an interesting encounter

I had a very interesting encounter with a particularly charming guy. Everything about him was so different. I saw him at a bus stop while waiting for my sis. I was the one who made the first move. I offered him a seat beside me. He was standing so that he could see the bus coming so, he replied politely that it was okay and continued standing. Then, he saw me reading and asked whether I was studying for examination. I replied, “No, I’m just reading lecture notes that were taught today.” Then, I continued talking to him. I introduced myself about being a first year medical student and about my hometown, etc. And then, I asked him about the location of his house and which bus he needed to take and so on. Apparently, he was there to HKL to visit his friend. We continued on to chat about few other things which seemed to be quite a lot for that short period of time. The short-lived conversation i had with him gave me a quick insight into his life.

Then, I offered to hold the bus on his behalf and asked him to sit,but he politely refused. But, my being a stubborn girl refused to accept his answer. I added that it would be my pleasure to hold the bus for him. He replied by saying that although he knew that it’d be my pleasure but again, he said it was okay and thanked me profusely instead. I was really amazed by his gesture. I could feel an immediate strong attraction towards his independent and truly cool personality. Afterwards, he continued the conversation by sparing more information about his seemingly interesting life. He shared that he is currently living with his friends. I was thinking about asking him about his family but I was afraid that I would offend him in any way by doing so, thus i decided to wait and let him spill the details himself if he deemed it to be necessary. Shortly after, as though he was able to read my mind, he started to tell me about his family.

Once he finished telling me about his family, he volunteered the answer to the million dollar question about his age, although I never actually asked for it. The very moment he told me his age, I was dumbfounded because it never occurred to me that he was so much older than what I could possibly imagine. I spontaneously blurted out that, “Wow, you look so much younger than your real age.” I asked him about his secret to looking that young and he generously shared that it was all contributed to staying fit by exercising regularly. I was inspired by his answer because it is hard to remain motivated to lead a healthy lifestyle nowadays. A few minutes later, his bus came and our short, sweet meeting had to come to an abrupt, almost tragic ending. I wished that I had given him my phone number so that he could at least contact me in the future. But, it is all too late to ponder now. The worst part is that I forgot to even get to know his name. All I know is that he is a 82 years old gentleman who is currently staying at Taman Melawati. He married a Japanese woman and is blessed with five children- two sons and two daughters and one adopted child. And he has a whopping 22 grandchildren. Once his children were married, he asked them to live on their own with their own families though they will come to visit him occasionally on weekends. So, if any one of you know a man with such a strong personality and wisdom that matches the information that I have given, please let me know the details. He looked just like my late grandfather and I wish I could perhaps spend more time with him. My last word to him was about the passing of my grandfather but if he were to be alive, he would be around his age. And the last image of him that is still so fresh in my mind is of him saying goodbye to me from inside the bus (which is really so sweet of him)..

movies

I just had a wonderful day spending my night with a movie marathon which led to this day being undoubtedly one of the best days in my life. I was blessed to have the rare chance to watch two Oscar nominated movies back-to-back three days prior to the actual Oscar ceremony. Plus, I went out with a sister who's really such a gem. How I wish that all days could equate to something like today. Let me share about the movies that I watched which totally made my day-The curious case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire. Former is a movie about the beauty of something that is so out of ordinary and the latter is the beauty of something so simple yet, the way both stories were told was totally mind-blowing. The former tells of a story of a guy who aged backwards and how people perceived him as an old guy although he had only a child's soul. And how he missed all the normal joys of growing up as a kid but, as he actually grew younger (which was actually older), he found himself savouring every moment of his life, gaining memorable experiences along the way and how he had to accept the reality of life when he had to watch those he loved dying before him. Of particular significance was his love story when he fell in love with Daisy while they were both kids and how their love never faded through time although he was getting younger and she was growing older. Meanwhile, the latter tells of a story of a simple, honest guy who was forced to face the realm of poverty at every stage of his life since his childhood in slum, who found himself suddenly at the edge of becoming a millionaire when he enters a contest-"who wants to be a millionaire?" Yet the interesting part is that he did not reach there by luck or by his intelligence but pure coincidences which ended up relating the questions that he was being asked in the contest with real events in his life that had affected him deeply. The way the director started the movie with a question and ended it with an answer was extremely creative too. This movie also carried an important, underlying message that you should never underestimate those who are more unfortunate than you. Hope others can have the privilege of watching these superb movies like me too.

well,just to add on.. here is a better description of slumdog millionaire that I read in NST written by Mahendra Ved, definitely better than the one that I wrote.. He said that Slumdog is not an Indian film but it is definitely about India and its (I’d actually preferred ‘her’ instead of ‘it’) seamy underbelly. It is about irrepressible spunk, crushing poverty, loads of luck, nascent love and Bollywoodish masala, all packaged in that inimitable Indian idiom of song and dance, rendered in captivating rhythm and cinematic texture, which clearly had cross-cultural appeal.. wow, certainly a superb way to describe all the nuances in the movie..