LRT Laments

Reading this post on Ubi's blog reminded me of one time I took the LRT when I was pregnant with Nuaim. The carriage was quite full, being after-office peak hours and all, so no seats were available. I stood facing a not-so-young but still healthy looking man, my big tummy almost invading his personal space. Standing next to me was a young lady. After a couple of minutes, still no one offered me a seat, and I was resigned to having to stand all the way back to Kelana Jaya when the lady next to me addressed the man in a clear voice, "Uncle, this lady is pregnant."

Everyone must've heard her, so the guy sheepishly got off his seat and offered it to me.

But seriously, it's amazing how after all these years, we still have not figured out who should give up their seats to whom. Despite the 'Budi Bahasa Budaya Kita' campaigns on TV, which showcased a guy pretending to be asleep when an old woman, a pregnant lady and a blind man in turn embarked on the LRT, there are still people who blissfully ignore the sign above their heads that say 'Arent' We a Courteous Lot?'.

When I was studying in the UK, men would readily give up their seats to women, irrespective of whether she is pregnant, old, handicapped, carrying children/heavy bags or not. That's what they call chivalry, and it's not old-fashioned. In KL, it's a whole different world. Sometimes, I see a young couple sitting together, and I'm tempted to say to him that the way to a girl's heart is to act the chivalrous knight and offer pregnant me your seat. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I'd be mightily impressed with my guy if he did that. Hang on, if he didn't do that in the first place, he wouldn't be my guy at all.

Same goes with being courteous and polite to waiters/waitresses, cashiers and even public toilet cleaners. Of course it's their job to do all that stuff, and they do get paid, but there's nothing wrong with giving them a smile and a 'thank you' once in a while, is there?

One of my pet peeves is seeing people pay for stuff with their credit cards without even facing the cashier, as if it was beneath him/her to even lay eyes on the person working at the counter. If you're some rich Tan Sri's offspring with unlimited credit limit that's a different story, but most of the time the payer is just an ordinary Joe (in one real-life observation, the payer was a university student surviving on a $400 monthly overdraft facility). There's no need to behave so arrogantly - who knows, the person behind the cashier might be another university student like you, only working part-time, so at least he doesn't have to worry about paying off his monthly overdraft.