COINCIDENTAL ENCOUNTER WITH A HUMBLE CROWN PRINCESS

I must record this, for it reflects how pleasant and surprising humbleness is.

On my Penang-Kuala Lumpur flight yesterday evening, a lady - the last passenger of the flight - came to sit beside my seat on the first row. At first sight, my heart quietly told me that she must be somebody, may be a lecturer, may be an executive, or may be one with a high position. We have quite a conversation, from questions on where she comes from, where to go, where she works, the book she was holding and later on reading (something on the heart and entrepreneurship), her studies (in Australia and currently a part-time graduate student in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), et cetera.

All along the discussion, I could not trace even a bit of her real identity. She portrayed herself as a common person, hailing from Kelantan and now living in the North of Malaysia, trying to start learning about entrepreneurship, working with a private Medical University, becoming a graduate student at the School of Social Sciences in USM, leaving her husband (who "works" closely with a University in the North) and children for few days to meet the wife of the owner of the Medical University, practising drinking just plain water and seldom taking peanuts, and others.

I came to know who really she was only when I stepped out of the plane at KLIA. I was surprised to see many policemen waiting at the door of the plane. One of them told me that they were waiting for the wife of a Crown Prince of a state in the North of Malaysia. And that Crown Princess was the humble lady who were conversing with me on the air! She is "working" with the private Medical University as its Chancellor, while her husband is "working" closely with a public University in the North, also as the Chancellor of the University.

How pleasant chatting with a humble royalty without knowing her identity, and how surprise to know who she really was later on from somebody else. I feel ashamed of myself - of my still uncontrolled pride and ego. I wish all of us at ISDEV would possess humbleness such as of  the Crown Princess, InshaAllah.