The man in the KTM

I was on my way back home after going to a 5-day long course/camp, which was surprisingly very informative and insightful. But I’m not sure if I’m goanna post about my experience though. What I can superficially say is that the place in Klang is fab and conducive. Food is served 6 times a day, nom nom nom… Not to mention that the toilet is top class too. In the camp I learned a lot of stuff about my beloved country, the constitution and pretty much about peace and unity. Overall a great experience and I hope every Malaysian has a chance to take part in it.

Moving back to story. I was boarding the train and fortuitously I spotted an empty seat. Seating beside the seat was an wizened man cladded in sarong, obviously just returning from the Friday prayers. Everything looked normal, that is, until I took my seat on the targeted chair and when the train started to move.

Out of the blue, the old man initiated a series of Islamic lecture to a teenage boy seating beside him, whom is not me by the way. He was blurting seemingly nonsensical religious stuff, and that in a loud manner. Everyone was rather bemused and gobsmacked as the eyes of some scanned the old fellow while other eyes tried not to make contact with the mysterious man.

Because of his loud manner, I can’t help but eavesdrop overtly. What I remembered was his saying about women being sinners. Referring to the ladies as “kaum hawa”. He went on saying that majority of the people in hell are women, that women make up the bulk of people in the netherworld, that one will find more women graves in graveyards and such. Unsurprisingly, he evinced his notion by involving the story of Adam as well.

Then he said something about tall humans back then. If I’m not mistaken, he said about how prophets can walk from a continent to the next in just one step or leap. But nowadays, according to him, humans have shrunk. Last time people allegedly can travel around the world in the blink of an eye. If that was true, I was thinking that gargantuan human remains should have been discovered by now.

After a couple of stops, the old man finally reached his destined-nation. As he left his seat, a void was left. People were looking at one another. Some were even guffawing at one another.

The atmosphere in the train was back to normal. People resumed whatever activities they were doing beforehand. As fast as lightning, the incident would  soon be forgotten, or perhaps not.

Why did he said those things? Could it be that what he said were true? I’m in no position to answer that but heck it was something that really added spice in the mundane journey of KTM, where strangers are always caught in the awkwardness of silence.

Cockroach

Cock: “Warning: the following content may not be suitable for the faint hearted. If you are, do not continue. If you're going to have your meal soon, especially a buffet, don't continue. If you just ate your meal, especially a heavy one, don't continue...just an advice.”

Bull: “Disclaimer: No animals were intentionally harmed to produce this post.”

This happened a month or two ago. I was in my room in my hostel, and out of the blue, I heard a zapping sound. Zzzzp… Sounded like that. I knew it was the sound of something that was hit by the fan.

Guess what? It was a cockroach. The mightiest insect in the world committed suicide by flying into the rotatable fan - perhaps to prove it’s mightiness? If you don’t already know, yes, cockroaches can and do fly, sometimes. (So next time if there’s a cockroach somewhere, remember to look up as well.)

The worst part was that the cockroach was cut into two. The blades of the fan slashed it’s body into 2 parts – the bottom part got stuck inside the frame of the fan while its other half laid on the floor.

Amazingly, that half-cockroach was still breathing and surviving. My roomie picked it up with a tissue paper.

Half-cockroach

As you can see, the top part of the cockroach is still intact. And surprisingly, it was still moving its antennae and hairy legs. Impressive! It’s spirit is one to be modeled.

Yikes, My bottom half!

The bottom part got stuck in the frame. It' doesn’t seem like a part of the whole insect but believe me it is.

Isn’t it something quite unusual? Imagine being cut in half and still being able to live, although not for long.  That can only be possible in magic acts of sawing people in half. Besides maybe earthworms, I know of no other living creatures that are capable of the same feat. If there is, do share.Truly, the cockroach is one hell of an amazing living being.

If I’m not mistaken. The cockroach is quite a pre-historic creature, having crawled the planet Earth for hundreds of millions of years. The rather simple make up of its body makes it very survivable and durable for all these while. I bet it could survive longer than us humans too or any cocks out there, especially if there’s a nuclear warfare. Just for clarification, although the word cock is part of the roach, it has nothing to do with cock.

