to respect is to love

it was a dull gloomy day...it has just rained. the air was still humid n the wind was whistling softly...in fact it was a friday~ n being hee for almost a month n 2 weeks, i go to temples weekly to pray to ask for assistance n to ask for hope~ ^^

n so toda was like any other fridays~ took d lrt str8 to pasar seni n walked about 15 mins  n thee i reached the temple...to those hu noes~ its a ganesha temple~ ^^

haha..hmm..so aftr praying n spending some time there, i went hoe~ gosh it was raining` n luckily in god's grace i brought an umbrella~ so s i was waking under the shade of the umbrella, walking thru the rain, passing petaling street, i saw this white couple looking thru a map~

n i guessed they were looking for sum place....approaching them i told myself "plz dunt ask me, plz dunt ask me.." well thts bcoz im not a new person here myself..hu noes if they were to ask sum hotel n i will b like.."er....hehe..arghhh" 

guess u gt my point! ^^

n as i pased them,

"excuse me, pasar seni station?"

*arghhhhh* 

so i was like..ow ok! pasar seni station, juz the place i was going to head  back to hostel...

"er, you can folo me sir, im going htere too.." ^^

(sopan kan aku?)

so we were walking...i was wit my umbrella, n they were without any~ bt it was juz drizzles la..so i guess it was ok~ at one time i wanted to offer mine to the lafy~ ( mind u, shes pretty hot!) *winks* but a hot lady always gets a hot guy, n so , hahaha~ well i kept it to myself~ lol! so we were walking~ erm for about 5 mins~ haha...

so whe v reached d station the guy was like "thank you" it this bow...the bow tht indians do to welcome sumone....u noe? the vanakkam sign? ^^...fine! heres a picture of it~ ==

n ya, he made this bow, n i was like, oh ok~ i mean i didnt really notice the reason for him doing so, n so i bowed my head sightly showin gratitude..n we went our own ways~ ^^

so i came back, reached my hostel, went up to my room n wanted to get a bath...when i went to the mirror, i realised i had this red n yellow ash on my forehead, ( the ones indian put on their forehead as a religious symbol), i mean i din actually realised coz i usualy put it whenever i pray u c..so it wa snormal..n then at tht moment, i remembered the white couple, the guy hu did the vanakkam bow to me...he aw my forehead n realised tht i was an indian n perhaps juz frm a temple.....

i realised tht the culture n tradition of a certain society is actually the true symbol of identity of a person, knowing n practicing the norms of our fore fathers has been a generation-to-generation-custom-pass-over.

it is an honour to actually practise them without havinthe sense of being looked as an outsider or even 'unusual'...people hav this idea in which the norms tht they practised which were traditions of their elders were sum sort of an unusualness. adding the fact tht nowadays most youngsters especially dunt really follow n practise the norms their parents n grandparents usually practise....

 i admit tht i myself dunt really practise the norms my grandparents hav done b4 but to actually hav at least 10% in u has proven tht people  actually recognize hu u r~

hw wud a white man could noe tht the vanakkam is a symbol to welcome, thank sumone politely n even bididng farewell at times? the same goes to us...hw did v get the idea of hand shaking is to show agreement between two parties, to say hello, or even thanking sumone professionally?

i guess the answer lies in the culture that we are n hav assimilated in...people tend to learn another culture to respect n to show love...i believe that sumtimes in a foreign land where none speaks ur languae nor understand u...the only communication tool is culture itself....

raise ur hands n wave a litte wit a "hello" to grab attention....
use thumbs to point n show direction as to ask for them as well...

smile to show welcomeness, gratitude, and even making new frens...
hand shake to thank...
wave ur hands to bid farewell....

these r the simple way of a beautiful practice in this universal culture....
it is the norm tht v learn n the practise we adhere to tht people actually learn them to b apart of one of us so tht they dunt feel left out n tht  we dunt feel uncomfortable being in this presence.....

for the case of the white guy, i truly appreciated wat he did n respected him for hu he was...we grow up wit various culture among us...wit various practices and ideas,  bt at the end, as a citizen, moreover as a malaysian it is our task n our duty to follow our fore fathers to learn their ways of life...of coz to assimilate them 100% in or lives today is quite impossible as ways of life chnge thru time...however knowing basic culture is one simply foundation to maintain a pinch of our culture....

afterall, to respect our culture is one way to show our love...
i mean  u may hav 10% of it, bt the respect there n the luv will come along...
the more u hav the more u gain..

culture is indeed the way of life! ^^