ConTinuitY

The time was clocked at 2245 when I waved GoodBye to Mr. Ben and thinking that this was a time later than what I had expected, I hurriedly get myself to the correct side on the platform only to realized that the train would only arrive some 30 minutes later, if it would be puncture to the displayed time.

Minutes passed by without being wasted blankly with few important phone calls made and messages were sent out. Recalling some of the exciting knowledge which I had just learn earlier today, time went on silently and it crept by quite soon as the train had finally came.

Prior to boarding this train I had certainly thought bout the prospect of arriving at the interchange station and had no more train in operation by that time, but after some thinking I still put my weight onto the train, which is fairly vacant already.

I didn’t quite feel at ease with this train so emptied after been seeing for years of crowded compartments in these trains.

‘Well, at this hour, this is the absolute norm’. I thought to myself.

Meanwhile, I was still pondering on the plausible scenarios when reaching the interchange station.

Let say when I reached the central KL station and find that operation had been called a day, I should find myself a cab without much difficulties.

‘Yeah, right!’. A reassuring voice runs across my mind.

‘Wait, that would mean after midnight and cabbies would charge sky-rocket fare!’ Thinking of this issue at hand, I made a blunt and bold move to step down at the Salak South City station, intended to change service provider from KTM to Rapid LRT, betting my luck on the better speed of the LRT against that of its counterpart, I switched.

At that station, I was apparently not alone. There were handful number of people doing the same thing as I would, wait for the oncoming train, only difference was they weren’t busy checking their watches.

‘Now what, good, even my phone is going to shut itself up’. Wow, this would make sure I had no any other way to call for aids should the need arise.

Call for aid, at the thought of this, a spiraling wave of acetylcholine must have run through my neuro-junctions, trying to think of who can I ask for help, I tried with efforts to think of someone, from somewhere, with something(the car!), and a map to come to the then-to-be-decided last station.

No one. I could think of names, but it would be a big asking to ask and it might take ages for them to wander around the city of Kuala Lumpur before locating me, and with my dying phone, if these people got lost in their quest, then many more people would have been called to come to help many more people in town.

If my friend in this similar situation as I faced, I would be raring to come to the aid. But when it would be me calling the attention I could really not think of anyone else available, pathetic.

Resorted to cabbies, I had to carefully choose a station which would leave me nearer to where I wanted to go back to. Station Hang Tuah would be the finest amongst all others; at least it seemed to be.

‘Hang Tuah, Hang Tuah…To HANG here really berTuah’. I thought to myself in a bemusing away.

Even the Station Gate had also been locked and had to wait for the guard to unlock it before I could step out to see where I had gotten myself to.

A main road it seemed. And this hour, it meant no cabbies who are sane would wait over the station gate for businesses.

‘Where do I go from here?’ I was hoping that I had the answer to this question.

Waited there before deciding on the next move, but no taxis have passed by.

‘I will walk’. Affirming to myself determinedly I set out the stride to search for cabbies in the dark night.

‘Could it not be greater?’ Because this was then the sky started to shower the blessing on my shoulder, through the rains.

Wet, by the merciful raindrops. 

Walking for this distances was indeed installing some wonderful feeling and it gave me the urge to make sure this would not repeat themselves in the near future, and I grew even more determined that in order to prevent a repeat I shall see myself to the successful side in areas in life as well.

‘I dream about it every night and day, spread my wings and fly away, I believe I can soar, I see me running through an opened door… I believe I can fly’
Humming the powerful song, my pace got faster as I made crossing the massive huge junction with car occasionally flying by.

There was a Chinese restaurant to the opposite end, and the rain got heavier, even more wet, then I saw 2 cabbies some 200 m away, lining up for the traffic light to signal green. Right handed person normally use the right hand subconsciously, as a dexterous person, my right hand was raised, and this was obviously my attempt to capture attention.

‘Come, come, and come’. Whilst repeating this chant silently to myself.

It came to me!

The driver was asking for RM 25, within my estimation, but I would not pay more than RM 20, so I throw down my take-or-leave it offer, RM 20. He hesitated. I hoped intensively that he would just nod his head.

‘Ok’. This is the best response I ever received from a taxi driver!

I did not let this journey back a boring journey. Initiated conversation with him, talk from the rising price of Toll to prices of domestic goods, then to how they run their profession, enquiring on what are the additional qualification needed if I want to drive cab for part-time purpose, and learned from him the insurance for the cab is charged higher premium, wait, a lot higher, 3-4 times higher if pardon me.

Finally, a journey that would have taken just 30 minutes, turned out to be 2.5 hours when I finally set foot into my home. A repeat of this is certainly, never allowed to bring itself to life, never!

