While rearranging the books in my library, out of nowhere, I found a piece of paper and it happens to be my resignation letter addressed to the then college dean Dr. Ahmed Al Ghassani. The letter is dated 25th December, 2016, Christmas day! With December 2024 this letter would be completing 8 years of its existence. This was that letter which helped me to decide to stay with my ailing father during his last years of existence on this planet earth!
Dr. Ahmed Al Ghassani played an important role in this decision and in my life. Without his help I could not have spent those few precious days with father. By the way, the reader may ask who is Dr. Ahmed Al Ghassani? In one word I can say he was the man sent by Allah to help me.
Dr Ahmed is a smart Omani National from Salalah. The wise magic of Salalah is in his personality. He rose from very humble beginnings. Schooling was completed at Salalah’s Al-Saida Secondary School. No one in his family or in his circle thought the he would grow to unassailable stature. He was brilliant in school and has strong desire to read more. In retrospect I feel that Dr Ahmed made a sincere attempt to understand and to seek knowledge. He has made seeking knowledge as his sacred duty. He understood as to why it has been made obligatory by Allah. “IQRA BIISMI RABBIKA ALLAZI KHALQ”. Read! In the name of your Lord who created all that exists.
Once understood, he stopped nowhere! He secured admissions on merit into the prestigious Sultan Qaboos University and went on to complete PhD in Construction Management at Loughborough University, UK. He held many public positions of repute such as the Dean at the Higher College of Technology (HCT), Dean College of Banking & Financial Studies (CBFS) and helped thousands of Omani Nationals and Expatriates to shape their future brilliantly. He is presently holding very distinguished position as the Chairman of Dhofar Municipality, Sultanate of Oman.
Dr. Ghassani is a linguist with an extraordinary love towards various languages. He speaks English language better than its native speaker! His English drafting skills are unparalleled. It is my good fortune to have spent few years of life working with him. Much water has flown under the bridge since I last met him 8 years ago. In fact, I did not even have the courtesy of writing an e-mail thanking him! This is unbelievable, but true.
I am not writing this piece to impress Dr. Ahmed, for he is a man who cannot be impressed easily, especially with something like this. This piece is an acknowledgement of his huge contribution in my life. This piece is evidence of the guilty feeling and guilty conscience that has been haunting me all these years. By writing this piece and including it my personal website that has a huge viewership I am unequivocally rendering an apology. Our parting was not good, the warmth in parting was missing. Through this egoless post and while rendering public apology, I pray for Dr. Ahmed and his family’s well-being, healthy life and prosperity. Thank you, Dr. Ahmed Al Ghassani for being a part of my life.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
