The case of three thank yous and a please

Scenario No. 1. A Malay boy slipped into a bookstore unnoticed. After a hurried rummage through the endless rows of reading material, he returned to the counter with a couple of revision books where a middle aged man greeted him with a smile and a thank you. The cashier quoted the price as the foreigner took out his Nike wallet and gave the man a few quids. "Thank you," said the cashier again. Several beeps from the cash machine later, he handed the boy some loose change and a third thank you was uttered as he beamed a wider smile instead of the usual good-bye.

Scenario No. 2. The Malay boy walked into a delicatessen one fine Saturday morning. "How can I help you, love?" the elderly lady behind the counter greeted her hungry teenage customer. The thought of calling someone you hardly ever met Love was still quite a strange concept to the boy even after a couple of months residing in this country. He asked for some jam doughnuts he knew would taste better than the ones sold elsewhere in packets of tens for 99p. "How many would you like, love?" she asked back, and the boy answered with a quick "Six". "Six, please," said the lady. Her reaction was met with a confused look on the boy's face, which was followed by a sheepish repetition of her exact words a split second later.

Lesson No. 1: Never underestimate thank yous - one is good enough but three is definitely memorable.
Lesson No. 2: Always end a request (in English) with a please, even if they don't teach you at (a Malaysian) school.

Unshockingly true, I had a bit of a culture shock when I first went to study in Wales and it's not all about 'sexual freedom'. We Malaysians always pride ourselves on being big on manners. Apparently my encounter of the Welsh kind made me think twice!

Jam doughnut - drool, drool, slurp..

A country without cinemas

Can you name one? I have been to two, can you believe it! One is smack at the western edge of the Sahara desert unimaginatively named Western Sahara, and the other is actually our neighbour (!), Timor-Leste.

As an ignorant citizen of an almost developed country who has no inkling about the everyday lives of people in less fanciful places, unassumingly stepping foot in one for the first time was an eye opening experience. Read all about it in the papers, or watch them all on the telly or Youtube, but the reality would still slap you in the face, with a lasting reddish impression nonetheless (ouch!).

Ouch!

The impression is the lesson on being thankful for what we have. God knows how long we may enjoy the niceties in life before something happens and takes 'em away. No broadband, no highways, no smartphones - not a big problem for our grandads I bet, but for us it could be hell, no?

I assure you that in 2012 at certain places on the globe, some women in labour still give birth under a makeshift tent in the middle of the desert, and poor people still have to pay good money for a pint or two of blood to transfuse a sick family member. Let alone watching a movie in a theatre 'coz there ain't no cinemas! Yes honey, it took me a week to download one measly movie in these countries...

We tend to forget the painful past easily, a prominent Malay leader once lamented. And did you notice in Sex and the City the movie, there was a part where a certain Miss I'm-A-Trisexual was reading The Secret on a beach? Well, that self-help book just went on and on about being thankful. Have you read it? Samantha sure has..

You can have the book but not the bag, honey!

Malays and antiques don't mix

"Woe! Woe is me!" I said as I flipped the pages of a local newspaper just last week when an article struck my wandering eyes. A certain century-old house of a certain local warrior has become the den for drug addicts, under the very nose of the local historical body nonetheless. That 'very nose' must have been blocked for some time so as to allow such unlawful doings I think.

It has been my observation that in my dear country Malaysia we have a lack of well preserved historical sites - and that's embarrassing. While our neighbours in South-east Asia have their Angkor Wat, Borobudur, and ancient palaces intact and lovingly restored (save Singapore and Brunei of course), we in Malaysia have practically nothing of international interest! Maybe one or two small palaces and a crumbling A Famosa if you ask me. Sad, full stop.

We tend favouring the shiny and new, shunning the ancient and traditional in the process. Even the use of Jawi (Arabic-inspired) writing is fading away fast - it takes a Korean scholar to remind us to preserve it! I can still read and write it as opposed to so many kids nowadays who blatantly cannot.

Indeed the old cultural stuff is the identity of the people who made them and the very magnet that draws hordes of tourists to your country. You don't need to build them from stone to make them last for hundreds of years as many wooden monuments in Indonesia may attest to. On the other hand, we do have a whole city made from scratch, the architecture of which drew inspiration borrowed from dubious sources all over the world!

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan - I'm made of wood!

A reminder for reconnection

It's a new day (in Timor-Leste)!

 According to the Chinese, this year is the year of the water dragon - whatever that means. According to me, it's the year of reconnection - reconnecting with old friends, reigniting the joy of past hobbies, reestablishing the roots that made me who I am today. It's quite easy to live life in the fast lane, enjoying the breezy ride and at the same time ignoring that bumpy road you've tread and left behind just a minute ago!

Mind you, it's not about living the past and lamenting upon things gone by. On the contrary, it's all about evolution and innovation - utilizing the past for betterment of thy future. As I used to say to myself, you can glance to your past but never go back there ever again! Oh well, have a brilliant year everyone..