On The Train. Mar 15, 2005

I was already on the train going home and about to write this piece that I realized the date was already Mar 15. I have to entertain Deputy Minister from Saudi Arabia tomorrow I thought and I was not sure. So I tried to call Razman to confirm. Lucky me, Razman confirmed it, if not I’ll make a mess of the visit. My MDC days have thought me a lot about entertaining high level guests so I was not worried. The train was packed again and I was lucky, again!, to get a seat at KL Sentral. I just sat thinking of nothing in particular when a ringing tone of a hand phone interrupted my reverie. It was not a unique tone but it triggered my thought and suddenly as life I was hearing all hand phones were ringing. All kinds of tones. What amazed me was that almost everyone on the train owns a hand phone. I bet all brands, sizes and colors as well. I could not imagine at all this is possible when I grew up. In the whole village only one house had a phone. Today if you do not own one you must be probably seen as fanatics or something. A lady standing in front of me had her Nokia 2100 hanging like necklace around her neck. I bet a teenager beside me has a groovy one in her pocket.

One incidence though brought a good feeling to me when we reached UKM station. Out of nowhere an empty mineral water bottle rolled down the isle towards a young lady standing at the door. I was expecting the lady to ignore it. One thing for someone to just conveniently throw or left the empty bottle on the train. The worse was everyone else to ignore it. I was surprised and glad this lady picked up the bottle and took it along with her disembarking and than to throw it into the bin outside. We have hope after all.