Reacquainted

My colleague and I had a discussion with BigBoss yesterday afternoon about a survey we plan to issue. At one point, BigBoss used his Bagan Datoh hometown to illustrate an example. He then began to detail the town and the economic activities the locals are engaged in. At our blank expressions, he asked if we ever go back to hometown or kampong to which my colleague said yes but it’s mainly an annual affair and that is to celebrate Eid, while my reply was: I go back to Ampang for Eid. He was silent as he digested my reply.

We then continued our discussion and he raised another point. Again, this was greeted by blank expressions and silence, well at least on my part. In exasperation, he asked whether we watched Malay dramas or movies. My colleague shook her head and I said, ‘I don’t watch Malay dramas; I watch Korean dramas.’

Reflecting back, I wonder if he perceives me as a clueless city girl (at least my colleague goes back to her hometown for Eid). He probably thinks I don’t know my roots (he got that at least almost right for sometimes I wonder about my roots too. Especially since I get mistaken for being a Chinese, Vietnamese, even Japanese a lot). The thing is the persons I can ask from are all dead. Gone. I asked Mummy once and she got upset and I gather it’s because she probably doesn’t know either. I have a vague idea as to where Abah’s side hailed from.

But I’m not all naïve. I may not watch Malay dramas or movies or that touching programme depicting people living in sad conditions but I’m not ignorant. I know such people exist. I don’t have a rose-tinted view of the world. After all, I learnt Social Corporate Responsibility at graduate school. And I did spend a weekend on an exchange programme somewhere in the heart of Jengka when I was a still wet-behind-the-ears teenager [OK so it was only a weekend but at least I had that experience unlike some of my classmates who missed out because their parents didn’t allow them to go on the exchange programme].

Anyway, I spent the better part of this morning calling up various states, trying to talk and find out if they do have such information that we are seeking. Not an enjoyable experience, having to place calls through the hardly-there operators and trying to speak to the right person when I finally got connected. And I have never spoken so much Malay in all my life before (at primary school, we spoke a mixture of English and Malay with my Chinese and Malay friends; and at boarding school, even though my friends were all Malays, we spoke a smorgasbord of languages - Malay, English and our own unique lingo of words). I was so tired after making those phone calls.

If after reading the above you think I idolise the Western culture, way of life and language and reject or neglect my own, you’re very much mistaken. Because I am equally intrigued with things Oriental as I am with the great ancient civilisations of the West and the Islamic world. Because I do eat local food and I can speak my mother tongue quite fluently [it does takes longer but for this morning’s calls, I didn’t need to write out a script] although my Malay may sound strange and formal. Because I (silently) boycott (some, not all yet, slowly getting there) American brands in my protest over the Iraqi war.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to rest.