+2 Dimensions
(1)
Roughly 10 years ago, my parents discovered their favourite restaurant somewhere 15 mins of drive from my home. They went there so often and they liked the restaurant so much to the extent that whenever they finished eating, they would stay there for awhile to chat with other customers who shared the same table (all tables of the restaurant were unusually big).
Sooner they also realised that there were also people who, like them, like this restaurant so much and visit it frequently. Then they became friends.
One of their friends is a bald old man in his sixties. He is very talkative and extroverted. So I have quite some impression on him when I followed my parents to the restaurant.
Later, I got to know more about his background. He is a bachelor (and therefore needless to say, he does not have any children). He is illiterate. He worked as a factory worker for his whole life which was largely consisted of manual labour. He used to have some chronic heart illness. Some years ago my parents drove him to Serdang Hospital to conduct a major surgery. Things got better, but as his past medical history implies, he is no longer the same as a healthy man.
He retired somewhere 7 or 8 years ago and now he mainly lives off a few hundred thousands Ringgits from his Employees Provident Fund which he withdrew when he retired. Though the absolute number of few hundred thousands seem quite a fortune for a normal person, we must remind ourselves that wealth is relative. A few hundred thousands are actually very little for an illiterate, retired old man in his sixties with bad past medical history and no kids
That last sentence is what I am trying to highlight here. At many moments I can't help to imagine being him, and the word "awful" inevitably crossed my mind.
What can I envision? What can I look forward to tomorrow?
There is no one at home waiting for me. Everyday I need to keep an eye on some food which could possibly cost my life. I can't read, which means that I will miss out some things which I can get to know (But I don't know what I don't know anyway, so it might not matter that much?). I have some money, but it's quite unlikely that I can make more. So the remaining days are purely all about subtraction, counting down the reduction of bank accounts until nil, counting down days until...hmm.
I realise the questions which I framed earlier about envisioning and looking forward to tomorrow are strangely youthful thus completely off the mark to a man in sixties. Probably those questions are only relevant to me and people at my age (therefore it is no surprised that I thought about those questions). Probably those questions are nonsensical and not even a concern for him at all.
His life is strange for me (thus it sparked so much of thoughts in my mind). Because I have never imagined life in sixties in such a form. I believe none of my peers imagine their sixties to be like that. We all hope that it would rosier and less gloomy.
I also feel funny on the contrast between (a) him feeling that his days are pretty good (he is now helping out the favourite restaurant as cashier and in return the restaurant gave him free food and he has a lot of friends there) eventhough he is already in his sixties, and (b) me feeling "I don't know how to go through tomorrow" at 27. I still have 30 years to create things.
______________________________________________________________________________
(2)
My father has a childhood friend who also lives in the same town as us. They often meet each other to catch up on life. So recently my father's friend faced a problem. He let his shoplot to a guy to run a restaurant business. That guy had not been paying rent for more than 3 months. Further, that guy had also failed to pay all utility bills for many months and up to date the outstanding amount of electricity bills is over RM 10,000. And that guy is still there, in the unit.
So the normal questions people tend to ask, or the things that people first think about are:-
- What does your tenancy agreement say?
- Did you issue warning to the tenant?
- Why did you not chase him out? Are you crazy? You are still allowing him to be there.
- You have collected deposits right. You should have evicted him way earlier. You should not even tolerate at all at the very first moment he failed to pay rent!
- Did you make police report?
- How come this guy doesn't afraid at all and he still can run his restaurant everyday without failing shame?
There was no written tenancy agreement. My dad's friend tolerated him months by months when he did not pay (I believe he gave a lot of nonsense excuses). No police report was made. No written warning was given. My dad's friend is quite reluctant/hesitant/afraid to chase him out.
And yes. He is still running his restaurant (wtf?).
I can't fathom. For me and many of my peers we are so risk-averse and we often feel very paranoid if we are ever near to breaking any laws/offending any people. We follow all the "procedures", "rules" (that's why I mentioned about "written warning" earlier, that's what we think is necessary). That's why this restaurant tenant guy already sounds extreme enough for me.
Maybe this is a problem of being overeducated. For many years since I entered university, while I was quite happy learning and getting a degree, there was another voice often popping up in my mind i.e. "Studying too much of theories made you a stupid nerd, the real world is different and it requires being street-smart".
This is Klang, this is Malaysia, this is business. This is not university, there are no classrooms, there is no examination. It is less about ties and suits, it is about humans. It is about making profits or lose.
