Give it up, people!

Dear blog,

I believe it’s been a while since I’ve actually started to indulge myself in the joy of writing a blog. Yes, it’s been a while. Frankly, I thought I have lost it when it comes to penning down my thoughts and idea and later convert these observations of mine into understandable words for laymen like me. Just when I was quite agitated by the fact that I have practically nothing to say, something that happened prompted me into typing it down.

Dear blog,

What I am going to tell you later might not struck you as something noteworthy and worthwhile; yet, I feel that that incident that I saw with my very own eyes ought to be expressed using my words, through my way of saying it.

Dear blog,

It all started when I was on the way to KL Central from Imbi via the monorail. I wasn’t travelling alone since my father who happened to have plans of his one visited me during a very hot Saturday morning. Crowded, crammed and shaky would be the words found fitting to describe our local public transport and the same situation is unfortunately pervasive everywhere in KL. The term “a can of sardines” is somewhat a cliché expression that might be apt to describe the condition of the monorail my father and I boarded. In fact, I felt the law of motion is at work when I felt my pushed into the compartment by the force exerted by restless passengers behind me. I could barely feel my hands that were squeezed by passengers who were trying to make their way into the nearly full compartment.

It was then that I stand witness to something that struck as an anomaly in the increasingly inhuman life of fellow city dwellers. A young man, presumably in his early twenties(give or take a couple of years), with a medium sized bag positioned on his lap, tried to get up from his seat and made polite gestures instructing my father to take! With a delightful expression that I knew so well since I was a child, my father just shook his head and smiled at the young man. Understood the polite gesture addressed to him, the young man retreated back into his seat and resuming the vacant look that he had before.

When I jokingly asked my father about his refusal to sit at a seat offered to him, my father just said:
“It’s very rare to see a young fellow giving up his seat for an old geezer like me. I’m happy at the thought and decided not to take it because the young man definitely deserves it!” my father chuckled and continued to joke about his grey hairs and old age diseases.

Frankly, I found the experience strikingly odd for a normal Malaysian, to be specific, Malaysian youth like me to give up my seat to a complete stranger. I might be exaggerating here, but when was the last time you’ve ever give up your seat for anyone other than your families and friends?

“Give your seats to those who really need it such as pregnant ladies, senior citizens, physically challenged people, children when you are taking the public transport”

Dear blog,

Those few words above are constantly displayed inside compartments of trains, monorails and even public buses .However, the question lies in how deeply imbued was the notion within the hearts of youths like me?

When we see an old man standing inside a small but crowded bus, do we really spontaneously ask the man to sit on our place?

Or is it that we hesitate for a while, thinking about the ramification of such random thought of kindness?

Or we observe the condition of the old man before any immediate actions are instructed by the piece of muscle that we proudly refer to as the brain?

Or is it that we assist the old man with a faint motive of being acknowledged by the people around us?

Or worse still, we cast our glance at the ordinary scenery outside with feigned indifference created from the temporary indulgence of the comfort we achieved?

Dear blog,

There are times when I feel that the world is a very cold place to stay in. Even the harshest winter in the Scandinavian islands is not to be compared with the increasingly indifferent mask that we put on every single moment of our lives. We prefer to sit and fall asleep in the train until we reach our destination than to stand quietly for almost 20 minutes with a minor cramp in the leg. Yes, we hesitate when it comes to surrendering our comfort zones. The absence of pleasure and excitement deter us from embracing the idealism of compassionate living.

Nevertheless, don’t you feel that you might want the same kind treatment one day?