Speaking of nuclear, Japan is now struggling with nuclear reactor failures which could potentially escalate to a nuclear meltdown, after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake sent waves as high as 10 m upon Sendai. Hopefully all will be well for them. Sometimes it’s saddening to see the force of nature wrecking havoc on civilizations, but things like that is highly unpredictable and uncontrollable.

If there is ever a nuclear meltdown or warfare, rest assured that the cockroaches would survive longer than humans. According to a documentary I watched a long time ago, cockroaches can survive for as long as two weeks after a nuclear warfare when humans exposed to the same radiation can all die within a day.

How is this possible?

Cockroaches are simple structured insects, compared to humans which are so complex inside and out. So in a way, simplicity leads to long term survivability. When we are faced with a radiation, our cells could easily mutate and react to the contamination, but that’s not the case for our exoskeleton-ed friends.

Their eggs, also known as Ootheca, are also very unique. It looks like an armored shell. Because of it’s air tight, waterproof, tough, almost impenetrable property, it could survive a nuclear warfare. Definitely, the Ootheca is a tough nut to crack. So in an event of a nuclear warfare, the anti-radiation eggs could hatch after the war and grow into healthy adults.

Source: wikipedia

Even if a healthy, young cockroach is exposed to lethal radiation, the cockroach could lay an egg which contains hundreds of babies that could have the resistance of radiation passed down to them from their mother roach. Thence, the cockroach can continue to spread and dominate the world.

Have you seen an albino cockroach?

I don’t know about you but I’d seen quite a few with my own eyes. I’d seen them in the most unsurprising places of all – the toilet, specifically in the toilet bowl.

Now sometimes when you see a cockroach, you see that it’s white in color and think that maybe there exists albino cockroaches. Imagine, if it really exists, could it be an antithesis image of the normal kind? I do hope so. However, the truth is that there’s no albino cockroaches, yet.

What we’re seeing, those white versions of the cockroaches, are in fact normal cockroaches going through a phase of ecdysis, or shedding of the exoskeleton. After a cockroach sheds it’s skin, it will break out as a white roach. In a matter of a few hours, it breathes in huge amounts of air to inflate its body before the hardening process in order to “grow”. After that few hours, it turns hard and brown as usual. So that’s how people like me thought that white cockroaches are out there somewhere.

True, some of them are gross, but that might be the price to pay for being so adaptable.

cock-roach

Next time you see a mighty cockroach, try to admire them instead of hating them. Love them, don’t hate them. =)

Friend

Something strange happened yesterday when I was on my way back to Shah Alam. I was walking toward Masjid Jamek LRT (Putra line) when I saw two young men hovering around the side entrance. In their hands were some paper and some wrapped stuff.

From a distance, I saw one of them conversing with a passerby, obviously trying to promote or sell something, which reminds me of my days as a promoter. Ah, how nostalgic.

But my past experience isn’t the shebang here, my friend. Friend - That’s the main topic of today.

As I was observing the two of them while making my way to my destination, my eyes beheld the other one (who wasn’t occupied with a stranger) locking on me as a target. Hahaha. It’s kinda funny you see. Somehow when some random (well not just random, some promoter/seller) fellow from the street just glanced at you, you know that he or she will approach because you can feel it. You can just feel it. You know that you’re the target. There’s this look in that fellow’s eyes that seems to say “Aha! you.”

Bleep bleep bleep…target locked…ready to fire at any time….

So I well enough knew that he was gonna approach me, and I had prepared my response beforehand.

So as we were close enough, he blurted out.

“Friend, have a look at some art and souvenirs.”

His first sentence was a bit vague, so I don’t really get what he’s trying to sell or promote. He called my friend. Hold on. What? Since when was I your friend? We never met before and I certainly don’t have your image in my memory, so why bother calling me friend? I guess he was trying to be friendly. So I thought he was done with saying it once, but surprisingly, no, once was never good for him. Before I knew it, his was getting worse at this “friend” thing.

I said, “No thanks,” waved my hand as a sign for negative, and continued walking.

For a moment, he sort of followed me, calling out “Friend…friend…friend…” rather annoyingly, I must say. I even saw his arm reaching out in vain for me to stop. Well, at least he didn’t actually grab hold of me like some notorious people out there would (yeah seriously, some of them do, so be extra careful). He hoped that his use of friend would somehow slow or stop me in my tracks so that I’ll pay attention to him.

