Last Sunday night, everybody in the family was feeling restless. It was a hot and humid night, despite the shallow rain. I was surfing the internet while the rest of the family hogged the tv watching some Astro’s singing competition.
I waited for my cousin sis to buy me some sweet corn from the pasar malam. It’s almost like a Sunday night ritual. Sweet corn, Taiwanese sausage or popiah – sometimes a combination of two when I don’t have a proper dinner.
When cousin came back with the sweet corn, we huddled in front of the tv, regardless of what’s shown and munch the goodies away. What a comfort zone!
Then, I thought of the orang asli settlement area somewhere in Gombak that I went visiting briefly that morning. Most of them are still living in some bamboo or wooden huts. As it was a cloudy morning, it was a pleasant walk. As I strolled around their kampong, the villagers were ever generous with their smiles. It’s a good feeling to be welcomed to a place where skin colors , political ideologies, social status, etc do not matter.
I bumped into a friendly kid and I persuaded him to strike a pose for me to take a picture. He obliged willingly.
I didn’t stay long as we are going to other places as well.
I couldn’t help but wonder how these people live in their simple world of small huts with basic amenities. Well, I did spot an Astro satellite dish in one of the houses though. Hehe! I guess some of the more advanced houses have electricity while others still do not have.
Even the cats are friendly!
I look back at my own life and felt ashamed that I complained about the petty things – weather, the taste of abundant and good food, internet is moving too slow, too many old and lousy movies on Astro, Astro is not working because of the bloody rain, Air Asia not having sale to the places I wanna go (haha!), my fridge magnets got confiscated, etc.
We should be grateful with what we have.
Except this one ganas Kitty!
On the contrary, perhaps, the orang asli are laughing at us for using most of our salaries to pay for escalating costs of amenities when they get their water for free from the flowing river. They get to breathe in the freshest air in KL without air purifier! And they have fewer diseases like hypertension or diabetes because they work out a lot in the woods and live stress-free, longer and more contented lives than all of us combined? And while we moan and groan when electricity is cut off for a few hours, they are happy in the company of a million stars and fire flies every night?
Tags: cuti-cuti malaysia