masterwordsmith-unplugged

This morning, I had a wonderful time with a former Economics student whom I taught from 1989 to 1991. Szilard, a Hungarian, is now working for a Malaysian company in Warsaw after serving a two-year stint with the company in London. I blogged about his previous visit last year. With an engineering degree and a MBA, he is doing very well in that he has planned his career and business ventures with much foresight and wisdom. Earlier, Freddie had invited me for lunch so I buzzed him to ask if Szilard could also join us and of course Freddie agreed.



Amazingly, he had only learnt English for less than two year before he joined my Economics class. I was glowing with pride when he confessed that much of the micro and macro Economics theory and principles I taught him put him in good stead during his postgraduate years.

Szilard took a bus to Penang and reached Penang past midnight. I tried to look for his hotel this morning and stupidly forgot that there are two sections of Chulia Street and remembered only after zooming up and down the street so I was late by 30 minutes!!! Honestly, I hate to go out and am such a recluse and blog addict. The only time I get to wander around is when my relatives, friends or former students from overseas are in town or if buddies like Freddie, Philip or Murali invite me out.

Anyway, it was indeed a role reversal process that I went through this morning for this time, I was the student, and Szilard the teacher :-) and the lessons I learnt from him are just so precious.

He asked me so many thought-provoking questions such as :

* Why is it so difficult to find a girl who wants to settle down, get married and have a family? It is far too easy to find Barbie type girls who may or may not be intelligent but to find one who is a fine young lady, intelligent with healthy family values would be a formidable task in today's society.
* Is there any point in earning millions when one has lost his human side? He observed that bank accounts seem to be the motivating force in one's career but argued that it should be pursued only to a limit which is the point that is sufficient for a comfortable life - as there can be no end to a blooming account.
* Why do many read MSM and feed themselves on lies? He was not talking about Malaysian MSM but international MSM. Nothing beats first hand observation and cross-referencing by doing more research. When one is fed with financial fallacies by certain international media, the pursuit of wealth takes precedence over the most important institution of society- the family!!!
* What is the difference between communism and globalization? He opined that it is only a difference in the terminology for throughout history, there has not been that many differences in the way society has organized itself, if we care to look closely enough.

Having lived in Malaysia for five years, Szilard believed that whilst things may not be as rosy as what many of us hope, the level of corruption is not as bad as in Hungary where the very people elected to office sold out the country and retarded its growth for far too long.

For instance, sugar beet was sold at dirt cheap prices to neighbouring nations who processed it and sold it back to Hungarians at very high prices.

Then he gave me a brief lecture about how the role of foreign firms in money markets etc. and the what if's wrt EU and what lies ahead. I could go on and on about the many issues that we discussed together with Freddie, my dear friend and supplier of jokes and other interesting stuff. Suffice to say that Szilard is one of the brightest students that I have ever taught. Most of those in his cohort of my Econs students are very successful, one of whom is even listed in Wikipedia. But what touched my heart is that he made the effort to take a bus to Penang, have lunch and dessert with me and then caught another bus to Ipoh to see another college friend before making his way back to KL to see Alma.

I strongly believe that Szilard is who he is today - a mature, self-made man who is not into materialism but into self-reliance and strategic planning - because of his fantastic family. His grandfather was killed by the communists and his parents and grandmother did brilliantly in bringing up Szilard and his sister, Alma, to be such wholesome and responsible adults.

Thanks Szilard, for taking the trouble to visit me in Penang and thanks Freddie for the fantastic lunch! This is indeed the long term dividend of teaching - the friendship that goes beyond the classroom and how despite the decades, they have not forgotten me or my homework LOL!!

Have a wonderful day everyone. Next sopo post will be up later. Cheers!