Anyway I went out today and met a friend of mine, Ixa. I'm not one who shares what he ate and did but I'd like to write this up since I just used the public transport in KL after almost two years time.
Was quite surprised when I bought a monorel ticket from Raja Chulan to Medan Tuanku(RM 1.20) and was given a blue token. I knew it was a token but I had no idea what it was for. I asked the cashier and her face was like,"whatt? u never seen a token?"
Honestly I thought i had to cash the token with a machine nearby to get a ticket. watanub, aite?
but come on guys, in my defence, there was no country that I've been to that uses a token for the metro. funfair ada la pakai token.
well anyway, later I went for another trip and had to buy a ticket from machines. i was in a hurry and the silly machine didn't accept my ten ringgit when suddenly an african man came and said, "one ringgit twenty cent. one ringgit twenty cent?"
I said,"dude I can't even buy my ticket," and went to the counter for ten ringgit change. I directly went back to the machine to buy my ticket with the ten one-ringgit notes, while avoiding the african man. I quickly went to platform 4 (to Sri Petaling).
As I waited for the train, I saw the african man coming down towards the opposite platform and as he saw me, he looked at me with a hard stare.
I then felt guilty that I had not helped the man. Who knows if he was in a hurry? Who knows if he had an accident and lost his money and urgently needed to get back. And on retrospect it seems very stingy of me to even not help a person for only a few ringgit.
What's more, it hurts my conscience that I was once an auslander, a foreigner, someone who often needed help but just as soon as I had felt homely in Malaysia, I forgot the feeling of helplessness and begins to become so suspicious that I distance myself from helping people. I used to silently condemn people who are unfriendly and sometimes plain hostile to us Asians while in Europe, but it seems that it's harder to be just when you 'have' the upper hand.
So what do u think? Should I stop feeling guilty, or should I not?
thank you for reading.
WHAT A JERK!
ReplyDeleteHehe.
I feel you, on the adjusting part the first few months back in Malaysia for good.
On having the upper hand being a Malay in MALAYsia, it sucks sometimes having to deal with these conscience being an auslander ourselves once. An auslander of the lowest rank pulak tu hahaha demmit Wiliiam Hung.
A story to share: I was having lunch with my mom, the shop just opened so not all the tables had been set up. Aside from us, there was two ladies eating a table nearby. An African guy walked in, ambil nasi campur, duduk dekat meja yang ada dua orang gadis tu as it was the nearest. The girls, almost immediately, stood up, even though they havent finished eating, paid and left!
I mean, what?? I was imagining me being in the guy's shoes while in Europe, it must have hurt..I contemplated with my mom on asking the guy to join us but was afraid if it was too much.
In the end we didn't invite him.
Point is, ...I don't have any actually. Perhaps our conscious choice at a given moment may lead us to get to know ourselves better, and in turn, better ourselves in the future?
ahaha, mesti syok kan bleh kata aku jerk.
ReplyDeleteyep, nice story Jeranub. mcm over sgt bangun dr meja makan, tapi aku bleh byg dan percaya benda tu jadi. tp klau aku mcm hg, aku pon ragu2 jgk nk ajak/pujuk mamat tu, walaupon aku laki. tmbh lg la hampa perempuan. susah kan nk buat tindakan yg betoi.
but that's life, right? never easy to make decision.
it may suck sometimes but I'm glad there's thst little guy called conscience and iman.
aku pernah gak tlis psai ni dlu.wahahah sama mcm aku rasa masa 1st time naik lrt kat kl after lamaaaa xpnah naik.jakun wehh peghak gila aku kena guna token ..maju dah msia negara lain pun xpakai token hahahah
ReplyDeleteby the way,WELCOME BACK TO TANAH TUMPAH DARAH TERCINTA!
aku rasa aku pernah baca hg punya post tu. tp msia maju sungguh cuma kawan aku ckp negara turki guna token gk.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the welcome iBTISAM!
nnt bla2 nak jumpa la hampa dua.