Music: Midnight Lullaby by Tom Waits
In my many travels, meeting new people is inevitable. In fact, its one of the things that I like. Talking to strangers, that includes when I'm in Malaysia. I sort of do it all the time, but of course not many people have really seen this side of me, coz well, it happens when I'm alone of course. No friends to witness haha. And conversations with are easier to take off too, as one become more approachable. And somehow or rather, I think my facial expression becomes automatically friendlier, or like, looking to talk to someone. For example, only a few hours ago someone suddenly said to me, "you are looking sweet". Wonder where that came from. Tergelak aku. Hanya mampu cakap thank you je la. So here a few stories that I'd like to share.
On my flight back from New Delhi, I was alone because my friends flew back the day before. At the airport, I was sitting alone reading my book while waiting to board. Suddenly a tabligh came up to me and asked,
Sini ada surau tak?.
I was like, is this guy talking to me? Well obviously la because I was the only one there right. I said I didn't know (in fact I found out later ada). This pakcik was with about 5 other tablighs and they were all wearing kopiahs and the black sleeveless jacket with many pockets, like the journalists or photographers always wear on tv.
Then I suggested, pakcik boleh je smayang kat sini, I pointed to an open space area nearby. He then asked, kiblat camne?
As it was dark and I couldn't figure out where north was, I said, kalau pakcik yakin je, boleh je smayang kot ni ke (while pointing in a random direction). The pakcik then actually started to arrange his sejadah in the direction I pointed earlier. His friends then came over, all just came back from taking ablution. Then they proceeded to pray jemaah. Some other traveler even came to join in the jemaah prayers in the middle of it. The pakciks asked me to keep a look out on their bags, so I did. After that I continued on reading my book. After they were finished, they started asking me questions.
Travel sorang ke? Berani nya.
Datang sini buat apa? Ooo jalan2 tengok negara orang ye.
Ada kawan ke kat sini? Takde? Bagusnya adik berani.
Berapa hari dekat sini? Wah lamanya 10 hari. Pakcik tak biasa jalan2 ke negara lain, ni kali pertama. Tak biasa. Ni ada duit lebih simpanan pakcik sebab tu boleh datang sini. (How noble, they have extra money and they went to India to acquire knowledge, to learn, and spread the faith, not wasting it on worldly pleasures).
Nanti kat atas kapal terbang ada makanan tak?
Oo nanti pakcik boleh je beli atas plane nanti, tapi mahal sikit la.
Ooo ye ke, takpe pakcik banyak lagi duit ni takde masalah (then proceeded to show me how much he had).
Dia terima ringgit tak?
I found out diorang org melayu Thailand from Golok and just came back from a conference of Tablighs at the Nizamuddin Center (you can wiki about this, its the world headquarters).
Adik, nanti tempat duduk dalam plane macam mana? Kitorang dapat duduk sama2 ke tak? I asked to look at their boarding passes, and all of a sudden all 5 of them were surrounding me and showed me their tickets, and explained their seating arrangement. Turns out they were seating just at the row in front of me. I thought to myself, if they have any trouble communicating to the flight attendants, like when ordering food or whatever, I would nearby to help them out la. After the conversations ended, I went back to my book.
Suddenly they called to me again, adik mana nak beli air? Pakcik nak habiskan rupee ni.
I scanned the area and saw a vending machine.
Aaa pakcik boleh beli air kat situ.
Adik boleh tolong pakcik tak? Pakcik tak reti lah.
Ooo boleh je, and then I helped them buy some drinks.
In the plane, turned out all of them slept throughout the whole flight, so they didnt order any food. They were asking all these questions, it felt like I was the adult and they were the kids. When we reached LCCT, I was still in the plane, at the top of the stairs queuing to come down. I saw them already on the ground and was standing there, looking back at the plane, not moving. Turns out they were waiting for me! and then asked me more questions!
Adik, nanti macam mana nak cari bas?
It was very endearing really. Just warms my heart whenever I recall the whole encounter.
In the same flight back home, as I was putting my stuff in the overhead compartment and then making myself comfortable, a guy from across the aisle 2 rows to the front called out to me,
So you tinggal kat mana?
LOL. what a weird opening question to a start a conversation. Takde salam takde apa. We talked a bit. He's from Klang. He came to India to visit some relatives.
Then as I was already settled down in my seat, a Malaysian lady seating next to me started making conversations pulak.
So you duduk Bangi ye? hahaha she heard me talking to the guy earlier. We talked like for 3 hours ok. About many things. I found out that she's a part time lecturer, and came to Delhi to visit her husband who is studying at Delhi University. Its her second marriage, she's divorced from the first husband. In this marriage, she's the second wife, but the first wife of her husband doesn't know. Its a secret marriage. The only ones who know are her kids (dah teenagers), and me. She said, its okay I don't mind telling you this. She already said earlier she's very comfortable talking to me and telling me things that not even her close friends know. Imagine that!