Switched on the phone, and there was very heart warming and comforting message lying unread, syuen asked what would I say if she want to come and fetch me home from the Hang Tuah station, hmm..other than ‘Thanks’ I didn’t know what to say anymore.

Thanks!

Attention been captured by a song which is being played on Tv lately, it did it magic in obtaining my attention courtesy of the starting scene of its MV that played a soccer match, i thought that would be Wayne Rooney in Manchester United jersey but it wasn’t, then ended up i notice the name of Nickelback and the name of this song, Gotta Be Somebody. The next thing that could claim a place in my memory bank than the name of the performing artist must be the lyric part which was being sung with compassion and enthusiasm, and that just must have made the meaning of the lines even more profoundly clear and energetic!

Gotta Be Somebody, i am sure everyone of us wish that we were somebody, even when we were just at the very young age some 10 or twenty years ago, we wished that we would be the superhero on our favorite TV show, we might also wished that we were the elder which we admired so much, then as we grow we might even wish that our identity had swapped place with somebody else who had greater success than us, and so on.

We wish we were somebody, but hardly everyone who made the wish take massive actions to become that somebody, most of us lacks the ‘gotta be somebody’ enthusiasm.

And for those who act toward their goals, when hope seems to falter, remember, there’s at least someone who cares for you, even the somebody you wish to become would mean disappointment to that person because it has conflict with that person wish, even though when you have become the somebody you wish to become that person could not become your somebody anymore, that person would still  care so much for you, because everyone wants to be like someone cares, and there’s gotta be somebody right there.

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This time, I wonder what it feels like
To find the one in this life, the one we all dream of
But dreams just aren’t enough
So I’ll be waiting for the real thing, I’ll know it by the feeling
The moment when we’re meeting, will play out like a scene
Straight off the silver screen
So I’ll be holding my own breath, right up ’til the end
Until that moment when, I find the one that I’ll spend forever with

Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There’s gotta be somebody for me like that
Cause nobody wants to do it all on their own
And everyone wants to know the night alone
There’s somebody else that feels the same somewhere
There’s gotta be somebody for me out there

Tonight, out on the street, out in the moonlight
And dammit this means too right, it’s just like deja vu
Me standing here with you
So I’ll be holding my own breath, could this be the end
Is it that moment when, I find the one that I’ll spend forever with

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It would take a very gracious and glorious evening for this to happen and yes it took place in the end.

This has been one of the thing that would thrill me off my slumber and keep me in intense anticipation for time long enough to last, say, a decade would be too over-exaggerating, but if given time of a decade to prove-test this hyphoteses perhaps i could provide a proof to this statement.

Although most of us live in the same area, and after yesterday meet-up i suddenly realized that actually everyone of us is still breathing the Klang  Valley air, at least at present time. But to have all of these people to come to a reunion dinner seems easy on the paper but it has not been quite easy as a matter-of-factly after 2 consecutive tries in 2 years, the first year saw 3 people unable to present themselves and this time, yesterday, even more disappointing-ly, 9 absentees.

It now seems to be my most ambitious wish to have these 37 peeps to gather together for another time, not for any formal purposes but solely to rejoice and to share what are the going-ons in our daily life after so long a time. These are a group of 37 people with each and every one of us injecting an unique personality into the environment and atmosphere and this created a very heart-warming feeling to me.

These are a group of people if given enough time in every day, i would love to spend a subjected portion of time to each and everyone, these are a group of people whom i would happily walk an extra mile for them or go an extra mile for them at any time of the day.

It sent a very warmth into my heart when i receive Jie Yun’s writing to me telling me that somehow what she felt bout these people is just about the same with how i feel toward this group of people. The noises, the laughters, the tauntings and the way they rush to seize the camera attention are very very dear-to-heart and this energetic act had often ignited the reluctance to leave even the clock been ticking loudly to signal departure.

some 85% of them will be singing their graduation song few months away from now, wishing them all the best from here till there.

Timed at 1^st Feb year 2009 as my present tense, I can hardly recall when was the first day that I came about to know about you. What I know so well at this very moment is that it has taken quite a massive weight and role in my life from that very first day onwards.MPH Bookstore. Admittedly, I had a very strong desire to really seize this chance so that I could know more about you, to understand you more deeply. However the actuality was that I left you from there and never again saw you for the next time hence.

Our first cross was not expected, but that beautiful encounter took a very short time yet has had an important impact on me. It didn’t need any reminding to make me thinking bout you after that. True enough, and after some times I saw you again at Subang Parade

Seeking deeper into my memory now, I remembered that merely after a year of gracious time, I saw you again and this time you were the attention to many people as well, the intensity was ever stronger than a year before. I must admit that it took deep grief to watch you passing-by this time, thought I might as well forget bout you for good then, I might have told myself subconsciously.

