Life

Was in JB this noon after I hastily attached the scanned article and summarized the gist and hit the “Send” button. The train glided smoothly along the track and I was lucky to secure a seat despite a weekday. It isn’t until 3 more weeks before the national day, but you could already smell the gaiety in the air with banners and posters and flags tiling the HDB flats like the Merlion’s scales.

A trip from City Square to Johor Jaya cost me a hefty RM16. And I heard there will be a 30% hike for public transport fare this coming month. Isn’t it irony when you see the neighboring country cutting down fares to ease the people’s burden, while our tanahair conveniently adopted the opposite practice at these trying times? The entire trip cruising in our elegantly spacious national cab – Proton Iswara (Saga) – was a wonderful experience, which makes me feel that a private ride is imminent.

The cabbie, a Chinese in his 30s, looked nondescript in his uniform. His skin is tanned, probably a result of lining up outside the malls in his cab, waiting for passengers under the tropical sun. His demeanour was calm and quiet at first, but once he recognized my Malaysian accent, he morphed into an ebullient character, sharing his everyday life along the way while trying a couple of times to keep away from other people’s rear bumper. Despite the adversities, he told me that life has to go on and he has to move on no matter what. I wondered if he is unperturbed by the bitter conditions due to his tenacity or he has relent to fate that any extra effort would be futile.

I drifted back to those times, when the skies were starry black at night. Except for the restless chorus of the cicadas, the surrounding was silent. And here in the garden city, the night sky is always pinkish, and you know why.