And right at the end was the funniest part. As I was about to appear out from his sight, he managed a desperate and weak “Friend…d..o..n’t….g..o……” In a way, it was like a beg rather than a plead, what’s with the dragging of the “don’t go”. His countenance was awful; he looked so sad. It was as if he lost a real friend. : ( 

I ended up laughing to myself, not at his lost, mind you, but at his choice of words.

As such, he lost a friend and I almost gained one. Makes me think, who qualifies as friends? Strangers that you just met overnight? That could be possible (especially with the advent of Facebook), but I think it depends on people’s perspective.

A good question to be asked and answered is: Are those “friends” you have in facebook your real friends? Personally, I think 5% or less of my Facebook friends are people I don’t even know, or perhaps forgotten. That’s because I accepted friend requests without taking into consideration whether they came from somebody I knew. But that was long ago. Now I only add or accept people whom I know, never strangers.

The fact is that many people have strangers in their list of friends. Isn’t that a bit scary. People who you don’t know could know a lot about you. As we all know, the internet is not a safe place to be. So be careful of people you add to your friendly list.

Running from the rain

Weather, weather, how arcane you are. Nobody can tell

Whether you’ll rain or shine. Nobody can tell

When you should hide from the lasers of the sun. Nobody can tell

When you should hide from the blizzard of water.

 

Today I experienced a bizarre experience. I ran from the rain. That, I did.

I was playing frisbee in the evening, around 6 o’clock, when some clouds suddenly gave birth to rain. It signaled the stop of the disc throwing. It’s time to go back, I thought.

So I walked back toward my hostel. But there was a stretch of greens I had to go through to circumvent the perimeter of the hostel fence. I walked back with the green frisbee on the top of my head, protecting it from the harshness of the rain and the illness it might bring. Come to think of it, from the top view, I might not be so visible as the green disc was in color with the grass.

It was drizzling when I walked a steady pace on that green stretch of grass. It’s just a drizzle after all, I thought. So I took my own sweet time walking. Then a curious some made me turn my head to the right, and I beheld a vanguard of heavy rain coming toward my direction, bringing along a threatening sound of high speed water projectiles. The sound was getting nearer and stronger. I ran.

Just as I came to the end of the stretch and about to turn left, I looked back at the rain. The path I just walked past was covered by a motion blur of white as the horde of water army pounded down. The boundary of the severe and the mild was a few meters away from me.

How mystical the rain can be. Sometimes we see in cartoons that a character has a cloud above its head and rain falls from the cloud. This really happens in real life too. Silly how cartoons reflect reality. Every time it rains, there is bound to be a boundary between the wet and dry. And if you’re lucky enough, you may end up in that boundary, witnessing the magical phenomenon of mother nature. It was like watching an cinematographic effect in a movie.

The rain lasted only for a while though. It was as if the heaven teared from above, coinciding with the departure of some friends and friends’ friends to a destination abroad. May those friends and friends’ friends have a safe trip ahead.

Life is ever-changing. For a change, next time you see rain coming, try out-running it. But first, let me wish you all the best.

Freeze!

KUALA LUMPUR: In the heart of hustling and bustling KL, stood a group of 3 men covered in colorful sparkles from the tips of their hats to the tips of their shoes, all probably in the name of money and of course entertainment.

Their exact motive was unbeknown as they remained tight lipped and literally frozen in motion. Plus, the super refracted shades they donned did not betray their eyes. They must have felt really hot and sweaty under those poker faces and colored skins, but they succeeded in stifling them.

They were spotted at the corner of Bukit Bintang street opposite Lot 10, just below the Bukit Bintang monorail station. This reminded some passers-by of the scene from old Batman movie in which the villain freezes his adversaries with a freeze gun whilst shouting “FREEZE!”.

Picturesque scenes like this are quite a norm in Bukit Bintang area, known for being a happening place besides being a popular hotspot for tourists and locals alike. As people are hurrying by and rushing to their destinations in mid-evening, these as-still-as-a-statue men in colored sparkled clothing served as a paradox, reminding people to take life easy and be in the moment, albeit not so a frozen one.

