Then I got another mail from ARENA Co-Chairs Kinhide Mushakoji and Jung-ok Lee forwarded by Francis inquiring whether I would be able to come to Korea for the position of Co-Director of MAINS for two quarters. They rather provoked me by saying, “It would be delightful if you would be able to engage in this very challenging project, by which we believe ARENA will be able to foster new grounds for its development and connections in Asia.” On 28 December I replied that I had tentatively accepted the offer but wanted to discuss in details when we would meet in the AEB meeting scheduled in January.

The AEB in its meeting on 5 January endorsed the decision to have me as Co-Director of MAINS for the spring and the summer quarters of 2007. We had an introductory meeting with SKHU-based Fellows-cum-faculty.

ARENA so far had been running a program on “regional school” with “flying faculty”. The program was first conceived and outlined in the Seoul Congress in 1996. I have not found any documentation based on experiences and lessons learned from the program in ARENA library. But I heard that it has been able to stimulate a lot of enthusiasm among the participants. In my opinion, MAINS is a step forward and indeed an opportunity to mainstream the program in Asian universities where we can help develop a new generation of young “public intellectuals”. When we started ARENA in the 1980s, the world was different. Many of us were fresh from movements or still in movements. Since then, the world has changed significantly and we now need a new vision, new concepts and new activism. Through MAINS, ARENA may be able to build a new constituency of youth and transform itself to prepare for the task of the time.

Meanwhile a batch of 12 students was selected by SKHU from 37 applicants. Amongst the selected are two each from Korea and Bangladesh and one each from India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Mongolia. A very diverse group indeed (see photo of Mohi with 10 students; two Koreans are missing). The program was kicked off on 23 February at SKHU with guest speakers including Kinhide Mushakoji and Walden Bello. I missed it. I also missed the introductory class because of delay in visa processing. Francis managed it on my behalf. Finally I arrived Seoul on 7 March. This has been my fifth visit to Seoul since the ARENA Congress in 1996, but a visit with a difference. A new journey began for me, as well as for ARENA.

                 
I had a courtesy call to Rev. Dr. Soung Soo Kim, the President of SKHU. We met before during the MOU signing ceremony between ARENA and SKHU in March 2006, when we exchanged documents of deed in a formal way. At that time we also planted a pine tree in the SKHU campus wishing that ARENA would grow in Seoul together with this tree. This time I was wearing a coat. The President smiled to me and told, “You better use this jacket in the campus and wear the coat outside.” He then picked up a Jacket from the hanger, which he might have been using and gave it to me. It was a dark blue jacket with SKHU name on the chest and the size was quite ok for me. It was warm, but the gesture of the President was warmer.

In my first encounter with the students, I started feeling at home. Among them are five girls and seven boys. Two Koreans and the Burmese with a ‘refugee’ status in Korea have their own accommodations. For the others, the SKHU rented two apartments, one for the boys and the other for the girls. In my first class, I tried to introduce some norms and procedures. Accordingly, the students elected one group leader (to liaise with the faculty and the administration on academic and logistics matters) and one cultural leader.

March 17 was a big day. All the students, faculty, ARENA staff and volunteers assembled at the girls’ apartment in the evening. We had dinner together and lots of fun. We started feeling like a family. Songs and dances reflected rich cultural diversity of our region. Everybody wished that it was just a beginning and more parties like this would follow.

I was accommodated temporarily in a guest room inside the campus. I had to go to the adjoining building for shower. The only difficulty was that there was no hot water in the weekend. From the window of the guest room, I could see the ARENA office. I frequently visit it. Francis and Jiyoung are fulltime. However, they already accumulated a pool of volunteers. I see them working in late hours in the evening, even up to 10 o’ clock. I don’t hear any complaint or even any mention about ‘extra hours’ of work unlike the period we had passed through.

The first meeting of the MAINS faculty was held on 22 March. Some planning issues were discussed. Among the two Co-Directors, Prof. Young-Jong Jin will look after mainly administrative and logistics matters and academic aspects are my responsibility. We have decided to hold faculty meeting every Thursday that would include other faculty members, namely Prof. Song-woo Hur and Hee-yeon Cho (both are ARENA Fellows) and Francis Lee. There will be an extended meeting on first Thursday of each month.

I take meals at the SKHU cafeteria on the week days. After lunch, sometimes Francis, Jiyoung and I go for a walk up to the mountain. This involves some physical exercise, though Jiyoung walks very slow and so also we.

