‘Tis been abt a month now since I got back from the States. sure enough, alotta things back home have changed since I left for college many years ago. some guys insisted that I was sure to feel homesick when I got back, having left Bloomington, the place that had been home for the past half a decade, but frankly speaking, I wasn’t sad or anything. hell, I wasn’t even thrilled when I finally got here. I arrived at KLIA feeling pretty much indifferent: something I truly hadn’t expected. not sure exactly why, but eh, whatever...
5 years have passed by and like I said, quite a lot has changed in the time of my absence, although not necessarily for the better. for starters, my trip back home was shitty as hell. gone are the gorgeous, curvy MAS stewardess of the past, and the what we have now is a bunch of model wannabes who aren’t exactly the most aesthetically pleasing human beings on the planet to look at. the food was crap as usual and the awesome SNES games that I remembered playing when I left for the States have been replaced w/ watered down shit that’s passed off as “entertainment”. what a load of crap.
as for Malaysia itself, I guess I would say that the standard of living of the country has improved, albeit marginally (i.e. we have relatively better services like a slightly faster internet connection, more roads, shopping malls, facilities, higher wages? etc.). but then, when you think how much the cost of living has risen, and rather disproportionately, over the past few years, it’s no wonder why a lot of ppl have been complaining abt everything being so damn expensive these days (which rings esp. true w/ the most recent gas hike).
I went to McDonald’s w/ my brother the other day and I was shocked when I found out that our meal cost abt RM25. I mean, holy shit over 20 ringgit just for 2 ppl at McDonald’s!!?? 5 years ago, I could spend maybe abt RM12 for a value meal + an extra sandwich or two and a pie, but nowadays, such a thing would be impossible. and let’s face it ppl, the food at McDonald’s sucks Moby Dick. the ONLY reason why any sane person would eat there is because the food is cheap and convenient to eat. I know, since I’ve been eating that shit for 5 years while in the States, and I was completely aghast when I found out that I’d have to spend RM10 for a goddamn fast food meal, which is less satisfying than spending abt the same amount of money say, eating briyani at a mamak stall for example. so if the food’s not exactly good or even cheap, you’d seriously have to wonder why we Malaysians even bother to dine at fast food restaurants anymore.
I also found out (rather late) that we apparently don’t use the RM1 gold coins. so here I was, trying to pay my meal at a restaurant in Shah Alam, and the cashier asked if I had 1 ringgit, to which I got out an RM 1 gold coin that I had kept all these years in the States, thinking I could finally put it to use back home. unfortunately, the woman simply looked at me w/ a befuddled face, as if I had just personally farted her in the face out of spite, and then told me that the money was no longer valid.
well ain’t that some f’n class-A shit.
fortunately, the cashier was also kind enough to inform me that the 1 cent coins are no longer used as well (which sure as hell saved me from another potential major embarrassment moment).
it’s funny how one could return back to one’s own roots, and yet feel so out of touch, or even alien with it, especially considering that I only left the country for 5 years, which isn’t really that long (at least I thought it didn’t seem that long). most of the people I know are either married and/or have finally gotten their own kids; my younger cousins are all grown up, looking pretty much different than the way I remembered them back then; and many old relatives, and the family cat: Abu, have all passed away…how time flies so fast…and it’s strange that I’ve pretty much stayed the same throughout all these years in spite of all of these drastic changes around me. feels kinda like Rip Van Winkle finally waking up from his slumber or sth.
a few weeks back, I met some familiar faces from my primary school days at a friend’s wedding. most were somewhat surprised to see me there, as they hadn’t expected to see me show up after being gone for so many years. some commented that I looked different: not sure if it was the hippy-like ponytail, or the facial hair that gives off an uncanny resemblance to my old man, but one thing’s for sure, quite a number of ppl (including relatives) commented that I looked thinner (which is very odd, since I though almost everyone else seemed wider by comparison). like I said, I’m pretty much the same guy as I was back then: slim, sarcastic and sly as ever. nothing’s really changed. sometimes I wonder if I’m a “man forgotten by time” or some shit. that or maybe up in an attic somewhere, there’s a portrait of myself that’s looking uglier.
random literary references aside, the past week has been considerably challenging for the family since my old man had to undergo an open heart surgery (specifically a coronary artery bypass surgery) quite recently. it was supposed to be a simple angiogram (a procedure to check the condition of the heart’s arteries) that was conducted sometime early this month, but upon seeing the results, the doctors strongly recommended to perform the bypass since his arteries were already quite clogged up. it was even more frightening for us because the night after the surgery (which already took 8 hrs), my dad suffered an internal bleeding, supposedly caused by one of the new arteries grafted “coming off”, thus forcing the doctors to perform an emergency surgery and reopen his chest to fix it the problem. Alhamdulillah, it went well and after spending some time in the ICU, he has been transferred to a regular ward yesterday, and is now slowly recuperating. it’s kinda sad to see him there, lying helplessly on the bed, just struggling to cling on to his life; but even sadder for me to realize that the time will come that he too will be gone as others have...
yeah, things change. at 25, half a decade has gone by and although I’m somewhat saddened with all the changes that has occurred, or is occurring around me, but life goes on and I’m grateful and relieved for that. on an unrelated note, for those who didn’t get the memo, I’m apparently an uncle now:
name’s Alanna Citra Raqiya (following the tradition of my siblings’ strange-sounding names no doubt)
lil’ bugger craps a shitload and farts as if her noxious gases were made of sunshines and rainbows (and she even laughs abt it!). a few weeks back, she apparently learned to clap (mostly to the tunes of her fave shows: Noddy, Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Tank Engine and a certain insufferable purple dinosaur that I would love to murder someday), and like any proud parent beaming w/ joy, my sister said that “she (Alanna) is a very smart girl, since she learned how to clap, esp considering a baby her age"(she'll be 1 year old on June 30th btw), to which I simply responded:
“well not to be mean, but retards can clap hands too y’know”