Bloody Day

What a bloody day yesterday was! Yesterday, many liters of blood was shed. The blood was everywhere to be seen in the great hall. I myself lost a lot of blood. Although there were massive loss of blood, fortunately nobody died.


The victims of blood are actually heroes of the day. And instead of bloodshed because of hatred, it happened for the sake of love. Many lives I believe would be saved thanks to those who sacrificed their blood.


If you haven’t figured it out yet, what this was was a blood donation drive. And for the first time ever, I donated my blood. Hooray to me.


Initially, I thought that because I’m underweight and also quite scraggly, I cannot donate blood, but I was wrong. One just has to weigh over 45 kg to be able to participate in this bloody shebang.


You may wonder why I decided to donate my blood. Why donate blood in the first place? Well, why not? Firstly, it was for a new and fresh experience. Doing something I never done before had a certain kick to it. Ultimately, the purpose of doing it was a benevolent one – saving lives. I cannot say for sure that my blood I donated will be a life saver to somebody who’s suffering out there, but at least I gave that hope. Knowing that you’ll probably save someone’s life is a good feeling, truly.


They say that giving is receiving. Who knows when the day comes that we are the ones who are at the receiving end of the blood donation and desperately need blood to continue to live. Hopefully, if such a day does arrives, there would be sufficient and compatible blood for us all.

Humble bubble

Whick whack whick whack,
goes the echoed sound of flying feathers,
enters a peacock, with beautiful feathers on its back,
giving an aura of air in its saunters.


Another friend of peacock’s enters this great court,
a court not for judgment, a court not for courting,
nay, not even it is for the good of God,
aye, it is the court for playing.


Unlike the peacock who walks with it’s nose held high,
It’s friend enters head a little down,
perhaps it feels inferior to the peacock guy,
already at the court are two playing clowns.


Together the four play along,
feathers are flying, jumping and bouncing,
from one side comes a lot of laughing,
from another side is everything but guffawing.


Cool and with pride the peacock struts it’s stuff,
it's as though the world spins around it’s feathers,
but the clowns are not to be feather-cuffed,
and at the end of one cycle the clowns emerge winners.


Of course there are many rounds,
winning or losing is part of the game,
once, the peacock’s pride is hit to the ground,
a hand is offered, without receiving it’s aim.


At the end, everything is finished,
the peacock leaves, without a bye, sound or grumble,
for sure it feels a bit anguished,
but that’s what you’ll get if bursts the humble bubble.

Rusty juice

One of a kind juice…

Have you come across a juice called rusty juice or “Jus Karat”? Well I have, in a menu that is. Spotted at an undisclosed mamak stall in Shah Alam. Let me give you a hint, the name of the mamak stall starts with “I”.

You can have rusty juice or rusty milk juice

People Studying

Some of you…

For the past couple of weeks, I have been doing it for more than half of my days. It’s really amusing to see how people react and respond to something. I have been to shopping malls, streets, colleges, etc. There’s always a certain pattern of responding or reacting, which are done by people unintentionally as much as intentionally.


Being a promoter allows me to do this. Everyday is a new study case for me. Truly, it is a lot of fun to sell something to the public; it grants me a license to talk to anybody and everybody. Somehow, meeting new people everyday is also a thing quite nice, and often times motivating, to me.


Fret not. I’m not those kind of credit card sellers who cling on to passersby like how stubborn stains cling on to shirts, at the same time hurling out almost inexplicably fast paced mumbling that can only rival that of the chipmunk (the cartoony type). No offence credit card sellers. I’m actually pointing out your good points.


I would try to gain your attention, and if I see a beacon of hope, I will try to go in for the kill, err sell. But, if I see the slightest negation from your body language or response, I would gladly and willingly let go.


Throughout the weeks, I’ve seen and heard many reactions to my approaching people.


Let’s see some responses given by strangers to me. Most of them apply to people passing or walking by. The following categories can apply to all of you as I’m sure you’ve been approached by people like me before. See which category you fall into.

A curios incident

The queue at the escalator

A line was building up before the escalator,

A machine that wasn’t moving as it should,

A figure was at the front of the line of the crowd,

A leader of the bewildered crowd, albeit a slow one.