The Waiting Game

I was sitting on one of the chairs in KL central, waiting for my daughter, letting my eyeballs roll about their sockets, just browsing through Life. Incidentally, I see more people sitting and waiting, rather than doing things. Waiting. Ever imagine how much time, if we were to accumulate, say in a week, that time was wasted just...waiting.

Let's all do the math. Wake up in the morning, wait for my daughter to get out of the shower. I kept telling her that she has the darker skin Punjabi blood running in her and all that color is not going to come off by sitting under the shower longer time than the average. Then wait in the traffic jam. Wait for the elevator to get to the clinic. Wait for patiets to come in, as it is a national habit for us Malaysians to turn up last minute near closing time and at almost everything else. Then wait for my daughter to finish classes. Wait again in the traffic jam home bound.

My daughter would probably add that she spent time waiting for yesterday's lasagne to cook, as it took me 3hours to prepare it and a grand total of 3 minutes for both of us to devour the oh so delicious dish ( No wonder Garfield would say,"I live for lasagne") . And I do all this waiting , while waiting for the bureaucratic agencies and the government to change their attitudes towards governance. The latter is like waiting for the first moon of Ramadhan or Syawal, waiting in anticipation for something that is there but unable to materialize to the naked eyes. Still, being human is about bearing hope.

As I was sitting there, I thought to myself. What if everything runs by the clock, with utmost punctuality? What if people realize that procrastination is a big time robber of time? Basically, here in Malaysia, we have our own time, we hardly abide to the Greenwich Meridien time like most developed countries. I'm very punctual by nature. But the reason no one realises my good virtue is because, no one would be there to greet me at the exact time of appointment, to know that I was punctual. Probably, if all of us learn to respect time, we would be by now, a developed country, rather than a wannabe developed country that is termed developing country.

I remember the time when my dad was in Tokyo back in the 90s. He was chauffered around by this very obliging and friendly Japanese man name Akiko ( I think..). They were at the MRT station, waiting for the train when an announcement blasted off in Japanese language. Turning around facing my dad, he bowed apologitically to my dad and said, "Ibrahimmm San, many apohlogies. The tshrain is going tooh beee rreyth." My dad, asked him, "How late?", wondering where they would go and wait for the late train. Akiko said, " The tshrain is going tooh beee tshree minutes lator." And his apologetic bowing resumed. My dad almost died of laughter.

Even in the Quran, the verse, "Demi masa, sesungguhnya manusia itu senantiasa di dalam kerugian". It's so true, as we are most of the time loosing out to time by having to wait. Wait, wait and more waiting. Although, there are some things that are worth waiting for, I dare say that we should start cultivating the culture of respecting TIME. Respect others' time. Many people say, "Oh! 24hours is not enough time for me!!" Well, if we were to cut down time in waiting, we'd still probably end up waiting, for bed time ( unless you're tired and desperately looking for excuses to not having sex at bed time, you won't mind the wait...)

In the meantime, I am still waiting for the first anak bulan Syawal to be spotted and I know that this year, like other years, I will be waiting in vain. But I so look forward to the Hari Raya Puasa, not because I enjoy it that much, but because it marks the end of the fasting month. Finally, I can get back to gaining the 3kgs I have lost during the fasting month. It'll take me one year to gain that lost 3kgs, just in time to loose it to the next fasting month. I know fasting is good for my health. But sometimes, I don't mind being slightly unhealthy, just as so I could fit into my kebaya and not look like it's hanging on a hanger!!

Eid Mubarrako everyone!!! Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf zahir batin to all, except to the government for the blunders they refuse to admit....