About Myself

Know thyself. I think that is a very difficult thing to do because it is natural to be defensive about oneself. There are two personalities of me, the formal and the good old me:

About Myself

About My Real Self

About Myself

First the boring part:

I made it with a diploma in town and country planning from MARA Institute of Technology, Shah Alam in 1978 and went off to pursue my studies through a sandwich course at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, England because at that time, the advance planning course had not yet been recognised by the Public Service Commission/Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam. To the shock of some of my lecturers, I managed to graduate in 1980 leaving fond memories of having stayed all the while with a mix family of Bangladesh husband and English housewife background. Presently, I am a town planner attached to the Federal Department of Town and Country Planning and have been with ever since but I have been transferred here and there on government service. I have been involved in the preparation of Development Plans i.e. structure plans and local plans and had the short but golden opportunity to serve as a development control officer at Selangor State Town and Country Planning Department. I feel that's where one learns the most about the the mechanism and realities of town planning.

Some facts of life I never did believe in but now after all these years I can safely say that if you want to climb the corporate ladder, say "yes" to everything. I am dismayed but It actually does work and you will go places. The question is whether you value your self-integrity. I am notoriously outspoken and I believe in peace of mind so I think that answers which boat I'm in.

On the domestic side, I got married comparatively late in life at 35 because I didn't know [sounds odd] when I should settle down [Was there a dateline?]. I had a cue sera-sera [what will be, will be] attitude about life but I'm now happily married to a loving, ambitious wife with 2 brats running around loose in the house, the third has already docked in inner space due in August.

About My Real Self

Now the interesting part:

Without being bias, I think the best person who summarised me was a friend of mine who had an keen interest in numerology, the science of numbers. Before he retired, he wrote the following remarks based on my birthday:

	You will have unconventional and eccentric qualities.
	You will have a very sensitive disposition;
	You are likely to meet a considerable amount of sorrows and afflictions in the earliest part of your life - difficulties with your relations, home life and relatives by marriage;
	You will be original in your ideas and more or less unconventional in your views;
	You will be very independent in action and inclined to attract criticism in all you do.
	You must not expect too much gratitude for the good that you will do;
	You should try to express your "soul nature" in art, literature and music or in making purchases of antiques, paintings, etc.;
	You will have visions, dreams and presentiments and keen intuition about people and things;
	You should avoid rash speculation of all kinds;
	Your friends will be out of the ordinary;
	You will like very few persons and your desire will be to keep to yourself as much as possible;
	You will have a very earnest but hidden learning towards the investigation of unusual phenomena and psychical research. On account of your sensitive, retiring disposition you will conceal your own experiences from the world at large.

I don't know much about numerology but the funny thing is that most of what he wrote about me, even the weird ones are true.