This is the modern life. The modern life. That everyone craves and let their mind linger about. This is it, the big destiny, the thing. The big thing, the big bang, the life you wanted. The life we wanted, everyone. The FUCKING MODERN LIFE.
Where should I begin?
Have you ever felt that most of our lives is fixed? YES, if you still haven’t noticed it yet, you life IS FIXED. Big time man, big time. Reason, you ask? Let me explain. Well… Maybe I should start with a brief explanation about two random people that I met in my daily life that I can take as an example.. shall we?
Case number 1: mr X
Mr x is a hawker. He owns a mobile kuey tiow basah shop, which is, according to our town, Taiping’s standard, good and is considered an old-timer who’s been there for like ever. Some of you taiping residents (or been residents, or for those people who just don’t feel you belong there, just keep on reading) might have noticed this old Chinese guy selling keuy tiow basah opposite the old kamunting maybank and beside the old marrybrown(already closed down) pushing into his late 60’s (or maybe 70’s, or maybe younger, maybe its just that he worked so hard that he looked older than what he should have been) with his wife I assume, close to about the same age as he is. And theres another chindian lady, about late 50’s. these 3 people have been selling kuey tiow basah since the day I was born, or maybe been there for the last 20-30 years, or maybe longer. The guy cooks delicious (ok maybe that’s not the picture, maybe I might be biased and all cuz I admit im an ardent fan of Chinese food) and mouth watering kuey tiows n nasi gorengs. Ok enough of introductions, now to the point ( thank god we’re finally there, honey). The thing about this guy is… he NEVER CHANGED AT ALL. Well, that’s my point. This guy(lets ignore the two ladies for now) he works every night at the same time (presumably around 8) and closes down at the same time(11pm something I guess), wears the same attire for the last few years (the white taiping old-timers’ white t-shirt, old apron and old slacks, same dead eyes, same hairstyle(with more white hair this time around), same dried lips, it’s the same guy. Nothing changes. Even the way he cooks, unsurprisingly, is the same. He would take the same amount of oil, egg, then pours and mixes everything else in the wok and puts ‘em on the plate before serving ‘em. It’s the freakin same thing that he does, all his life, to get the same amount of money. Of course, what he does is none of my business, but I’ll reveal my theory at the later stages of this draggy story.
Case number 2: mr Y
Mr Y is a technician. Not very successful, very middle class and very straightforward-kinda character. An avid kaki TOTO, nombor ekor. He would ask everyone for the 4-digit numbers, even kids as young as 3. well, lets not blame it on him. He doesn’t save much for his future, most of his money is spent on household things at home or other stuff. He recently got married (finally, thank god). The thing about this guy is, his life is fixed as well. Why, you ask? Well.. about this guy, whom I’ve known all my life, the only 2 things that changed in his life are he stopped playing football (he used to be quite good at it, even got called up by the Perak state football team for professional football contract before screwing his knee terribly and stopped playing with immediate effect) and the latter, his marriage. Apart from that, his life remained unchanged and static. His life revolves around his family (he lives with his mom and other brothers and sisters, not that they cant afford to stay outside, but theirs is an orthodox and very close-knit Ceylonese family, so you know, they live together) and his job, his siblings’ kids, his pet dogs (don’t be surprised, he’s got more than 20, about 10 had been shot before by the YOU-KNOW-WHO, due to not having the permit) and so on. He had this dilemma just a few days ago; he had to go to Teluk Intan to accompany his wife (they got married last year, according to Indian culture, first year of Deepavali is celebrated with your wife’s family) but he was scared to leaved his sacred place called home. He also admitted not being away from home for more than 2-3 days and his panic buttons were pressed when his mom asked him to go and justify his traditional duties. Okay im done with my two subjects. Now for the theory.
We’ve been born and bred to succeed as our sole purpose in life. Failure is for the drug addicts. That’s what we’ve been told, and that’s what we were asked to prove… success or failure depends on our well being in future life. Most of our lives are fixed, static, we’ve been programmed to do this, do that, go up the ladder, get promotion, and stay there and play the waiting game. Get old and go straight to heaven. That’s exactly what we’ve been told. Subject 1, mr X, his life is fixed, despite not having a CEO job, he’s there and living. In a very immovable way. He’s fixed his life on providing people with kuey tiow basahs and that’s what he’s going to do while he’s still alive. He’d move the mobile shop to the same place every night and do his thing, undisturbed. Same thing with subject number 2, mr Y. He’ll probably be stuck with his dilemma for the rest of his life being subjected to live his whole life being in that same place till he dies, not knowing the taste of the outside world. Not even knowing how to ice-skate. Mr X’s purpose in life is to sell kuey tiow while mr Y’s purpose in life is to serve his family and stay there in the same town doing the same job, eating the same food, get kids and get old.
What are we? Machines with micro chips in our heads? Aren’t we all, predictable? (well, most of us, yeah) when I said predictable, I was referring to our purposes in life. Ask yourself, what is your purpose in life? Im pretty sure at least 90% of people would say the same shit, “I wanna be an engineer, I wanna be a doctor, I wanna be a chartered accountant, bla bla bla…” in short, “I wanna be successful”. Of course there’s nothing wrong in wanting to be successful. But in doing so, we sacrifice everything else which seems like second-best priority. We forget our other important priorities like having fun while being a kid, or even growing up being a kid before reaching adolescence. Some of us failed to experience playing under the rain, do mischievous things like climbing the tree, getting mudfaced while playing football, skip classes in school to go to library to see the pretty librarians, fighting (as in kid fights, the ones you don’t lose your tooth or something like that). Trust me, all these things are a must do. D’you think all these things are do-able when you’re pushing 40’s? life might start at 40, like they say, but they sure missed the life when they’re 14 I guess. All the parent-pressure and guilty conscience makes us yearn to succeed..but all the little things we missed.. think about that, fellas. While trying to attempt to reach the goals.. we’ve sometimes missed some things that might’ve seem surplus to requirements.
Its fixed. Study hard or study smart, burn midnight oil if necessary, get scholarship(if not, get sponsorship from dad) go to a good college or university, get first upper class degree, find a beautiful wife, get 2 kids with 3 years gap in between, buy a house, buy a car, get settled in life, then pass the baton to your kids for them to do what you’ve been doing in life, have a dull empty nest syndrome, buy a house someplace like country outskirts (I wont be angry if you suggested Taiping, cuz it is called retiree’s paradise for some reason you know) and spend the remaining years of yours, celebrating yearly festivals like raya or Chinese new year, one year after the other, with your children now having their own kids stepping into their shoes. Now what?
It’s a cycle, of course. In my opinion, success in life doesn’t come with good job and curvaceous wife, and a twice-a-week great sex alone. We need to get some life in it as well.. have fun, doesn’t matter if we don’t score all A’s, the most important thing is make others happy, live life to the max, help others, and do some shit that you can reminisce about in the future, where you can say you’ve been there, done that with a mile of smile.
Shun the non-believers, she said.
