Unplanned reunion

Yesterday, amidst the relocating exercise at the office, I attended a meeting at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Shah Alam. For the past couple of years, I have been a member of the university's research ethics committee. All research proposals involving human subjects must get the green light from this committee before they can proceed.

In any case, that is not exactly what I want to blog on. Yesterday's meeting was an unplanned reunion when I bumped into an old friend whom I haven't seen since 1996. He was my senior in Glasgow, and was one of the first Malaysians I met there. In fact, we lived in the same neighbourhood for a few years. So it was kind of nice to have bumped into him in a rather somewhat awkward circumstance.

He did medicine at the University of Glasgow, and even after he graduated, he remained there. He only returned home a few years ago, and he joined UiTM's Faculty of Medicine. He is now one of the academics there and also a specialist in respiratory diseases.

In any case, I have come across his name in previous research proposals. As his name was somewhat unique (and almost similar to mine), I suspected that this was the same person I knew. Unfortunately, whenever the research proposals were presented in front of the research ethics committee, he wasn't there - simply because he was not the research team leader.

But yesterday was different. This was his own research that he initiated, and he had to present the proposal himself - which he did very well, and defended successfully.

Yesterday's chance encounter was very nostalgic. We managed to catch up with our latest developments in the short time that we had. It was interesting to know that he had noted my name as a member of the research ethics committee, but unfortunately none of us was able to meet up before this.

It is encounters like this that makes me feel very nostalgic about old times. I really cannot believe that I have left Glasgow for 12 years now. Has it really been that long? Wow!