On The Train (Fellow Commuter), April 17, 2006

I was a bit late going home and caught the 2015 train. The average of commuters is slightly less than 2 per cluster.When we were approaching Kajang a Chinese gentleman started a conversation with me by asking about my laptop. ‘You punya’, pointing at my laptop, ’12 inci ka?’ he asked. ‘Sepuloh’, I replied. ‘Ok ha senang bawak. Saya ada satu tapi 14 inci berat nak bawak. Ni tujoh ribu ka?’ asking me about the price. ‘Empat ribu (four thousand RM),’ I said. ‘Centrino kan?’ he continued and I nodded. Our small talk continued about laptop for a while until he asked me whether I work in a Bank. I said yes and this is where the stereotype began. ‘So you guna spreadsheet buat accounting banyak ha.’ I wanted to correct him but I stopped as he continued to say that he basically using his for graphic drawing. I just let him continued to have the wrong perception of my work. Even if I worked in a bank doesn’t mean that my work would all about numbers and furthermore this is totally a different bank.

Just like me his station is Bangi. I saw him few times at the Bangi station waiting for the train in the morning.