With a little bit o’luck…

I am a simple man, a simple old man…living a simple life, a simple and ordinary life…with a roof over my head and I drive an old 1.3 1st-generation Proton Wira. People have often asked me why I would not get myself a new, more impressive and flashy car. Well, I don’t see the need to as the old jalopy still serves me very well – at least, it gets me from one place to another (and like I told my blogger visitors, Sibu is so small – every place is about a hundred metres away) and it does not cause me any problems at all…and for someone my age, there isn’t much left for me to flash, is there?

The other day, however, somebody reversed right into the back of my poor car – stationary and parked out of harm’s way (Not quite, obviously!), and broke the taillight, left side…

Now, don’t those VERY impressive and VERY flashy CRVs have sensors that will beep like nobody’s business when one is reversing and getting close to something? Tsk! Tsk! How did I respond to that? I was so distressed that all I could do was to exclaim mournfully, “Aduhai! Aduhai!!!! Kesian my kereta tua!!! Jangan lah keep banging the poor thing!!!” (This was the 3rd time, by the way! Same position, same situation!)

Well, to cut a long story short, I had the light replaced – RM45 only. What do you expect? It’s a Malaysian car and it’s a made-in-Malaysia spare part. I wouldn’t have got away that cheaply had it been one of those expensive “impressive and flashy” cars. The bumper is not really aligned…

…but it does not matter as long as it is not about to drop off or anything.

I guess somebody up there was watching me that very same afternoon when I was coming out of the shop after buying a ticket – RM2 only…in the hope that a little bit o’luck may come my way after that unexpected stroke of misfortune. There, right outside the shop, I saw a man, armless, sitting by the pavement (never saw him around before) begging for alms and without a second thought, I gave him all the change I had in my hand…and as they say, what goes around comes around and it most certainly did. That night, when I checked the draw results, this was what I saw…

Lo and behold! My car number came out 3rd prize……and for RM2, I would get RM1K and that would more than enough to cover the cost of the new taillight.

I went to claim the money the other day and as it was not a draw day, there was only one counter open – the sole non-Chinese lady in that shop that I frequent. To me, she always seemed very sad – I had never seen her smile and all the time,  she would just sit there doing her work – I guess she could not converse or socialise with the other ladies as they would be speaking Mandarin, all of them being Chinese. But after she had passed me the money, I took RM10 from the lot and gave it to her, saying, “Kasi awak minum kopi (for you to drink coffee),” and for the first time ever, I saw her smiling and I swore I could see tears welling in her eyes…and somehow, at that point in  time, I felt a nice feeling deep inside and I smiled back at her and left…

Of course, I am not expecting to strike again just because of what I did but the thing is I do believe that sometimes in the course of a long and dreary day, plodding on and on doing a thankless job just for that little bit of money at the end of the month to put food on the table…

…and make end’s meet, it may get a person down and a little gesture that may not mean much to us may go a long way to make that someone’s life a little better…if only for a moment. Ever so often, I have heard or read all the rantings, all the criticisms, all the cursing and swearing at the people at the service counters in government offices, banks and places like that…and I do believe that if everybody is nicer to them, some, if not all, will surely reciprocate. Don’t you think so?