A Chance Meeting With An Engineer ~ Shaik Ahmad Clan

A Chance Meeting With An Engineer

I was at dinner organised by the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) at Hai Nan Town, George Town in Penang on 16 August 2013. It was a pre-conference dinner for the Penang Story Lecture, "Penang and the Hajj 2013". I sat at the main table with Dato' Anwar Fazal (ex-UNDP) and wife, Prof Eric Tagliacozzo (Cornell University, keynote speaker), Khoo Salma Nasution (President of PHT), and Lim Gaik Siang (PHT treasurer, who is a qualified engineer, working with Penang Council).

Dato' Anwar Fazal, his sister Rashidah (formerly with USM library) and the family were my grandfather's rear neighbour, on the kitchen side. His sister Rashidah Begum is the aunt of my colleague, Yasmin Begum Mokhtar Ahmad (Chico State University 1976-1980).

As we were talking, the female Chinese engineer asked about myself. She said I looked like someone she knew. I said my parents are Abdul Rashid at RECSAM and my mother Puan Tulip had taught at the PCGHS (Penang Chinese Girls' High School), a historical Chinese girls' school in Pulau Tikus, Penang.

The Chinese engineer became interested. She had been to my parent's house at Minden Heights in Penang. She knew a lot of stories from my talkative father. She remembered my mother very well. What a small world!

I am amazed that my mother's student would remember her in 2013; she had passed away in June 2004. That's more than 8 years ago.

Salma's father and my father worked together as Mathematics lecturers at the RECSAM/Maktab Perguruan Pulau Pinang. Salma's father retired earlier. My father retired in 1986, on his 55th birthday.

Badariah Baba Ahmad's father and Prof Rabindarjeet Singh's father had also worked and taught at the RECSAM/Maktab. I can't recall what Prof Rabindarjeet Singh's father taught.

Badariah Baba Ahmad lives in Puchong. Badariah's father is Baba Ahmad bin Hamid Don. He had worked at Maktab Perguruan Persekutuan Pulau Pinang (MPPPP) from 1979 to 1992 (retired). He was an English Language lecturer. He taught English Literature. Arwah Baba Ahmad might have known arwah Bapak when they both worked at MPPPP. Baba Ahmad is Bapak's relative from Jelutong.