On The Train. Mar 7, 2005

I was at a briefing session on online database services today at Hilton Sentral, KL and as usual the occasion double up as a reunion gathering of old friends of sort for our community – information professionals. Everyone seems to know one another or at least connected to one another by the profession. Just to name a few Ariff, Fauziah, Linda (I used to teach her), AniJ, Maizan, Haslidah, Hasbullah, Noraini and Azman. That is our network both social and professional. Well, I am not going to write about that now. No, not that it is not interesting but I want to write something else about people on a train. During lunch somehow the topic moved to a discussion about me taking the train everyday to work. My friend Arif made a joke that I was the one/character in the advertisement on TV concerning social etiquettes of riding a train. You know the one that shows a character refusing to surrender his seat to a pregnant lady and eventually even to a blind man. We had a laugh talking about it especially my friends around the table making a big case of how I really look like that character. Seriously, I said there are indeed people like that on the train as I observed so many times already. Some of them actually pretend to be sleeping when they see pregnant lady boarding the train. This is rampant especially in the early morning. This is really pathetic and I am sick every time I see this. I was really pissed off once when I saw from a far a woman actually quickly offered her seat when a man sitting close by just sat and watched for others to react first.

I was on the train as usual this morning and disembarked at KL Sentral very early. As usual as well KL’s rat racers were crossing each other and sometimes bumping into each other going to work like robots. One thing I realized was how KL Sentral has developed to be a true hub for day, short and long distance travelers. With the two business hotels built business travellers began to increase in numbers. Now people in business suits walking around KL Sentral is a common sight. Still, we are a long way to go mentally.