When glory days turn to stormy nights
Another eventful day. The headlights were not working very well, so I had to get a bulb to replace the old one. Went to the workshop my dad goes to fixed it, and I was thinking "well, since we're already here, might as well get the foglamp and the trunk light fixed as well. Got it all done at about RM90, and soon after we left.
I had to get myself a TV cable and headed off to our next destination. This is where the story begin. As soon as I reached the electrical appliance store, I got knocked by this guy who's trying to reverse his car, ignoring the countless times I honked at him. I thought "My god, I just got my car fixed and then got into an accident, what luck!" I got down the car and had a damage check, it was just minor a small dent on the front left panel of my Wira, near the signal light. Well the problem here is, back then when a car hit me on the same place, my dad had to spend an amount of money just to respray the whole panel (you can't just spray a small part of the dented area).
So, this guy who knocked my car was someone familiar. He was my secondary school music teacher, Mr Ronald. Well, the fact about teachers: if you're not the top student/or the teacher's pet, he/she might not remember you. Clearly, I wasn't really bright in his class, hence there wano signs of familiarity to him.
Enough about him. About me now; Should I or should I not reveal that I was his student? Clearly, I picked the latter. My reasoning is, I wanted to avoid any pressures on me or him (I don't want him to have any advantage over our teacher/student relationship, and I certainly do not want to pressure him over the same matter). I have to give credits to him, he admitted his mistake, and were willing to pay us the money we deserve. My dad didn't know how much exactly it would cost, so most reasonably, he would jack up the price a little (we all know, everyone would do the same given the same situation, no?). We asked for RM300, but Mr Ronald argued it was too much.
We did not want to send to a mechanic and repair and charge it to him, cos obviously that would be a hassle, and I need to drive that car up to KL, definitely do not have the luxury of time to leave it with the mechanic for days. Nevertheless, Mr R suggested that we send it to his mechanic to judge how much it would cost for the repairs. In the end we got a fair price of RM250 and he paid on the spot.
I knew Mr R is a nice guy, and the kind of guy we could trust. How could I forget the way he treated his student, man, he was THE teacher and I know he is one of the most passionate teacher I've ever seen. The students love him. Just like Matthew Perry in The Triumph.
How could I want to cheat him. At the point where my dad was asking a price he got from the past, my heard literally skipped a beat. I didn't want to cheat on him. He's a great guy.
The journey home was rather quiet. I didn't buy my TV cable in the end. I was angry and at the same time, I was thinking hard. Thinking if I cheated his money, how would I feel. I got myself inferencing that there's always two to anything. In this case, there's two kind of wrong doings.
1. You feel guilty/sad after you do something wrong
2. You feel stupid after you do something wrong
Its very much like robbing a bank. Do you feel guilty for killing the banker after stealing the money? Or do you feel stupid for not killing the guy who eventually reported you to the cops? It depends, really. It depends on which wrong that you feel most comfortable commiting. Its alittle complicated really, the burden is certainly lower if you feel stupid after doing something, its a lesson learned in time. Often, when you feel guilty, its because the risk is extremely high, and it's really something that you wanted to but too much for you to bear.
In most of my case, I stand in between those two. Like today. There's a reason for a lawyer in determining which wrong you're doing.
Soon after, my dad broke the silence.. He said "Son, turn in to the row of shop houses, I think we need to buy number". Well, it made me smile.
I make many of my decisions like that. To be able to feel neutral after that. The most selfish thing to do. But that's me.
A few remarks on movies/TV shows
1. The visionaries of future in Hollywood were never accurate. Just look at Back to the Future 2. 2005 has flying cars and flying skate boards. Man, what were they thinking!?
2. Before all of yous jump the gun and say the industrial giants are the ones causing air pollutions, check out the explosions in the movies! They are the one responsible for all the environmental mishaps!
