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Archive for the ‘growing up’ Category

The Dwarf Comes Back to Haunt Me

19 Aug

As a child, he haunted me with his evilness. This demented dwarf was ugly. I hated how he lied and played his silly games, making people feel like their lives were worthless and that you could be under his control. He was pure evil. I hated him. I would make sure all pictures of him were banished from my sight. I had to summon people to hide his pictures, and put him far away, anywhere, just not near me. Still, somehow, even though I tucked him way far back in my memory and I grew up slowly forgetting about him, he came back once again and haunted me.

When I saw him again recently, I did not really recognize him. He looked different. His hairstyle had changed. His height, however, remained. But, as he had done during my childhood, he made me annoyingly uncomfortable. Finally when I realized that it really was him coming back to my present life to haunt me, I wanted to make him go away, again, forever.

Rumpelstilskin… you made me hide your storybook as a child. I had to get my sister to put the book far away from me so that you wouldn’t come to me making me play your silly games.

When I saw you again, in Shrek 4, I did not recognize you at first. But after a while, I knew that only you, yes you, could make me feel uncomfortable like that. You’re such an annoying little guy, and surprisingly for your height, you have a lot of evil in you.

You still look as ugly as I remember. Maybe even uglier. Lucky for you, the Shrek people made you look cute at times. Still, you’re ugly. Wherever you are now, stay there and never come back.


I still don’t like you!

 
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Posted in film, growing up

 

The T

31 Jul

While I was living in Boston, I took the T a lot. The T is what people in Boston affectionately call the subway/metro/tube system. “I’ll meet you at the T stop” is a common line to say. Or, “I’m on the T now!” if you have reception on the train. I loved taking the T because it was a place where I could think for as long as my train ride would last. I spent time listening to my iPod, reading my notes for class, thinking about what to eat for my next meal, or just, like most of us do, think of nothing.

However, I’m talking about the T because of something else right now.

Very often, when we see something in a foreign country, we always wish we could have the same back in our own hometowns. We get envious of the things we do not have in our own countries. Often times in Boston, I would look at something and ask, “why can’t we have this in Malaysia too?”

But to be honest, that was only my initial mentality. After living in Boston for a while, I began to realize just how much living abroad made me appreciate the things I have (or don’t have) back home. Yes, I was envious of many things. But I learned to take that envy and make it teach me a lesson or two about how beautiful my own hometown can really be.

This is what I mean…

When my train passes the Charles River (the most beautiful part of Boston, my favorite spot, with lovely scenery – refer to my post on the Charles), I look at the people running across the bridge to exercise. I see people walking their dogs. But what I really love to see is the water: How calm it is and how in the winter, it is completely frozen. Yet, it makes me think of how lucky I was to grow up by the coast; I grew up in a city that was just along the coast. With that, I am reminded of how fortunate I am that across the city I grew up in, there are beautiful islands just a speedboat ride away. The Charles, though fills me with envy, makes me understand that I am lucky to have the sea breeze as I walk along the coast in Kota Kinabalu.

On the T, I also see people go off to work in their fancy office wear: branded clothes, expensive shoes, matching colors and all sorts of sophisticated electronic gadgets attached to them. I wonder why Malaysia can’t be a modern country like the US. Why can’t we  stop being a developing country and just be developed already. I look at the working class people on the T, they all seem happy because they are earning good money and probably working in a great company. I grow envy because they are earning US dollars, while back home our cost of living is higher and we don’t earn that much to begin with. Yet, underneath all that, I learn to appreciate how my country is slowly but steadily progressing, and while we may not be fully developed, we are working towards it and not getting lazy about it. I slowly begin to think about how 10 years ago, our country was almost nothing like what it is today. And so, I learn to be patient and understand that one day, I’ll be living in one of the world’s newest fully developed nations, and I’ll be proud of it.

Also on the T, I look at the many different kinds of people that hop on and off -
..the cross-dresser who is always waiting for the train at the same time every day, with his pink boots and pink hat, pink skirt and pink vest
..the MIT students who can’t stop talking about how the world could possibly have started with just a single blueberry (ok, not really, but they probably would have a chat along those lines on the T!)
..the black father and his white wife and their two brown children
..the blind man and his guide dog
..the woman who always appears at the same time every day yelling in the train to everyone about how her husband left her with her 3 children and how she has nothing but the clothes on her back and how her children are also out looking for money because today (everyday, actually, because she always has the same story whenever I see her) she walked into the store and couldn’t even buy a loaf of bread for her children.
I see all these people and think to myself, how diverse and how spectacular this city is to have so many interesting people. Yet, as I swallow my envy and reflect on it, I realize that diversity is actually something we truly own in Malaysia. How much more diverse can our people be? I begin to understand that my country is just as interesting, and although I have gotten used to its diversity, I should rekindle that spark and enjoy how colorful the society I grew up in actually is.

Taking the train in Boston for the whole time I was there really did help me see how much more I should appreciate where I come from.

Maybe I should start taking the LRT?

The only good picture I have of myself on the T was taken on Halloween.
Thanks Su Ann for taking this picture.

 
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Posted in Life, boston, growing up

 

Generation Gap

17 May

I was talking to a friend earlier this week about some cartoons, and he did not know what I was talking about. He, in return, told me about his favourite childhood cartoons, and all I could say was that I have heard the names, but could not visualize the cartoons at all. Then it got me thinking, so much has changed since the 80s and 90s.

For example,

this was a WOW thing back then when I was around 18 years old. Seriously, it’s not like I was 5 or 6 when this was the best thing you could hold in your hands. I was already 18, and if you had that phone, people would go WOW!

And then it was that phone above, the super hi-tech Nokia phone that, if you had one as a student, you’d be the rich kid who had the best of everything. I was around 19 when this was the best phone around. Imagine what happened a year or two later when polyphonic ring tones came in to fashion? Everyone went crazy when ring tones finally became polyphonic. And the screens had colours!!

What else was fashionable and hi-tech back then?

Having a Game Boy in your hand was something to show off. Kids would be jealous if you had a Game Boy.

Or at home, we had no Play Stations or Wii or whatever you get today. If you had a Nintendo console, you were part of the “in” crowd. And the most popular game back then, was the very hi-tech and super high-def graphics game:

Imagine what we have today. Phones that play TV shows for you, and can hold thousands of songs and play them anytime you want. Phones that can tell you where you are if you are lost, and tell you how to get to where you want to go to. Phones that let you access the World Wide Web, and tell you where the best eating places are in your area. Don’t even get me started on the games kids play these days!

 
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Posted in Life, growing up, technology