USM, My Ithaca: "My Malaysia" Photo Series (10)

“Remembrance is a form of meeting.”  (Gibran)

Conferred certificates to the cadets of SUSKIS from Royal Commission. DTSP, USM.
Penang, 4 August 2019

Here we are, we have come to the end of this trip to Malaysia, through ten stories. The conclusion is necessarily dedicated to my University which has been my second home for a year and a half.  The reason, as I said before, was the making of the book for the University's 50th anniversary.

So, I wrote in the preface of the book:

The first time I met Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail was during Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia's 2017 book launching ceremony, where I presented a short slot on the theme “Photo Berbicara”, or how photographs can tell stories without words. She really enjoyed it and during lunch she proposed me to work on this book.

Having made the necessary arrangements, I arrived in June 2018 from Rome to live inside the University. We met again as soon as I arrived, and she told me that her desire was to see the human side of the University captured. “Humanities” was her word, and – after some alternatives – we chose to name the book: “Saying it from the heart: #usmstyle”.

From the first day I arrived, during the last days of Ramadan, I started walking in any direction, without direction; because Humanities does not have an address, is everywhere: elusive, contingent, it takes all forms, in front of our eyes but difficult to see.

Since then I have destroyed two pairs of shoes, lost five pounds in weight, visited the clinic several times, and taken more than 15,000 photographs. [...]

For me this is a book about the warmth of love, which can interest everyone, even those who have never entered the University.

Just flip over the first page and travel. And when you get to the last page you will know that Universiti Sains Malaysia has given you a humanly wonderful journey.

 

With Prof. Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail. 
Penang. 1 October 2019

With Puan Awatif and the newly printed book at Penerbit USM. 
Penang, 20 September 2019
 

The book was presented in September, in the presence of the King of Perlis, and to finish it I took almost 20,000 photographs, as many as Robert Frank took for his “The Americans”.

Telling my story in this place is impossible within the limits of a blog post, and like all love relationships it had its splendid moments and its dark undertow. You cannot please everyone, and on the great majority of the people who worked at the university and who loved me there were also those who did everything to send me away: “Pasar Bisik” is not only in Kuala Muda, but they are so small people who don't even deserve to be named.

I will always carry in my heart the strength and intelligence of the former Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail who wanted me with her until the end, and who believed in this book, and Puan Awatif with her staff of the Penerbit USM with which we made it, especially in the graphic studio, side by side for a year with Fitri and Ridhwan.

With Fitri while editing the book in the Penerbit USM graphic studio. 
Penang,12 April 2019

My third home, PPIK, the Humanities Faculty which is the equivalent of my faculty where I graduated in Rome: who would have imagined that one day I would speak about Wittgenstein in Malay in front of three hundred BM students, the Malay Language course.

“Siri Buongiorno 1- PPIK”. With students BM. Dewan Kuliah A, USM. 
Penang,2 March 2019

  

The lake, my tasik, the place I went through every day to return to my accommodation where foreign families of the PHD lived, in the “Aman Damai” area: my “citizenship” within USM.

It was an experience that physically tried me, walking a lot, and when sadness, anger, nostalgia devoured me inside I looked at the water of the lake in the evening, and many times I had the feeling that it called me to enter inside of it, to disappear.

The water, in psychoanalysis, has always represented the womb, the mother, and that mirror of the sky in the park reassured me, but it was also a temptation to give up everything, to let myself be carried away by the emotional fatigue in its backdrop. Luckily it was only a temptation, and every day – from here – I miss its poignant beauty.

Tasik USM (The Lake). 
Penang, June 2019

Tasik USM (The Lake) during the Convocation. 
Penang,26 October 2018

My mother's dream has always been to see me teach at university, and for that time she was happy, even if far away.

I have already talked about how much I love Cavafy’s Ithaca poetry, well, Malaysia, USM, for me they were my Ithaca, an incomplete Ithaca: it gave me the illusion of the journey, its richness, but on the shore of the island I never got there. The dream of a life in that country, of my book “Kampungku Malaysia”, of being able to still work in university, have not become reality. And to see the shore from far away without being able to set foot there is painful.

