A Different Walk of Life

Today’s morning was one of those rare occasions where I wake up early to have breakfast with my parents. I should be doing this more often, I know, but too many a times I couldn’t pull myself out of my cozy bed on a weekend’s morning.

Anyway, we went to a morning market in one of the nearby neighborhoods. We first had noodles at a roadside stall, which is operated by a student from the school where my father was teaching until his retirement two years ago. I think the stall owner hires two Burmese to assist in the stall’s operations, which is not uncommon for most of our Malaysian food stall operators. The two Burmese look like brothers to me. Then we proceeded to the morning market as my mother would like to refill our fresh food supplies at home.

The stall my mother went to, seems to be operated by one family, from parents to sons and perhaps some other female relatives who were sorting out vegetables, cleaning them up a bit before putting them up for sale. It was a busy stall, and my mother and I spent quite some time at the stall. It made me think for a while, how very simple their life is. They operate a family business, probably planting their own vegetables for sale, then sell it at the morning market everyday. The parents must be proud of how the family business is going on, with 3 very young and hardworking sons helping out. They were fast in their movements and of course, in calculating the price of whatever vegetables you put on the scale.

We moved on to other stalls to get some other vegetables. Again, a quick glance around the marketplace shows that most stalls are family business – husband and wife, father and son, mother and daughter, etc. Not that all these are uncommon sights, but I have to admit I have not stepped into the morning market for quite a while, I have not been shopping, in fact I was wondering what have I been doing other than working and going out for occasional movies and meals and IDC meetings?

Back to the marketplace – we need to go through the meat section which I don’t really fancy. At the fishmonger’s stall, I saw some fishes jumping wildly on the “tray”, because the fishmonger was beating up one of them, which was apparently the “chosen one” by the customer. I could feel myself cringing at that moment, how cruel it seems to be to be brought to the marketplace alive, and then being “chosen” and butchered alive.

That was not it, I heard chicken’s cluck. When I turn to the direction, the chicken was still alive in his owner’s hand. The next moment it was silenced, by a quick slit on the throat. At another junction of the marketplace, I saw a live chicken put on the scale to be weighted. It all feels very cruel. But then, this is our life, at least this is the simple exchange place for daily sundries which has always existed in our society.

Then, back to my own work. It feels kind of artificial, working via computers, sending “virtual” information via cables. Our world is so advanced, but sometimes it made me wonder if all these are necessary? Simplicity is the key to happiness – I still remember that was what we wanted to convey to our participants in one of the camps. The IXP – we brought them for a walk in the garden, supposedly to walk through their life enjoying the scenery and at the same time not to forget what is the most important thing to them which may be as small as a drop of water on a spoon – very easy to take care of yet very easy to spill if we’re not careful. To think that I was the person who thought of this idea for this IXP?

All the IXPs and workshops and talks we have been planning for others, am I applying any of it in my life? I feel as if I don’t even have time to think about all these things now.

It takes courage to change job, it takes courage to make a lot of decisions in life. Now, I do feel that people who can leave their corporate jobs and other luxuries of life for something else – like teaching and working for social organizations and just pack a bag of clothes and travel the world (like Ying), it really takes a lot of courage to do this.

If I were to die tomorrow, what would I want to do today? A very simple question, I guess one day is not enough to accomplish anything much. I probably would do what I’ve read before on the answer to this question in one of the earliest Chicken Soup for the Soul books I read – to tell people that I care about that I really care for them, and sorry for not giving them the time that I ought to give…

ttg