Hazia’s Reflections

When I was asked to look into engaging a local university for our re-branding initiative, I thought it would be a nightmare. Academicians only see within the four walls of the classroom, or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when I met the 2 lead persons from the design faculty. They were in a better position to advise us as compared to certain advertising agencies. My, what a ‘katak bawah tempurung’ I had been. LOL!

I was getting amazed by how much our local universities has evolved - but apparently, that was the case. LOL! I met up again with the no 2 2 days ago. He said both of them were the ‘odd’ one out. They didn’t follow the usual system where one becomes a lecturer right after graduation and moves upwards. They were from the outside world.

He himself did his degree in New York and his masters in UK. Imagine the contrast and vast exposure. He did consulting work abroad too. He even married an American woman but parted ways, his daughter followed him back. She is of legal age and is staying on her own though.

He said I would enjoy furthering my studies in the UK because reading is a culture. Oh, I told him about my upcoming book, asked if he could design the cover. He said he had done this kind of job pro-bono, he’d do it himself. He likes getting his hands dirty once in a while.

We talked for 2 hours, practically about everything. This was the kind of conversation that I really enjoyed, but don’t seem to be experiencing much off lately.

He shared his experience of promoting their education program in Yemen. He said the country was mountaineous, not the typical desert one would imagine. Male and female students were separated in class, not the MRSM style of gender separation, but rather split level totally. Teachers were assigned according to genders too, except expats like him. Girls wear veils, but remove them during lessons. He would inform me if they require visiting lecturer in my field, hehe… Next, he was off to the tamed jungle to do a research for a new project - nature-inspired design. Interesting.

Well, if he got appointed as our project leader, I think I’d go ahead with it. Especially since the advertising agencies that we have approached were behaving like ‘clowns’. Being pro-active is one thing, over doing is another. One of them had been bothering my staff like everyday, coming to measure the centre, taking photos, checking the premise, etc while another one has been harassing me like mad too.