Every one of us here will come to a point when he or she has to leave this lovable place, in one way or another, happily or sadly, and began the next phase of life, most probably the final phase, and away from this place. All those that we farewell today are indeed very lucky because they are leaving this place in peace and each in one piece. A few of them are actually luckier than the others because they do not practically retire. They are re-employed to be re-retired later. Some of us in the past, we knew that, had left us and left this place, not in such a lucky state.

When they leave, there appears to be only one thing we all would do: remember them. And we have no doubt that reciprocally they will remember us too, perhaps with wonders such as whether so and so has retired or not, and on and on. And when remembering them, each of us will remember everyone of them differently. I could not say how this school will remember them, because the school does not have a memory. However, the school's staff, both academic and support, do; but I am just a mere one of them. From this point thus, I am speaking for myself, and I am sure that, every one else would say something differently.

What have been said by Mr Chairman, and others too previously, I copy verbatim and paste here. I do not disagree any of them. But, however different they are from me, we were almost together in the pioneer batch of the UKM chemistry from mid 1970. I thus feel very strongly that I am more with them on to leave rather than with you the left one.

But this is not how I am going to remember Dr Sri. I first came in contact with her in Oct 1976 when I returned from England, although previously I have heard about her from Dr Jamjam (the then Head of Chemistry Department). And when I reported for duty at that time, the only vacant room available was half of the room she had already occupied. And I was sort of destined to share a room with her. And we shared the room on the second floor of the wooden block in Sect 16, PJ (where the Chemistry was). I think that Dr Sri was a perfect mate (LOL). Throughout the tennure (and sometimes more later in Pantai Baru) Dr Sri never quarreled with me. One day in 1977, I wrote a letter to Malaysia Milk Sdn Bhd, complaining the Bahasa Melayu they were using in the advert of their product. The company responded with the delivery of two racks of their milk product. And we shared them. A few times I have to hike in her Renault 5 (because I did not have a car) since she stayed in SS21 and I stayed in SS22, or half way to the bus stand. Then in mid 1977, I was rather sad when my wife had to be admitted for a miscarriage. She shared my sorrow by visiting my wife.

When Chem Dept moved to Pantai Baru in 1978 (in the uphill bungalow), somehow, there was a room that needed to be shared. And since Dr Sri and I have the experience of sharing a room, it was not unreasonable for the Dept to ask us to continue sharing the room in the new premise. The premise was actually a residential bungalow, used to be boarded by the College principal. And the room we were sharing was actually the master bedroom of the bungalow. Dr Sri and I were sharing the master bedroom (LOL), until she took off sometimes in Sep 1978 to England to furnish herself with a doctorate.

Then one day in mid 1979, I recieved a letter from London. It was from Dr Sri. My hand was shaking and trembling when opening the letter (LOL). You know, you recieve a letter from your former roommate who is eight thousands kilometers away. You were thinking that may be she needed help, or may be she was in trouble, or she was simply ... lonely ... (LOL). When I opened it and read it, aargh!, what a relief, that Dr Sri was merely asking me to remind a person who kept on deffering his promise to ship the samples she badly needed to commence her experimentals. Ladies and gentleman, that is how I want to remember Dr Sri. She was my roommate.

I think we will not find a person like Dr Nik again in our own life time; in his sincerity, openness, humbleness, receptive in both academic life and personal relationships with his colleagues. Being the most inactive member of the staff in this school, I still could verify those qualities from my experience in working with him in APCCS1 in 1994 and UKM-ITB5 in 2002.

This included the brief time in Section 16, then we moved to Pantai Bharu. Then he was the head of Matriculation Unit of UKM. Whenever he needed a companion to visit the Matriculation centres, he first thought of me, and I always prepared for it, and we went together. Then he was the head of chemistry department, through to the time I left for my doctorate. When I returned, he did not forget at all about myself, and we even got better. And perhaps it was because we are neighbours on the second floor. Even though we were separated by a wall, I almost knew whether he is in his office or not. I even could sense his conversation on the phone. Well, he had his own path, but we are always neighbours, and there is always the thick concrete wall separated us.