 

I, therefore, wanted to end this series dedicated to Malaysia with the very difficult choice of 20 photographs for two years of life in the USM. And, before I lock the door, say goodbye to my cat and load the suitcases on the car to go to the airport, I want to thank some people without whom my trip would have been in solitude, and who remind me every hour, every day every month that Malaysia is perhaps still waiting for me.

Thanks to Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail, Puan Awatif and Prof. Zubir, Niza, Odi, Wan, Noor, Siti Aishah, Rafidah, As, Rose, Prof. Zaidi, Sadia, Radia, Faridah J and Anis, Fadzilla IMCC, the whole group of the BM-PPIK course, especially the Malu-Apa-Boss-Ku's gang, Vithia, Azwan and Syuhada, the library staff, my security friends Kesalamatan, the Bangladeshi students with whom we shared many events.

The list goes on and on...

I leave you with the photographs and thanks again.

See you at Subaidah: roti channai for everyone!

 

When I arrived at the university in June, the courses had not yet started and the students were not present, so I spent the first few months getting to know the people who worked at the university, spending a lot of time in the nursery and with the Iqro classes of the Islamic Center. Because I have conceived the book as the story of a family, and the first brick of every family building are children.

Hadanah Pusat Islam. 
Penang, 17 July 2018

Kafa (Quran class). Penang,26 June 2018

Moment of tenderness in the Islamic Center. Penang,13 June 2018

I celebrated the two great Eid-ul-Fitri within the University.

Eid-ul-Fitri. USM Al-Malik Khalid Mosque. 
Penang, 5 June 2019

 

The life of the students was certainly the most exciting part for me, following their lives from the day of the Registrations, with the entry into their dormitory rooms, during the classes, the exams and finally the delivery of the degrees. Over two thousand students with their families in tow: I only remember the rain and the heat, each with the own pillow under the arm, the tears for the separation greetings. The same tears that made the adult students meet their parents again during the graduation.

“Alam terkembang jadi guru, setitik jadikan laut, sekepal jadikan gunung” (Nature spread before us as a teacher, a drop becomes a sea, a fistful becomes a mountain)

A newly registered student walks through the corridors of the dormitory in search of his new room. 
Penang,1 September 2018

Farewell greeting with the family. 
Penang,2 September 2018

Students return to their dormitories after the orientation days. 
Penang,3 September 2018

Moment of pause between one lesson and another.
Penang,10 October 2018

Azleena with her father during the Convocation Day.
 Penang,23 October 2018

Relax at the ex Caffè Richiamo. 
Penang,24 September 2018

During these two years I have attended the two institutional events that recall the contingents from all over Malaysia: the military PALAPES and the SUKSIS of the Police, in the presence of the King of Perlis and his son. They were really challenging, following the trial weeks preceding the final event.

Rehearsals for the final day of the 37th Royal Commissioning of Malaysia Public Universities' PALAPES Officers. 
Penang,12 August 2018

But certainly, the most touching moment was the farewell to her University of the former Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail, with everyone who came to her former office to give her the last farewell. Her retirement was also the end of my job at the university. I am proud to have known her.

Keselamatan University Security Corps Salute Committee to Former Deputy Chancellor Datuk Dr. Asma Ismail. 
Penang,3 October 2019

This was one of my last selfies, on the security van that was escorting the former VC, I want to remember in this way this long time...

Goodbye Datuk, sampai jumpa lagi! 
Penang, 3 October 2019

Stefano Romano: “Saying it from the heart: #usmstyle” (Penerbit USM, 2019)

Saying It From The Heart #usmstyle 
44.5 x 31.5 cm / Hard Cover and Soft Cover / 
Language: English / ISBN: 978-967-461-440-9 / 
USM Press, Malaysia, 2019

Italian version