3. Do americans use fans? I've never seen one in any movies.. A standing or table fan at least?
4. Koreans must die of Cancer, while Chinese must have heart attacks when they are angry/betrayed.
5. The Anchorman rocks big time!
I had to get myself a TV cable and headed off to our next destination. This is where the story begin. As soon as I reached the electrical appliance store, I got knocked by this guy who's trying to reverse his car, ignoring the countless times I honked at him. I thought "My god, I just got my car fixed and then got into an accident, what luck!" I got down the car and had a damage check, it was just minor a small dent on the front left panel of my Wira, near the signal light. Well the problem here is, back then when a car hit me on the same place, my dad had to spend an amount of money just to respray the whole panel (you can't just spray a small part of the dented area).
So, this guy who knocked my car was someone familiar. He was my secondary school music teacher, Mr Ronald. Well, the fact about teachers: if you're not the top student/or the teacher's pet, he/she might not remember you. Clearly, I wasn't really bright in his class, hence there wano signs of familiarity to him.
Enough about him. About me now; Should I or should I not reveal that I was his student? Clearly, I picked the latter. My reasoning is, I wanted to avoid any pressures on me or him (I don't want him to have any advantage over our teacher/student relationship, and I certainly do not want to pressure him over the same matter). I have to give credits to him, he admitted his mistake, and were willing to pay us the money we deserve. My dad didn't know how much exactly it would cost, so most reasonably, he would jack up the price a little (we all know, everyone would do the same given the same situation, no?). We asked for RM300, but Mr Ronald argued it was too much.
We did not want to send to a mechanic and repair and charge it to him, cos obviously that would be a hassle, and I need to drive that car up to KL, definitely do not have the luxury of time to leave it with the mechanic for days. Nevertheless, Mr R suggested that we send it to his mechanic to judge how much it would cost for the repairs. In the end we got a fair price of RM250 and he paid on the spot.
I knew Mr R is a nice guy, and the kind of guy we could trust. How could I forget the way he treated his student, man, he was THE teacher and I know he is one of the most passionate teacher I've ever seen. The students love him. Just like Matthew Perry in The Triumph.
How could I want to cheat him. At the point where my dad was asking a price he got from the past, my heard literally skipped a beat. I didn't want to cheat on him. He's a great guy.
The journey home was rather quiet. I didn't buy my TV cable in the end. I was angry and at the same time, I was thinking hard. Thinking if I cheated his money, how would I feel. I got myself inferencing that there's always two to anything. In this case, there's two kind of wrong doings.
1. You feel guilty/sad after you do something wrong
2. You feel stupid after you do something wrong
Its very much like robbing a bank. Do you feel guilty for killing the banker after stealing the money? Or do you feel stupid for not killing the guy who eventually reported you to the cops? It depends, really. It depends on which wrong that you feel most comfortable commiting. Its alittle complicated really, the burden is certainly lower if you feel stupid after doing something, its a lesson learned in time. Often, when you feel guilty, its because the risk is extremely high, and it's really something that you wanted to but too much for you to bear.
In most of my case, I stand in between those two. Like today. There's a reason for a lawyer in determining which wrong you're doing.
Soon after, my dad broke the silence.. He said "Son, turn in to the row of shop houses, I think we need to buy number". Well, it made me smile.
I make many of my decisions like that. To be able to feel neutral after that. The most selfish thing to do. But that's me.
***
A few remarks on movies/TV shows
1. The visionaries of future in Hollywood were never accurate. Just look at Back to the Future 2. 2005 has flying cars and flying skate boards. Man, what were they thinking!?
2. Before all of yous jump the gun and say the industrial giants are the ones causing air pollutions, check out the explosions in the movies! They are the one responsible for all the environmental mishaps!
3. Do americans use fans? I've never seen one in any movies.. A standing or table fan at least?
4. Koreans must die of Cancer, while Chinese must have heart attacks when they are angry/betrayed.
5. The Anchorman rocks big time!
posted by Jules at 1:35 PM
3 Comments:
Hi Julian. I would like to make a correction regarding Back To The Future Part II that you've written. The future visualised in the sequel was 2015, not 2005. So we have 7 years left. Hehe
Oh! hahaha thanks thanks! 7 years eh.. but i doubt it, really
now that you've mentioned, i just noticed americans don't usually use fan lolol.
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