Its clearly the case of a person pouring her heart out and wanting talk about things that she can't discuss with people she know, but its not a problem talking to a stranger, because you're not gonna meet the person again, you're not planning to keep in touch with the stranger, and the stranger doesn't know anything about you or your friends. She clearly wanted to get it out of her chest, all the things she told me. She is still young ok, early forties, but she looked smoking hot, like early thirties. She gave me a lot of advice, after finding out my age and the fact that I'm not married, and I've been traveling alot. She said its good, she got married early, had kids, didn't get to do the things she wanted because of the commitments and responsibilities that comes when becoming a wife/mother etc. When you're too young you're not that wise and sometimes you might end up with someone thats not suitable (explains why she's divorced). So she said to me, yeah marriage can so totally wait. Do what makes you happy yada yada. Its was nice to hear all that hahahaha.
While on the long drives throughout Rajashtan (one of the states in India, mostly desert), our driver wanted to take a break. We stopped at a rest area. There was a bookshop in the souvenir shop, one of the locals working there came to talk to me and my friends. Topic of discussion was about the partition of India and Pakistan in the 1940s (reason why I bought the book Train to Pakistan). There was an illustrated version of the book sold there, and he was showing us the gory pictures, and describing the atrocities that happened that time, and blaming the British for it (of course, who wouldn't?). Then he asked how old I was, how we me and my travel companions related (its better to say we were relatives or husband and wife, because to muslims in India it is not right for a women to travel with a bukan mahram, so to speak). Then when my friends are tired of talking to this guy they walked away and left me there. I continued the chat la, out of courtesy.
Suddenly, he said, can I ask you a personal question?
Well, that depends. What's your question?
He came very near to me and said in a very hushed voice..
How do you control yourself? Being unmarried at 28 years old?
WHAT THE F*(^(&%) *^$*^$&^%!!!!!!!
**speechless**
I said... errr ok nice talking to you I'd like to go and eat now, bye! (my friends were already seated in the small restaurant adjacent to the shop). The price of being too friendly i suppose? Hahahahh..
So there you go, and these are only stories from my trip to India. Will tell more next time..
In my many travels, meeting new people is inevitable. In fact, its one of the things that I like. Talking to strangers, that includes when I'm in Malaysia. I sort of do it all the time, but of course not many people have really seen this side of me, coz well, it happens when I'm alone of course. No friends to witness haha. And conversations with are easier to take off too, as one become more approachable. And somehow or rather, I think my facial expression becomes automatically friendlier, or like, looking to talk to someone. For example, only a few hours ago someone suddenly said to me, "you are looking sweet". Wonder where that came from. Tergelak aku. Hanya mampu cakap thank you je la. So here a few stories that I'd like to share.
On my flight back from New Delhi, I was alone because my friends flew back the day before. At the airport, I was sitting alone reading my book while waiting to board. Suddenly a tabligh came up to me and asked,
Sini ada surau tak?.
I was like, is this guy talking to me? Well obviously la because I was the only one there right. I said I didn't know (in fact I found out later ada). This pakcik was with about 5 other tablighs and they were all wearing kopiahs and the black sleeveless jacket with many pockets, like the journalists or photographers always wear on tv.
Then I suggested, pakcik boleh je smayang kat sini, I pointed to an open space area nearby. He then asked, kiblat camne?
As it was dark and I couldn't figure out where north was, I said, kalau pakcik yakin je, boleh je smayang kot ni ke (while pointing in a random direction). The pakcik then actually started to arrange his sejadah in the direction I pointed earlier. His friends then came over, all just came back from taking ablution. Then they proceeded to pray jemaah. Some other traveler even came to join in the jemaah prayers in the middle of it. The pakciks asked me to keep a look out on their bags, so I did. After that I continued on reading my book. After they were finished, they started asking me questions.
Travel sorang ke? Berani nya.
Datang sini buat apa? Ooo jalan2 tengok negara orang ye.
Ada kawan ke kat sini? Takde? Bagusnya adik berani.
Berapa hari dekat sini? Wah lamanya 10 hari. Pakcik tak biasa jalan2 ke negara lain, ni kali pertama. Tak biasa. Ni ada duit lebih simpanan pakcik sebab tu boleh datang sini. (How noble, they have extra money and they went to India to acquire knowledge, to learn, and spread the faith, not wasting it on worldly pleasures).
Nanti kat atas kapal terbang ada makanan tak?
Oo nanti pakcik boleh je beli atas plane nanti, tapi mahal sikit la.
Ooo ye ke, takpe pakcik banyak lagi duit ni takde masalah (then proceeded to show me how much he had).
