On The Train, Mar 16, 2006

Somehow I was a bit early then the usual this morning and arrived at the station around 0629. I was a bit happy as I could get to the office early to deal with the day’s business. As I walked along the platform to my favourite waiting spot I could sense certain restlessness among the waiting commuters. My worse omen actually materialized soon after that when the announcement from the station master came out clearly in the cold early morning air to break the silence. Any announcement that comes that way would almost always mean delay. It was not a normal delay we were told the train would only arrived at 0658. I was a bit pissed off to say the least. What happened next was obvious, commuters started to arrive at the station and within minutes it was full from end to end. I would be lucky to get a seat now. The train did come at 0658 and I was indeed lucky to squeeze myself between two big size, I found out later, father and daughter. Both were comfortably sleeping. The father on my right started to snore a bit as we were approaching Bangi and continued to snore until Kajang. He was awaken somehow by the announcement made by the driver and remarked quite audibly to most of us around him ‘ KTMB ni tiap-tiap hari minta maaf dah tak ada kerja lain’. I could not help but smiled, amused by the remark. As his remark was spontaneous right after the driver apologetically announced that ‘ KTMB memohon maaf di atas segala kesulitan yang berlaku…’ At Kajang the train was like a can of pickle anchovies. Thinking about it his remark was so true that KTMB management could not certainly ignore.

At MidValley on the way home boarded three young Indonesian dressed like our normal grunge teenagers. I knew they were Indonesians obviously through their slang when they were talking. I wondered whether they are college students here or tourists. Nevertheless, it changed my perspective on the composition of the population of Klang Valley.