He was our neighbour, who lived across the street in the first house I lived in. His family, took care of me and my brothers from time to time and we came to his house as and when, as and when children do.

Little is the memory I have at his house. Except for flashes of which came during our visits there and gatherings after, when the adults spoke very fondly of those years back when. We don’t meet often over the years, but the encounters were always merry.

Some years ago at a wedding, sitting at a table of eight, he was the first to take a plate and scoop the rice from the lazy susan, as everyone noted and observed. Naturally, him being the oldest at the table, it was not uncustomary for him the start the first plate.

Without announcement, he passed the plate to my mother, and then to just about everyone else, before doing the same for himself. My mother point it out and I clearly remember this was my first memory of observing a gentlemen.

When I greeted him at the hospital yesterday, he was weak and could barely speak. The oxygen mask made him less audible. I shook his hand and leaned over to kiss it, as always. He lifts his other hand, placed it on my head, and pulled me down to kiss me.

He passed away an hour ago.

Sometime last October I was asked to speak at Youth ’09 event about RA. The talk was in mid Jan, and I had to turn it down because of my trip.

Two nights ago I got a call from a relative asking me if I was interested in speaking to a group of approximately 13 eighteen year-old’s who recently graduated from high school.High achievers from every state in the country, all gathered for a two week camp.

There were 50 of them, and four speakers. The group will be split into four and the following day, each group will present to everyone else what they discussed about with the speaker that was allocated to them. The angle of the talk were that all four speakers have done or were doing things that did not thread within the norm, or something that is not related to their tertiary training.

Little did I know I’d be up till 4am, editing the video for Corntoz Pillow Fight, and had to be up at 7.30 to get ready for the talk in KL. Nobody noted my lack of appearance except the three speakers who said they wished they could go to work in jeans, as I did.

I think I poorly structured my session and it lacked specific direction. I went from telling them a good heart is better than a good brain, to what is good over there does not make it bad here as there’s always two sides of the coin. Then from you are no better than a person who is less capable, to if you are in the position to do good, do it and don’t cop out.

At the end I emphasised a few things.

1. Always note value, and not price (Wilde).
2. Be the change you want to see in the world, not talk about it (Ghandi).
3. Don’t underestimate the power of God, the wisdom of your parents and the importance of knowledge (HD).

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*Thank you Shafiq & Ayaz for the invitation, Suheilmy and colleagues for your assistance, and to all the participants.