Dia terima ringgit tak?
I found out diorang org melayu Thailand from Golok and just came back from a conference of Tablighs at the Nizamuddin Center (you can wiki about this, its the world headquarters).
Adik, nanti tempat duduk dalam plane macam mana? Kitorang dapat duduk sama2 ke tak? I asked to look at their boarding passes, and all of a sudden all 5 of them were surrounding me and showed me their tickets, and explained their seating arrangement. Turns out they were seating just at the row in front of me. I thought to myself, if they have any trouble communicating to the flight attendants, like when ordering food or whatever, I would nearby to help them out la. After the conversations ended, I went back to my book.
Suddenly they called to me again, adik mana nak beli air? Pakcik nak habiskan rupee ni.
I scanned the area and saw a vending machine.
Aaa pakcik boleh beli air kat situ.
Adik boleh tolong pakcik tak? Pakcik tak reti lah.
Ooo boleh je, and then I helped them buy some drinks.
In the plane, turned out all of them slept throughout the whole flight, so they didnt order any food. They were asking all these questions, it felt like I was the adult and they were the kids. When we reached LCCT, I was still in the plane, at the top of the stairs queuing to come down. I saw them already on the ground and was standing there, looking back at the plane, not moving. Turns out they were waiting for me! and then asked me more questions!
Adik, nanti macam mana nak cari bas?
It was very endearing really. Just warms my heart whenever I recall the whole encounter.
In the same flight back home, as I was putting my stuff in the overhead compartment and then making myself comfortable, a guy from across the aisle 2 rows to the front called out to me,
So you tinggal kat mana?
LOL. what a weird opening question to a start a conversation. Takde salam takde apa. We talked a bit. He's from Klang. He came to India to visit some relatives.
Then as I was already settled down in my seat, a Malaysian lady seating next to me started making conversations pulak.
So you duduk Bangi ye? hahaha she heard me talking to the guy earlier. We talked like for 3 hours ok. About many things. I found out that she's a part time lecturer, and came to Delhi to visit her husband who is studying at Delhi University. Its her second marriage, she's divorced from the first husband. In this marriage, she's the second wife, but the first wife of her husband doesn't know. Its a secret marriage. The only ones who know are her kids (dah teenagers), and me. She said, its okay I don't mind telling you this. She already said earlier she's very comfortable talking to me and telling me things that not even her close friends know. Imagine that!
Its clearly the case of a person pouring her heart out and wanting talk about things that she can't discuss with people she know, but its not a problem talking to a stranger, because you're not gonna meet the person again, you're not planning to keep in touch with the stranger, and the stranger doesn't know anything about you or your friends. She clearly wanted to get it out of her chest, all the things she told me. She is still young ok, early forties, but she looked smoking hot, like early thirties. She gave me a lot of advice, after finding out my age and the fact that I'm not married, and I've been traveling alot. She said its good, she got married early, had kids, didn't get to do the things she wanted because of the commitments and responsibilities that comes when becoming a wife/mother etc. When you're too young you're not that wise and sometimes you might end up with someone thats not suitable (explains why she's divorced). So she said to me, yeah marriage can so totally wait. Do what makes you happy yada yada. Its was nice to hear all that hahahaha.
While on the long drives throughout Rajashtan (one of the states in India, mostly desert), our driver wanted to take a break. We stopped at a rest area. There was a bookshop in the souvenir shop, one of the locals working there came to talk to me and my friends. Topic of discussion was about the partition of India and Pakistan in the 1940s (reason why I bought the book Train to Pakistan). There was an illustrated version of the book sold there, and he was showing us the gory pictures, and describing the atrocities that happened that time, and blaming the British for it (of course, who wouldn't?). Then he asked how old I was, how we me and my travel companions related (its better to say we were relatives or husband and wife, because to muslims in India it is not right for a women to travel with a bukan mahram, so to speak). Then when my friends are tired of talking to this guy they walked away and left me there. I continued the chat la, out of courtesy.
Suddenly, he said, can I ask you a personal question?
Well, that depends. What's your question?
He came very near to me and said in a very hushed voice..
How do you control yourself? Being unmarried at 28 years old?
WHAT THE F*(^(&%) *^$*^$&^%!!!!!!!
**speechless**
I said... errr ok nice talking to you I'd like to go and eat now, bye! (my friends were already seated in the small restaurant adjacent to the shop). The price of being too friendly i suppose? Hahahahh..
So there you go, and these are only stories from my trip to India. Will tell more next time..
2 comments:
lawakla the ending got me lol sorg2 kat opis. strangers also say the darnest thing! haha
hahaha tu lah kan. but it was soooo inappropriate mmg merah muka aku tapi tak nampak lah sbb aku hitam hahahahahah.
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