By JEAN
A whole new world unfolds on the LRT if people take notice of what’s happening around them.
THE Malaysian government is always encouraging people to read. Yet, books are so expensive. For the price of a book, we can have a nice, decent meal at an Italian restaurant.
We’ve been told to read “when waiting in line, on the bus or in the train”.
I was an advocate of this until recently, when I realised that people tend to lose sight of what’s happening around them when they are so lost in their books.
One time, I noticed a girl with a tattoo of a daisy on her breast while I was on a train. After that, I began to take an interest in the world around me.
The train is especially crowded after office hours and filled with grumpy, gloomy, exhausted and nasty people.
I think they’re all hungry because they’re sulky. A hungry man is an angry man. So, it’s always nice to see someone who’s not on the way home from work.
I always know when I see a someone who’s not from the city. These people are usually very kind and gentle.
They are too decent to fight for space in the train and usually line up regardless of the long line. And they mutter under their breath for having chosen the worst time to ride the train.
As a person who works in an office and commutes by train daily, I know complaining about rush-hour madness does not make things any better.
So we should all be calm and cool about it. Take a deep breath and count to 10 before exhaling. That does wonders in reducing stress levels.
Once, I noticed an Indian guy – dressed up in a simple, plain-coloured shirt and a pair of jeans, and carrying a knapsack – looking lost and helpless. He wanted to take the train to Masjid Jamek in Kuala Lumpur, but somehow got on the train towards Ampang.
Perhaps his sixth sense told him that he was in the wrong train, so he asked one of the RapidKL employees who happened to be in the train, “Masjid Jamek? Masjid Jamek?”
The employee looked him in the eye and said, “No, no. You must take another train.”
“Hmm? How?” The guy looked confused.
“Just stop at the next station, and go to the opposite track and wait for the next train,” explained the employee patiently.
More confused than ever, the passenger moved on to another passenger and asked the same question – and received the same answer.
I figured he either just came to the city or it was his first time on the LRT. It reminded me so much of myself taking the train on my first day of work. Everybody seemed to know where they were going.
Anyone who commutes by train will know that there are rules to be followed: Do not eat, do not smoke, do not drink, no indecent acts, etc.
Ocassionally, I’ll notice one or two disobedient passengers. Like as the lady who devoured her french fries and beef burger without realising that the rest of us were trying to ignore our hunger pangs.
Or the young, passionate gentleman who was so in love with his girlfriend that he kept on stroking her hair and kissing her as if there was no tomorrow.
Sometimes there are people who do crazy things to endanger the lives of everyone on the train.
A bunch of rowdy teenagers were having a loud conversation when all of a sudden, one of the boys said, “Hey! Do you know that these doors can be opened, even though the train is moving?”
All of his friends were amazed.“Really?”, they asked.
The boy, young, defiant and self-righteous, was eager to prove himself. He proceeded to slide the doors of the carriage open while the train was travelling at top speed, 20m above the highway.
He managed to open the door about 6cm and looked back and beamed at his friends.
“Wow! Why don’t you open it all the way?” asked one of his friends, obviously amazed at this daredevil act.
I was starting to think that I should whip out my camera and catch them red handed, when a wiser friend of theirs said, “Umm.... guys, I think it’s not such a good idea.’’
In the city, one cannot afford to adopt the “can’t-be-bothered’’ attitude. We have learnt through experience that prevention is the best medicine.
Once, my brother was standing in a sardine-packed train, with both hands in his pockets. His handphone was in the back pocket of his jeans.
A few minutes later, he realised something amiss and discovered that his phone was gone.
He looked around him to spot the possible culprit and just when he thought he had spotted the criminal, the train came to a halt at KL Sentral.
The thief took one long look at my brother, waved the handphone high up in the air, waved farewell with the other hand and skipped nimbly out of the train.
My brother was stunned and couldn’t believe he had just been robbed in broad daylight!
One of my friends who was in her first trimester of pregnancy was once onboard a train to Kelana Jaya. She was experiencing nausea, dizziness and yet, was too shy to ask for a seat in a crowded train.
At one point, she couldn’t take it anymore and had to sit on the floor. It was then that people were alerted to her situation and asked, “Are you alright?”
By then, she was too weak and merely gave a nod. “What else could I have done?”, she mused over lunch later.
Yes, taking the LRT is indeed an arduous task. It requires great stamina, wit and generosity to make it through to the other side safely.
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