life could have been more difficult...
I just realised that I have things that need money to settle. I have yet to service my car and my daughter need her immunisation and we are already late. On top of that the banks had already called me to remind me that they need my cheque for my credit card bills. To complete all, I have less than RM1k in my current account and today is only the 14th (it’s not even half month yet). What should I do then? What would my father do in this situation?
I remember the times when my parents used to tell me stories about their lives when they were at my age and my situation. Be it in school or when they started to work. Most of the stories make me feel and say to my self “life could have been more difficult”. I joined the rat race hoping that I can have a good life and good career. But I was wrong and no work in the world can make you happy unless you don’t work. No matter how much you work, you have to work anyway.
Let me start with the story from my mother. I was told that my grandparents work hard to raise their family. My grandfather was a “kuli” in the Public Work Department and my grandmother was a homemaker. My grandfather’s pay was less than RM100 then so to make it they have to do something else for the side income. So, they decided to sell nasi lemak and pulut inti/sambal (my grandparent makes nice pulut inti/sambal). So, in the morning, they will wake as early as 3.00 a.m. to cook the nasi lemak and pulut. It will take some time to cook and pack the nasi lemak and pulut. After all is done in the morning, at around 6.30 a.m. or 7.30 a.m. my grandfather will bring the nasi lemak and pulut in a basket on his bicycle to a coffee shop near the place where he works which is about 10km from their place. He will then leave the nasi lemak and pulut at the coffee shop to be sold. One pack would cost 5 cents at that time (the price we can never dream now due to inflation). The shop will take 1 cent from each sale as commission and leave 4 cents to my grandparent for the price of the nasi lemak and pulut. So, my grandfather will sell about 100 packs of nasi lemak and pulut per day and that gives him RM4 each day and if we were to take out RM2.50 from the income of the day as capital, that will leave them with RM1.50 as profit. So, per month they will earn about RM36 extra but not without the hard work.
This goes on and on and on until my mother and my uncle start working in the early 70’s. But not without having to gone though several incidents. One of them was when my late grandfather was hit by a motorcyclist and all the nasi lemak and pulut were thrown over and scattered all over the road. When my mom was on the way to school, she saw all the nasi lemak and pulut on the road and she stopped with tear rolling out from her eyes as she knew that was the nasi lemak and pulut from my grandfather’s basket. My grandfather was not there since he was already at work wringing his sweat out at that particular time. Thus, no income for that particular day since the road has taken the income of the day.
Comparing it to my life today, I don’t have to wake up at 3.00 a.m. (I will if there is a Champions League match) to start work. I don’t have to cycle to work and I don’t have to go through all the things they have gone through every month some time ago. So I tell myself again, LIFE COULD HAVE BEEN MORE DIFFICULT.
I will narrate the story from my father some other time.
I remember the times when my parents used to tell me stories about their lives when they were at my age and my situation. Be it in school or when they started to work. Most of the stories make me feel and say to my self “life could have been more difficult”. I joined the rat race hoping that I can have a good life and good career. But I was wrong and no work in the world can make you happy unless you don’t work. No matter how much you work, you have to work anyway.
Let me start with the story from my mother. I was told that my grandparents work hard to raise their family. My grandfather was a “kuli” in the Public Work Department and my grandmother was a homemaker. My grandfather’s pay was less than RM100 then so to make it they have to do something else for the side income. So, they decided to sell nasi lemak and pulut inti/sambal (my grandparent makes nice pulut inti/sambal). So, in the morning, they will wake as early as 3.00 a.m. to cook the nasi lemak and pulut. It will take some time to cook and pack the nasi lemak and pulut. After all is done in the morning, at around 6.30 a.m. or 7.30 a.m. my grandfather will bring the nasi lemak and pulut in a basket on his bicycle to a coffee shop near the place where he works which is about 10km from their place. He will then leave the nasi lemak and pulut at the coffee shop to be sold. One pack would cost 5 cents at that time (the price we can never dream now due to inflation). The shop will take 1 cent from each sale as commission and leave 4 cents to my grandparent for the price of the nasi lemak and pulut. So, my grandfather will sell about 100 packs of nasi lemak and pulut per day and that gives him RM4 each day and if we were to take out RM2.50 from the income of the day as capital, that will leave them with RM1.50 as profit. So, per month they will earn about RM36 extra but not without the hard work.
This goes on and on and on until my mother and my uncle start working in the early 70’s. But not without having to gone though several incidents. One of them was when my late grandfather was hit by a motorcyclist and all the nasi lemak and pulut were thrown over and scattered all over the road. When my mom was on the way to school, she saw all the nasi lemak and pulut on the road and she stopped with tear rolling out from her eyes as she knew that was the nasi lemak and pulut from my grandfather’s basket. My grandfather was not there since he was already at work wringing his sweat out at that particular time. Thus, no income for that particular day since the road has taken the income of the day.
Comparing it to my life today, I don’t have to wake up at 3.00 a.m. (I will if there is a Champions League match) to start work. I don’t have to cycle to work and I don’t have to go through all the things they have gone through every month some time ago. So I tell myself again, LIFE COULD HAVE BEEN MORE DIFFICULT.
I will narrate the story from my father some other time.
posted by Kampong_Boy at
12:30 pm
2 Comments:
well bear...times are hard but not as bad as it was in the past. just bear in mind dear...things could've been much worse..but hey, look at you now all grown up hooked to a beeeeeeeeeautifuuuuul babe with a kid in tow & all..i guess you got the better end of the bargain. eh? :)
ya loh... beeeautiful (honey say it like Jim Carey in Bruce Almighty). better end, yes... thank god for that...
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