Thank You VS Batang Kayu

I was sitting half patiently and half blurry this morning waiting for the first session of the 'Latihan Dalam Perkhidmatan' course to start. While waiting, I was actually doing some mental preparation: I was preparing myself for the worst thing the course could ever offer: TOTAL BOREDOM. I had my sweets in my handbag: checked. I had some junk food as well: checked. A mineral water I took at the foyer before I climbed the staircase: checked. KakFiza's 'kacang kari' that we were about to share:) : checked. So, practically I was physically and mentally prepared to battle this 'Saturday Blues: O why did we have school on almost EVERY saturdays??'

Little did I know..and little did I expect that the first session turned out to be fun at all. I'm telling you, it was a real fun with no added silly jokes nor blue jokes: a cliche to most speakers. I enjoyed it to the max cuz not only it was fun but informative, captivating and motivating as well. Kudos to the speaker of course.Hehe. He reminded me a lot of 'Haji Bakhil'...and a glimpse of Dato' Jamali Shadat. Those characters needn't further introduction aite? Hearing those names made you unconciously smile. See? Like what you're doing rite now :P

Haji Zakaria was his name (Z pronounced as J). He talked about the working cultures and values of teachers yadayada, which most of us in the profession had probably known and pretty well-versed already. But, being normal human beings, we do tend to forget, and we do tend to not always practice what we preach, or teach. Like some teachers said, 'ikut apa yang saya cakap, bukan ikut apa yang saya buat'. In your dream-lah cikgu. Kids are the best copier, fyi.

Anyway, it was this thing that he said that triggered my interest to listen more attentively. He quoted a courtesy research done by Readers' Digest years back. The result was..jeng jeng jeng..wait up, hold your applause. Well, second thought..don't even think about it! Cuz we ASIANS and MALAYSIANS especially were declared to be among the rudest, 'takde sivik' punya people of all people on planet Earth. Out of 36 cities where the tests were being held, we're at bottom number 34. The least courteous number 34. I was ashamed, so ashamed to hear that. Berbudi-bahasanya lah orang Malaysia kita ni ekk.
Anyways, they did 3 tests:-
1) Saying Thank You
2) Holding door for people behind you
3) Helping to pick up dropped papers

Thank You vs Batang Kayu
It's pretty hard to admit that we rarely say 'thank you'. When we go to the mall, just check the payment counter and see whether the cashiers say thank you or not? When being served with food or drinks, observe whether the customers even bother to say thank you at all. Even if they did, see again whether they're smiling or not. Hardly aite, muka like batang kayu. Oh yes, as teachers we do hear lots of 'Thank You, teacher' each day. But honestly, can we actually feel the real appreciation behind those many thanks they said? Those monotonous 'terima kasih cikgu'. It's like a recorded response when we call McD Delivery. 'Sila tekan 1 untuk Bahasa Melayu' kinda response.

Door Stoppers vs Door Slammers
I read somewhere about women's taste for men and it's just logical that women tend to fancy 'gentlemen'. No sane women would prefer rude, calculative, selfish men and vice versa. But sad to say, most Malay men are less gentlemen. They don't put women first in many things. They don't hold the door for women for example. I am not implying that I'm a chauvinist.In fact, male and female are equal in this matter, it's just that it looks more obvious when a guy does it. It is a social expectation that men treat women with modesty and courtesy. We, male or female, don't hold the door for strangers. Perhaps we're not brought up that way, or perhaps it is not in our Malay culture to hold doors for others. Whatever the reasons, as teachers especially, we should do it as it is important to show that we're thinking of others and not just ourselves. It doesn't take a lot to hold the door, or would we rather prefer for the door to slam the people behind us? What if we're the ones whose being slammed by the door due to the selfish act of the person in front us?

Pick Up vs Pekak
Sometimes when we are in a hurry we tend to mind our own business. We might thought of stopping to help a poor old lady to pick up her scattered groceries. But a thought remains a thought. Plus, we thought we're in a hurry and there are still others around who could help her. We 'buat-buat pekak' and continue rushing. Weird enough, we sometimes do so even when we're not in a hurry at all. Biarlah orang lain buat punya attitude is sooooo dangerous. What if everbody else think alike, then nobody would do it. The same with picking rubbish. This is what I personally observe in my school. The kids are so berkira when being asked to pick up the rubbish at areas that are not theirs. A sweet wrapper just 10cm away from their desks, then everybody would stare at it, not wanting to pick it up cuz apparently 'it's not under my desk'. Aiyya..I don't know whether they're so genuinely lurus bendul cuz I said 'pick up rubbish under your desk', or what. When they are in the canteen during recess, nobody would ever bother to pick up the bread wrapper lying on the floor, not until being told to do so. Kalau seminggu kat situ, seminggulah tak berkutip. Memasing buat pekak.

So kudos to my fellow Malaysians for being imPOLITE. This I did not say, but was research- proven by Readers' Digest. Take it anyways we like, but I hope we take this criticism positively.
Some might argue that we have different 'cultural standard' with the western world thus the measuring of 'politeness and courtesy' is rather 'subjective. Still, it only needs simple logic and sensibility to think of others rather than being selfish, and to do good deeds to other people like what our religions taught us. As Muslims, we should be wayyyyyy more corteous, shouldn' we?

The Show is Over

I, for once, for the very first time in my life, HAD a SERIOUS relationship: LOVE relationship, in this case.
-monkey love didn't count here-
-crushes also didn't count-
-I'm talking about a SERIOUS one here, but...-

It ended less than a month ago...after a year of 'trying to love' him. After a year of trying to convince myself that love can somehow be developed over time and endless efforts. Perhaps, my love for him was not strong enough to make me stay...Not as strong as his love to me

I was stung by guilt. I was blanketed by fear.
I felt guilty for turning him down...though that's the best for both of us.
I was scared, perhaps I made the wrong decision?
What if I let go a man who really loves [loved?] me sincerely, but I was too blind to see and 'feel' that?

It's no point dwelling with the Why and why and why did I break up with him. It's a mixture of everything, a little bit of everything, but most of it was from my side. I guess, my heart wronged him a lot. I failed to love him the way he loved me.

So, I chose to end the chapter.
I brought down the curtain,
Ladies and gentlemen, the show is OVER.