New Office..Renewed Spirit...Renewed Hope

Recently I moved to a newly renovated room at the office. It is a bigger room than the one that I used to work in before. Although the furniture is used, nonetheless, the ceiling and walls are newly painted and it even has a set of used sofa chair apart from the normal desk. The room has a door connected directly to the meeting room and I really feel blessed and thankful to Allah for all of these. On the contrary, with the added responsibility on my shoulders now, I actually spent lesser and lesser time in my room attending meetings outside. Well, it's part of life and it's part and parcel of being a leader.



Over the last ten months, I have learnt and continously learning about management and leadership. In my opinion, management is about managing people's antiques and utilising thier potential to excel. Sometimes I also feel that management is a form of politics. I strongly beleive that I have many talented people working together with me but they constantly need guidance and motivation to contribute to the company. Leadership is also about managing the bosses. My responsibility now requires me to be closer to the bosses and as much as possible to meet thier demand in the fastest and the most efficient way possible. For sure I have changed my style of handling the bosses from before albeit sometimes I do feel I encroach the sucking up zone. Well, after my meeting with the HR numero uno I gathered that in reality no matter how sincere and smart we are trying to change things around us, bosses are always the one that need pleasing first...and I learnt that it's not the most difficult thing to do ! After all, the boss carries the ultimate responsibility and we the subordinates are merely the facilitators.



Few days ago I was also told informally that I am under a close scrutiny at the moment by the company before they can be satisfied to confirm me on my current position, as I am still under probation. I have no problem on this matter insha'allah, as I am fully aware of my responsibility and my conscience is very clear on how I should deal with things in the office. Nonetheless, to show that I am serious in changing the previous perception of being a bit rebellious as what many have said, I am trying my level best to conform to the norm of being in the management group which include even proper attire to the office and observing the tea-time and what not. I hope eventually people will understand why I behaved differently before and I am praying to Allah to guide me to be a better muslim that is a good leader and guide anybody assigned to my responsibility....ameen

Images from Eid-Fitri 1429 H - 2008

Allahu Akbar..Allahu Akbar...Allahu Akbar..Walillahilham
This year marked the 5th time we celebrated the Eid in Bukit Jelutong. For me and my other half, Eid is about celebrating Syawal at home ever since my parents and in laws' demises few years back. For us, unlike many others, we no longer have to negotiate or make compromises as to where we want to celebrate Eid. Having said that, every year we will surely miss the rush of balik kampung to celebrate the Eid with our parents and with other siblings. Those moment are now just sweet memories that we will always cherish forever.



Being the 'old folks' of our children a little ahead of our time, the joy of celebrating Eid is now more for them than to us. As much as possible, EId is the best time for our children to get to know better their distance cousins or close relatives. My children may never get the feeling of celebrating Eid with their grandpas or grandmas now but come to think of it, I was also in the same situation ever since my birth being the youngest in the family.





My personal view of EId is a moment where we as Muslims celebrate our success in glorifying Allah post Ramadhan. I was a bit off target to complete 30 days of tarawikh as I missed 2 nights. Nonetheless, I really thank Allah for my health during Ramadhan as I did not experience terrible pain or sickness in performing the saum. I would also like to thank my beloved other half so much for her perseverance and patience in preparing meals for our sahur and iftar. I don't think the whole family can survive without her now and only Allah can reward her for her kindness and sincerity...Ameen

This year Eid also marked the first time my eldest daughter being away from us. She told us from Jordan they celebrated Eid one day earlier. Thanks to the modern technology of Internet where now it is possible for us to communicate with her through Skype almost on daily basis. I could only wish that this technology were available during my college time in the states some 25 years ago. At that time. I only made one phone call per month due to cost. Nowadays, distance call with video is almost free with the Internet.






Although there are many arguments among the Muslim scholars on visiting the graves during Eid, I feel that visiting the graves during Eid is probably best moment for us to remind ourselves of the good things that our late parents and grand parents have done for us. The very least the children will know where are the graves of their grandparents for the future generation. This year, we visited the graves of my late parents on second day of Eid.



A part from the traditional visits to the elders and also our neighbour, we also attended the open house cum birthday celebration of my niece, Kak Long daughter's 3rd birthday on 4th day of Syawal. It was indeed a joyous moment and alhamdullilah, all my siblings were there.



Hopefully all of us will be given the opportunity by Allah to welcome 1430H Ramadhan and Eid next year. We can never know what's gonna happen even in the next few seconds. I said this because my fellow peer at the office Chief Engineer Nor Azlan has just performed a triple by pass operation yesterday. I wish him all well and recover fast...Ameen