Strong flows of appreciation take my heart away when I come to realize that you and I would meet again as fate decided for us to rejoin the unfinished story. I watched with utter amazement on the wonderful impression laid on me by you. Yes!

Ever since then I have found it superbly satisfactory to immense my head into your presence. I have always said silently to myself that massive credits should be given to Mr. J.R.R Tolkien, for without his superhuman imagination and inspiration, you would not have materialized into this world, you- The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy.

I personally love this story very much but it was until I have my fingers and eyes on the printed version of this trilogy did I start to really get drawn into its magic. The author could have been from elfish background himself, having written, no no, created a world that is so real in the middle-earth itself, with a distribution of the biosphere that consist of the shire, mirkwood, mordor, gondor, rohan, Lotlhorian etc; if this has been fascinating, the author must have thought otherwise, that was why creatures like hobbits, elves, men, dwarves, wizards, and notably the ents from Fangorn Forest were brought into the world of middle earth, even more amazing, he created the elvish languages, and inserted many poems and riddles into the story, this has arguably added a lot more substance to a story which was initially worth reading thousand times!

The wonder of this series is not that it has a near-to-reality characters and world in it, but the values that one could find in the story itself have been very pure and true.

Many people were fazed by the ‘creature’ called Smeagol, or better known as Gollum, because of its appearances and its characteristic also stemmed quite deeply into the viewers’ heart. There is a lesson one can learn from Smeagol for his role in this story.

Obsession can cause madness and drive away conscience to turn someone into a psycho! His obsession toward the one ring not only made him murdered his close pal, but also drove him away from his people, his residence, and caused him to live in darkness for ages. When the one ring was finally lost to Bilbo Baggins, Gollum could not bear the pain of losing the ring and hence wandered around middle-earth to try to seize back the ring that once belonged to him. His obsession toward that one ring even ‘derived’ a stronger yet devilish side, giving rise to the 2 personalities of Smeagol. Likewise, Obsession in our real life, no matter it is toward money, achievement, or ideal partner, may also cause havoc if we do not have the wisdom to balance passion and obsession.

Look at the allegiance between the dwarfs, elves, men itself that said to be ‘once existed’, when the battle in Helm’s Deep was brewing, Rohan merely stand a chance against the Uruk-ai from Isengard, but at the dying seconds just before the war exploded, the elves from Rivendell were sent to aid, and if this is too big a picture for us to see anything, look at the ‘mighty trio’ of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, despite they are from different background, race, or creature in this case, they sticked together as though they are part of a ‘One’, and their unity brought so much strength to them, carried them pass from the first challenge, through Helm’s Deep, then even through the Death Valley, the importance of unity and the strength of unity was so well put by the author.

Examining the Hobbits also give us some teaching from the story. Frequently we can find quotes like ‘so small the halfings’, yet, these halfings have the ability to accomplish big things, like carrying the one ring deep into the enemy’s fortress, like Pippin lighting up the flame that set armies into Gondor’s aid, like Merry knifed the rider of the Nazgul to save Eowyn’s, like Samwise Gamgee saving his master from the spider, Shelob, size did not matter, but the determination and the will matter most for all things. Everyone can do or achieve anything.

Then take a look at our wise wizard in Gandalf. In the first part of this trilogy we saw that he had a fear in going into the mines of Moria because he did not know if his strength could lead him to triumph against the Balrog of Morgoth. But he did not run away from this fear, did not escape from this uncertainty. At the end of the day, he faced it with stern heart, he even said to Aragorn ‘sword have no use against this enemy’, when he himself had yet tested his staff on this enemy, what he did was to face the challenge, and he did it, he defeated the Balrog and sent it down to earth, only its whip caught him unnoticed did he fall to darkness before killing it. The best way to overcome fear is, to face it!

There are many more good values in this trilogy that I would have love to highlighted but time claimed the better of my ability to do so. But somehow I would love to point out the thing I saw in Aragorn and Arwen, as they both has always had FAITH and HOPE, no matter how dark and despair the environment suggested to them. Arwen even almost gave up her life just because she believed that the hobbit would have the ring destroyed, she held on to that belief just like Aragorn held on to it, the battle in front of the Black Gate demonstrated very well that he had enough faith and hope to believe in Frodo to finish the task.

Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky,

            Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

            One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

            One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

            One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

The one ring could have been a boon, but it has turned out to be a bane,

It could have been a blessed gift, but it turned out to be a cursed ring,

It might have done good to all kind of lives, but it caused evil and suffers.

In our life, a single thought could have been constructive, or destructive, and what makes the difference is … our CHOICE!