Thursday, July 9, 2009

Public manners...

Last evening, while I was stepping of out of a nearby supermarket, I saw a car with four foreigners. Two girls and two boys. After dropping the girls off, the car was about to start, I heard a noise and turned towards them. They were talking and laughing in a high pitch. So? Wait. Soon I saw one of the girls holding her sandal in her right hand and was trying to hit the boys with a loud laughter. Immediately she got everybody’s attention.

Embarrassed by the scene, I scanned through the people around the place. Almost everyone was either shocked or felt unease.

I could sense that they were having fun over something. Fine, it is good, but not to this level. Speaking aloud in public place like supermarket itself is considered as a bad manner in some culture. Nothing much to say about showing sandals. Showing sandals to anyone for that matter is an act of indecency. You are in a foreign land. You must behave well. Your actions speak for you, to some extent, for your culture and for your country too.

You don’t have to be Roman, be a human, please.

Good days ahead???

Good days ahead?

I am careless, very careless. My Dad, sisters, and some of my friends have been warning me many times about my scattered things all over the house. These days, Nandhu has joined them. But I was sure, very sure, that I will not lose anything. And I did not, until something happened to me two months ago.

It was a rainy afternoon. I was very hungry after my class. Since it was a cold weather, I thought of having soup for my lunch. So I decided to go home. I walked up to take my scooty; I changed my mind and wanted to walk. After few steps, I paused for a while. Something told me to take my bike, and so I turned back and walked towards my bike. But I changed my mind for the second time, ignoring that something, I walked home.

I could hardly see anyone on the road; it was past 1.00 in the afternoon. It was a cold and perfect weather for a walk. While walking I was preoccupied as usual, I hardly noticed two men in yellow jackets in a bike passed by me. In a fraction of second, I heard a bike approaching me from the back and I heard a male voice asking me something. I turned towards them to answer; in a wink of an eye, they grabbed my long chain and rode away. The rest was news. (It was on the Borneo post. Good for me, my name was not mentioned!) And for the next few days, that was the talk for my colleagues. It was not about the chain, it was about me; they couldn’t believe it happened to me. That’s all.

That was the very first time I lost something in front of my eyes.
Three weeks ago, one Saturday afternoon, we were having lunch in my room while watching a movie on the star. It was quite late, almost 4.00 in the evening. I received a call from my sister who is in India. The moment I heard her voice, I knew something was not right. The following Monday I left for India.

It was a Friday evening, ten days back; I was sitting in front of an ICU with my relatives in Chennai. I received a call from Kuching. Somebody broke into our house and into my room. That’s the real shock to me. We were careless in many things. But I, or we, never thought this would happen to US. Fortunately, nothing much of worth was lost except for some cash.

In a row, one after another, things happened to me in a short span of time. Once again, I became the talk for my colleagues. Some of my colleagues and friends were worried and concerned about me and said that this would be the end of my bad time, and perhaps it’s time for some good change. This evening while walking down to the lobby, I bumped into a fellow Indian who also echoed the very same.

There was conviction in their voice. And, I take this as a prophecy. After all, who doesn’t want a good change? Amen.