Then he was the head of the deprtment. One day I thought of buying him a dinner, because he let me used his membership of ACS to subscribe the J. Agric. Food Chem. So noting that he was an American graduate, he agreed that I took him for a western dinner; and it was in a Grill in Section 16. Then I think he went to become the principal of UKM Sabah, and I left for England. When I returned, he went for sebbatical. When he returned he became the head of the Department again, then the deputy dean, then the dean, then the dean again and again; keep on shooting to the star in the chancellory. I thought that he would keep on shooting into the distant galaxy. I never thought that he turned out to be a comet, you know, returning to the sun after a long distant eliptical orbit. And more then to it, he became a meteorite, falling back to the earth where he began to gain the momentum to shoot into the cosmos. Well, he is actually very much a chemist; he belonged to the chemistry, like all of us here.

My closer encounter with Prof Salam was in 1993 Dec, in Allson Klana, Seremban, when most of us were there to show what we had done to the IRPA money. At the end of the show he had no where to throw away his burgers. He gave it to me; I took it home, fried it, and ate them with my family. Perhaps that was the only time I could consider Prof Salam bought me a dinner; but he had no reason whatsoever to do so by the way.

Then we were colleagues when FST was formed in 1999 July.

I had a moment when I was very afraid and scared of Prof Salam. Very, very scare indeed. It was in year 2000. I was afraid and scared that Prof Salam knew that one of his Hons student was my daughter. I could not fathom what would Prof Salam be thinking of her, not of me, when he knew that she was my daughter; knowing that Prof Salam, reciprocally, only faintly knew myself. I was thinking that she was a bona fide student.

I was wrong actually, it was just my fear, not a just feeling. It was actually the opposite outcome when eventually Prof Salam knew that my daughter was his hons student. To complement the kindness of Prof Salam to my daughter, I was thinking that perhaps Prof Salam was delighted, when he finally knew, to have my daughter as his student because if the worst turn out the thing he could ask me to help him to correct the writing of my daughter's thesis; because he knew that I could not refuse it. To cut the story short, my daughter attended her bachelor degree conferrement in 2001 July. She also attended the degree conferrement in 2003 July for her master degree, out of a thesis also supervised by Prof Salam. My daughter and I will remember that.

By the time you eventually settle down, you would find that your old teachers are no longer around, or no longer "functioning" (LOL). But please do remember us. In Malay traditional culture (and I believe in other great civilisation cultures too), the pupil-teacher relationship is a translation of sibling-parent relationship.

I came to know her since I was a student in UKM Chemistry in 1971 June. She was not my lecturer, she was the lab assistant. I graduated out of the courses the practical work of which were carried out in the laboratories, in one of which Aishah was the lab assistant. She showed to me where the test tubes and the flasks were kept in the laboratory. And she showed to me the ways around in the laboratory. She washed the test tubes and the flasks I soiled in the practical works. She cleaned the floor when I broke the glasses. She prepared the solutions for us to use. Without her assistant, works my lecturer asked to accomplish would not be accomplished; and I would not graduate.

Comes to think of it, who do we remember showing us the ways when we are new in a place? I am thinking about my friends. Who do we remember showing us things which we are looking for? Like when we are looking for our toys when we were a kiddy? In my case, I was thinking about my brothers and my sisters. Who do we remember preparing something that we wanted to consume? Who do we remember cleaning the things that we dirted on? In my case, I was thinking my mother and my father, and my mother's and father's brothers and sisters. Aishah was short of being my mother, or my mother's sisters, or my elder sisters, because she never gave me any money, and because she never fed me any food. Devoid of that short, Aishah is. Ladies and gentlmen, that is how I want to remember Aishah.

Mr chairman, I thanked you very much again for giving me this opporturnity to pay my tribute to our colleagues and our seniors. May we all remember them always.