13/2/11 A FRIEND OF AN ELDERLY AGE.....

I was in the plane last couple of days. A man greeted me: "Long time have not seen you, where are you now?". I know he had retired. Despite had been retiring he had been reaggage for at least 10 years later into the same post (on welfare ground if I'm not mistaken). Thereon he then permanently retired, probably 5-10 years ago. In the past he has all his privilleges, flying in the Business Class cabin, somebody would handle his luggages and driving him anywhere, either official or personal, everywhere people greets him well. Jokingly, my reply to him: "I'm here, just here, in this flight together with you and sitting next to you!" He then stared at me: "Have you retired? I don't think so!", he seem to answer his own question.

(2) He seem puzzle. He seem wanting an answer. I never tell him where am I now, psychologically to keep him 'accompany', but I threw this joke to him: "Don't worry, you remember, in school days, not many of our friends like to take Economic subject. Economic is about Applied Mathematic and Statistical Analysis. So, now, when we retired, we take this Economy Class (Cabin) and not Business Class is because, as we are older, we appreciate Math more than other subjects, especially Business".

(3) He later began to talk, mumuring in fact, he mentioned all those friends either in their official capacities, business, and or retiring world. All those good old days, when he was in authority, everybody 'honored' him well. I know most of his friends, and there are mine as well. Sadly he said:" After I retired, no one ever bother about me. I help alot of them, some even get better education and position because of me, and now, they see me just like stray dogs: Anjing kurap, in Malay" His face really look solemn, really sad, deeply sad.

(4) His breath is a breath of deep regret. I wonder, such an emotion, how much silent and deep anger has been building inside him. Gosh, from a health perspective, all these are the prime causes for the accumulation of blockages in our arteries, thus iviting for a stroke!

(5)Sometimes he invited me to condemn some names. I just said: "Sorry, I was not really close to them, thus I never knew them well". I just want to escape. My grand mum used to remind me when I was kid, not to get involve with talking bad about others. I just told him: "Sorry, I have been travelling around this couple of weeks. I'm really tired and sleepy. I need a nap because I have a meeting at 2.30 ie just two hours after landing, and later by 7.00 pm, I'm taking my flight back". I sliped my body forward, close my eyes and pretending having my deep nap.

(6) Nonetkeless, he seem to be restless. He seem wanting to talk and talk, grumble in fact about his past. In my mind, what a waste of time. Normally, I'll be reading in any flight that I took. Today, I missed my reading and becaming a great pretender to a friend who 'lost' lots of his friends.

(7) Nonteheless, my mind wonder, why? In a 'half nap' condition, speculatively, I would say, he had not lost his friends. Just that he seldom meet his friends. They are now in the 60-70 years old. At that age, you can't expect to hang around anymore. Thus, by not regularly meeting old friends doesn't mean we lost our friends.

(8) In the traditional Malays life, at the elder age, is not necessarily a bad one. Just that one must be prepared. Say, 3-5 years before retiring, let make our mind clear, that officially, the young must be prepared to takeover. There is no need for us to be too worry, weither they later would be very prepared to takeover or not, what more important is, we must leave with a clear heart and mind that we had done our job properly, ie we had made serious effort to prepare them!

(9) If we have not made a serious effort to groom the youngs while we had the chance, or even if we had failed, it would be a very good reason to leave as early as possible. Not to chicken out, but, to avoid being more stingy and greedy!

(10) While preparing the young to takeover, let us also develop what would become our own older day assets. For the Malays, the Muslim, that is not difficult to figure and configure out. As we grow older, our energy will erode, but our mind could be kept sharp and active. Most important, our elderly age would give us more wisdom. Thus, it is usefull then to work our way that way. Of course a living example would be Dr. Mahathir Mohammed. Ungku Aziz Omar, once was also the same. Even names such as Syed Naguip Al Attas, Hamka, Za'aba, Syafiee, Hambali, Maliki, Bukhari, Muslim, etc they stay young just by making their mind as active as possible. To this day, their writings, they remain friends of many.

(11) The Malays, the Muslim, from the day they are able to speak fluently, at kid age, they are to learn to read. In fact they were also suppose to write. Thus, there is no reason, why we can't figure and configure out what we should be doing as age is catching faster.

(12) I would greatly encourage, for all of us to start having the habit of reading and writing. I believe, not only our knowleadge and skill will be broaden and deepen, we will be amazed to find out later, we would always be surrounded by friends doesn't matter where and at what age are we. Books are our best friends. That the reason, why Allah had sent the Zabur, Taurah, Injil and Quran to us. Those are Books, the Holly Books, those are our true friends. Read more books to break all of Allah's Codes in all those Books.

Kuching, Sarawak
26 Feb., 2011