A Story Worth Remembering

A Makcik Cleaner was cleaning the windows when I was in the studio this afternoon. Aside from moths and other metaphysical inhabitants, we were alone. And being a typical cleaner, she murmured how dirty we were and how she would teach us to be hygenic and for the 5 minute of her constant blabbering, I nodded fakely and re-emphasized her knock-out statements. And after that 5 minutes (I keep my time when it comes to this sort of things. 5 minutes layan. 10 minutes too much!)
I was getting more interested with whatever that comes out from her mouth. I guessed she noticed this and prolonged her duty in the studio. She told me that she's from Boyan. Boyan? "Itu pulau di Timor Jakarta itu." Oh Boyan.. and she told be she had been in Malaysia for 25 years and had worked various domestic jobs.
Stories of marriages popped out from nowhere and subsequently stories of her children. I was in awe with her flow of words; depicting her misery in a casual manner, as if it was something all of us had gone through in life. 3 marriages, 1 dead child, a cheating husband, long journeys and affairs in one scoop of cold cucumber soup. "Hidup makcik ni senang ja dek.." she would say in between stories. "Makcik mau kerja halal!" My heart skipped a beat.
It was courageous of her to travel without assurance but she had made it a point that Patience is the key to almost everything and that doesn't include her first husband. And somewhere along her confessions, I 'clicked' with her, both of us have negative notions towards Kelantanese. "Orang Kelantan tu mana mana pun pelat, dia ingat kita faham cakap dia. Gedebe kunun.. Dia tak sedar.. Ini KL!"
By the end of the day, we met in front of the elevator, I grinned out of empathy but mostly courtesy. She was no longer a Makcik Cleaner but Makcik Hazura and I, Apik.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ek elle.. macam la dia tak sedar yang dia tu pun pelat. Ini KL kunun ... Dasar Boyan.

Ewwaahh .. idup kelate !

Anonymous said...

cets...
racists heh?
per ar anonymous.. Huhu! BUDU(h)
cute entry heh apik! i pooon kwn dgn makcikssss cleaners gak..

this is me
-nonowrites- ;)

cik jem said...

hahahah comel!i like the last part

hanyhany said...

I have a feeling i've read this story before...
Hmm, deja vu

Zafirah said...

usually the makcik cleaners and the pakcik guards are the ppl with a wealth of stories and the most beneficial frens 2 have :) be nice 2 them n u'll get wat i mean.

afiq said...

kan kan?

But most of the time we treat them like they're transparent.

Nono Fara said...

i didnt!
paling kurennnngggg pun i'll smile to them. for me they're real.. confidently! :-)

rotikacangmerah said...

i remembered how my friends & i worked our way thro the m'sian economic recession in UK by working as cleaners ~ twice a day, 20 hours a week, plus as b&b / hostel cleaners in the weekends.

we, the post-graduate degree holders, some with masters, some with phDs, cuci tandas lap meja cuci bilik air vacuum satu ofis duster kosi meja angkat sampah etc etc etc, and if you were lucky you get to be friends with some of the office people. usually, they just looked down on you, naturally. so, watch out ~ for all you know, them cleaners are probably way better than you do academically.

and without them, mana ada dah orang local kita yang nak tolong kita cuci bangunan kita.

mirul said...

kelantanese people are cute.

maybe that's why they're so arrogant. heh.

or perhaps they're just stupid.

but i saw lots of sabahan that can't get rid of their accent?

what your say afik? ;)

afiq said...

It's afiQ.

redpeanutbun, that's a paradigm shift! I'd never thought such circumstance exists. I may be one too in the future, for all I know!

Well I'm not Sabahan so I wouldn't know....

>: p *jelir lidah*

Captain Ray Blacksmith said...

" Tiadalah seseorang itu menyebut tentang Kelantan melainkan Aku akan datang kepadanya "

Surah Aku - Chapter 1, Verse 1

I was prowling the net on my routine patrol for the " Kelantan " word offender(s) when I found this hide out.

Well, maybe the makcik is holding some sort of grudge against the Kelantanese because the Kelantanese cook better than her own kind .. ha ha ha ( pun intended ). But never under estimate the Gedebe culture and who knows, in near future, the normal "Ini KL ! " remark would eventually turn into " Ini (K)e(L)ate ! " .. eheh .. like happened in many parts of Pahang and also Gombak .. he he

Rotikacangmerah,
Yes, same thing in Japan too.
Where part time jobs among foreign students are perfectly legal and you can earn as much as RM40 per hour out of a very decent job, no Japanese would like to do.

From back breaking moving/warehouse works to scrubbing the already shiny and flawless toilets ( unthinkable to many of us ! ) - and mind you, the Japanese probably are the most picky ppl in the World when it comes to quality and social ethics. And they don't have to be Europeans to look down on their own Asian brethrens and that you even have to watch your words when talking to other than your own co-workers .. but still, like I said, the material rewards ( aka money ) are probably the best in the World !

mirul,
Kelantanese = cute ? Yes.
I happened to be one of them.

Arrogant ? Probably.

Stupid ? Too sugestive.

Ha ha

afiq said...

Oi captain!

THAT'S MY JOBBBBBBBBB