards the faculty, seemed to be on his way to teach. i didn't want to disturb him. who knew my inquiry would be a distraction or something.

so i decided to ignore and tried walking away. he noticed me from afar and gave me a warm smile. again i ignored. did he notice me? did he?

nadzi n mj grabbed my hands. they told me to just ask him. i insistently said no. prof was getting farther. then mj half-shouted, "prof, ruby wants to ask you a few questions."

he stopped. and gave a light laugh. and he walked towards us. what's done is done, i thought. since he was already standing there, let's just get all this curious thoughts out of my mind. i approached him.

my knees were literally shaking when i uttered the first few sentences. mj and nadzi loyally waited for me, joining in the intellectual conversation as well. he seemed to remember who i was, so i was quite glad. glad to be recognized by the person i respect the most in uitm.

the inquiry began. i raised the issue of his migration. why exactly did he move from india? i had received some info about it but i would not be satisfied until i heard from his own mouth.

he said that his migration to malaysia was indeed influenced by love but it was not the sole reason. it turned out i was partially right after all. when i was informed that he moved to malaysia for his wife, my instinct told me that there had to be something more.

"it was indeed a huge decision to be made," i told him.

"yes, it was," he replied.

"so did you plan beforehand to move here? did you know a lot about this country before u decided?"

"no, i knew absolutely nothing about this country. i just came here and that's it."

"and now you have a datuk-ship."

"all those title doesn't matter. that is why you notice that i never place the title in front of my office. u don't have to drive a big car and have all these materalistic influence in ur life and manipulate the things that Allah has blessed us with. Allah doesn't like that."

"thus, ur wife was not the only reason, prof? because i kind of believe that there had to be something more."

"yes, there was. my country was not quite peaceful that time. there was this hindu-muslim riots. it was quite risky being a muslim because we only encompassed 10% of the population after the partition happened."

"so there was indeed other factors considered?"

"yes, yes, of course."

*I was right. DANG!! turned out i have a pretty good instinct...

10 minutes passed. we were standing right in the middle of the hot blazing weather. but then again i raised another question which had been suppressed in some corners of my mind for two months. but i was worried if he was uncomfortable with it. he said he was okay. just continue. so i continued.

"i've been reading your articles lately, sir, n i noticed that you were quite unhappy with this supposedly domination of western ideology over the eastern culture."

he said that yes, he was unhappy. not in all aspects. but in certain aspects, yes. the western world has somehow dominates the notion of what is right and what is wrong based on their perspective.

"wearing headscarves, for example," he said, "my sister has a PhD from Colombia and she never wears pants. she only wears the traditional pakistani outfits and the westerners think she is oppressed. like you for example," said he, pointing to me, "do u feel oppressed?"

"no sir," replied i, "i think i am extremely liberalized." *u have yet to know the worrying depth of my radical mindset, sir, hehe...*

"exactly," replied he. we were getting more spirited. i was getting more argumentative. even nadzi gave me some hand signals to stop cutting his words. i could not control myself.

"but then sir, in my opinion, it is not right to categorize a certain ideology as being western or eastern. take liberalism and conservatism - it is the ideology itself that matters. the issue of its origin is unimportant."

"yes, but practice is a different thing. the western society deems eastern practices as uncivilized. they tell us that we are to follow their definition of what is right n wrong, what is clean n dirty, even what is proper n not proper. our cultures are eradicating because of that."

"so u are the kind of person who place high importance on culture?"

"yes, i do. i believe culture is very important. look at what i'm wearing now - shirt and slacks - western ideology on what is formal. i would love to see any student wearing sarong to class. but because of this western domination, wearing our own traditional cultural clothes has been deemed improper. i have to disagree with that."

it was getting serious. really intellectual. he with his eastern-inclined mind and me with my liberal non-cultural mindset.

i asked him if it was okay for me to consult him anytime should there be any issues which i need consultation. he said yes, sure, he'd be pleased and he welcomes any opinion anywhere. my heart glowed in a way that it never did before.

the conversation lasted for about twenty minutes. we talked about a lot of things. the last time i inquired him any question was two or three months ago. this semester, it had been quite challenging for me. i felt intellectually empty and hollow. i was academically unhappy. my mind was not as philosophically sharp as i have always wanted it to be.

then the conversation happened. it felt like i finally pressed the switch to turn my 'knowledge-obsessive' mode back on. i felt spirited. a fresh urge surfaced within me to explore every knowledge possible to train my mind to be analytical... i was deeply happy, ecstatic and satisfied - all because of intellectuality...

thanks, prof!