I have been allocated an office room, which had been used by Prof. Oh Jae Shik, Dean of the NGO faculty. He is not using the room at the moment. He has set up the Asia Institute with an aim to teach Koreans to be ‘Asians’.

Meanwhile, I have been taken good care of by friends. Prof. Seejae Lee of the Catholic University of Korea and an Arena Fellow gave me a pleasant surprise by receiving me at the airport and taking me to the university in his brand new car. He also invited me for a dinner at his apartment from where I could touch the sky. He also helped me to move to my apartment with my luggage and lend me a cable to connect my laptop computer with the socket. Oh Jae Shik came one evening and I had a dinner with him together with few other faculty members.

I am now teaching a core subject on Globalization and Social Movements. I had to hurriedly pick up reference materials I had access to and brought all these from Bangladesh. I collected few more from ARENA library. Here at SKHU, I compiled all relevant materials and copied in the form of a book so that students have one copy each. Together with Prof. Jin Young Jong, I am taking a supplementary class on Life Experience Workshop where each student narrates her/his own stories. They have many interesting tales to tell, about their upbringing campus life, work experience, social movement experience, struggles in personal life and so on.

Students are also attending two elective subjects in the spring quarter, namely Korean Society and its Culture taught by Prof. Hee-yeon Cho and Women’s Movements and Feminism in Asia, taught by Prof. Song-woo Hur.

I spend part of the first weekend in Seoul with Lee Jung-ok and Francis, having lunch on Saturday, 10 March, in a downtown Italian restaurant. We exchanged words about how to make our MAINS venture a success.

On 13 March, Naoko Shimamura from International House of Japan visited ACIS. The International House of Japan and Japan Foundation have been running the Asia Leadership Fellow Program (ALFP) since 1996. I attended the program in 2006 autumn together with seven other participants. Among them was also ARENA Fellow from Korea Lee Seejae. In the evening I joined a dinner with Korean ALFP alumni and met another ARENA Fellow Park Won-Soon. I also met Dr. Jeong Soon Ryu, President of Korea Research & Consulting Institute on Poverty. She is known by a short name June. In the following week, I was surprised by an email from her inquiring about my accommodation in Seoul. “Do you pay rent in Korea? I have a 2-bedroom apartment in Munsan Eup, Paju city, where you can stay free.” I was overwhelmed by her gesture. I just met her once and now on I don’t like to perceive myself as ‘alien’. I replied to her that SKHU has taken care of my accommodation.

On 17 March I joined an anti-war demonstration together with ARENA staff and MAINS students in front of Seoul station and. Francis and Jim (he loves to be called as a friend of ARENA) were translating speeches for us. Then we walked through the streets for about an hour carrying placards. We were cordoned by a heavy police contingent.

On 19 March, I moved to a two-bedroom apartment that had been rented for me and other ARENA Fellows who are expected to come time to time. Francis helped me to settle down. He took me to a supermarket to buy few essentials and he made a wooden pad for the kitchen. Hyeji, the staff working for the MAINS program, has also been very helpful. She volunteered to take me to another shop to buy few more things and provided me all necessary stationeries. She also helped me to open a bank account and to undergo “alien registration”.

On 20 March I attended program meeting at ACIS. During my stay in Seoul, I intend to participate in ACIS activities as and when necessary.

On 25 March, I went to Eteawon with one of my students to find a shop that sells South Asian stuff. I bought some rice, lentils and spices. I intend to cook in the weekends.

26 March was 36^th Independence Day anniversary of Bangladesh. Still that day of 1971 is fresh in my memory, as I together with my brothers and father had to escape from our house amidst shower of bullets fired by the enemy troops. Our house was looted and burnt down. And then I joined the armed resistance movement against the Pakistani occupation army. This year, the anniversary celebration was coupled with Bangladesh’s victory over India in the World Cup cricket being staged in the Caribbean. Seejae Lee came to my office and took me and Francis to a resort-restaurant where we had a nice dinner with ori sutpal guyi.

On 29 March, I attended a MoU signing ceremony between SKHU and Hyundai. Hyundai has agreed to fund SKHU to cover some costs of running the MAINS course. We had our second faculty meeting on the same day where we discussed how to plan selection of students for the coming year.

On 30 March, I finally received a certificate of “alien registration” from Seoul Immigration with multiple re-entry visa. On 31 March, I managed to phone Samuel Lee, a veteran ARENA Fellow whom I know since our Bali Congress in 1986. Now I can say, I am ‘connected’ with almost all Fellows in Korea.