This is the real world.
Roughly 10 years ago, my parents discovered their favourite restaurant somewhere 15 mins of drive from my home. They went there so often and they liked the restaurant so much to the extent that whenever they finished eating, they would stay there for awhile to chat with other customers who shared the same table (all tables of the restaurant were unusually big).
Sooner they also realised that there were also people who, like them, like this restaurant so much and visit it frequently. Then they became friends.
One of their friends is a bald old man in his sixties. He is very talkative and extroverted. So I have quite some impression on him when I followed my parents to the restaurant.
Later, I got to know more about his background. He is a bachelor (and therefore needless to say, he does not have any children). He is illiterate. He worked as a factory worker for his whole life which was largely consisted of manual labour. He used to have some chronic heart illness. Some years ago my parents drove him to Serdang Hospital to conduct a major surgery. Things got better, but as his past medical history implies, he is no longer the same as a healthy man.
He retired somewhere 7 or 8 years ago and now he mainly lives off a few hundred thousands Ringgits from his Employees Provident Fund which he withdrew when he retired. Though the absolute number of few hundred thousands seem quite a fortune for a normal person, we must remind ourselves that wealth is relative. A few hundred thousands are actually very little for an illiterate, retired old man in his sixties with bad past medical history and no kids
That last sentence is what I am trying to highlight here. At many moments I can't help to imagine being him, and the word "awful" inevitably crossed my mind.
What can I envision? What can I look forward to tomorrow?
There is no one at home waiting for me. Everyday I need to keep an eye on some food which could possibly cost my life. I can't read, which means that I will miss out some things which I can get to know (But I don't know what I don't know anyway, so it might not matter that much?). I have some money, but it's quite unlikely that I can make more. So the remaining days are purely all about subtraction, counting down the reduction of bank accounts until nil, counting down days until...hmm.
I realise the questions which I framed earlier about envisioning and looking forward to tomorrow are strangely youthful thus completely off the mark to a man in sixties. Probably those questions are only relevant to me and people at my age (therefore it is no surprised that I thought about those questions). Probably those questions are nonsensical and not even a concern for him at all.
His life is strange for me (thus it sparked so much of thoughts in my mind). Because I have never imagined life in sixties in such a form. I believe none of my peers imagine their sixties to be like that. We all hope that it would rosier and less gloomy.
I also feel funny on the contrast between (a) him feeling that his days are pretty good (he is now helping out the favourite restaurant as cashier and in return the restaurant gave him free food and he has a lot of friends there) eventhough he is already in his sixties, and (b) me feeling "I don't know how to go through tomorrow" at 27. I still have 30 years to create things.
______________________________________________________________________________
(2)
My father has a childhood friend who also lives in the same town as us. They often meet each other to catch up on life. So recently my father's friend faced a problem. He let his shoplot to a guy to run a restaurant business. That guy had not been paying rent for more than 3 months. Further, that guy had also failed to pay all utility bills for many months and up to date the outstanding amount of electricity bills is over RM 10,000. And that guy is still there, in the unit.
So the normal questions people tend to ask, or the things that people first think about are:-
- What does your tenancy agreement say?
- Did you issue warning to the tenant?
- Why did you not chase him out? Are you crazy? You are still allowing him to be there.
- You have collected deposits right. You should have evicted him way earlier. You should not even tolerate at all at the very first moment he failed to pay rent!
- Did you make police report?
- How come this guy doesn't afraid at all and he still can run his restaurant everyday without failing shame?
There was no written tenancy agreement. My dad's friend tolerated him months by months when he did not pay (I believe he gave a lot of nonsense excuses). No police report was made. No written warning was given. My dad's friend is quite reluctant/hesitant/afraid to chase him out.
And yes. He is still running his restaurant (wtf?).
I can't fathom. For me and many of my peers we are so risk-averse and we often feel very paranoid if we are ever near to breaking any laws/offending any people. We follow all the "procedures", "rules" (that's why I mentioned about "written warning" earlier, that's what we think is necessary). That's why this restaurant tenant guy already sounds extreme enough for me.
Maybe this is a problem of being overeducated. For many years since I entered university, while I was quite happy learning and getting a degree, there was another voice often popping up in my mind i.e. "Studying too much of theories made you a stupid nerd, the real world is different and it requires being street-smart".
This is Klang, this is Malaysia, this is business. This is not university, there are no classrooms, there is no examination. It is less about ties and suits, it is about humans. It is about making profits or lose.
This is the real world.
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