Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The waiting game

Post 103 Time cost

I casually asked a friend who is a businessman to sum up in a few words how his business was being operated. To my surprise he gave me the answer: business here is a waiting game. I did not press him for clarification but just gave him a smile. His time cost therefore depends on how long he has to wait and how urgent the matter is. For me lining up at shopping malls' pay counters is one of the reasons why I avoid going to those places during sales carnivals.

Attending wedding dinners is another test of patience when the waiting game can be a few hours during prime evening time. In a city like Kuala Lumpur, seasoned dinner guests do not even have to bother to look at the time printed boldly on invitation cards. When it says dinner will be served at 7.30 pm sharp, just add ++ to make it 8.30 pm and you will not be far off tangent. Occasionally when VVIPs who were the guests of honour came late, dinner would become supper being served at 9.30 pm.

There was a Punctuality Campaign organized by a Chinese-based political party in the 1980s suggesting that all wedding dinners should start at 8.00 pm and end at 10.00 pm. The rationale was that attending guests could still have quality time with family members at home after dinner. The proposal turned out to be merely a flash in the pan. Old Habits Die Hard!

The waiting game in life sees all of us as experienced actors and actresses wondering when the game would be over.

26 July 2011

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

A basketball match to remember for life

Post 102 Pandemonium broke out

In the early 1950s I sneaked out and walked about 15 minutes from my house one evening to a school basketball court. The basketball court in the rural area where I was staying was not paved with cement. When players ran around the court, one could see the red dust coming up from the ground. Nevertheless it was a match much awaited for, especially for a little boy of eight years old like me. My childhood friends told me the two teams playing were champions from neighbouring small towns.

Just as the game was about to end, with my favourite team leading by two points, I suddenly heard someone shouting “Red-head soldiers are coming! Red-head soldiers are coming!” followed by a pandemonium at the premises of the basketball court. I was disappointed that the exciting game had to be abandoned and I hurriedly weaved my way out through a panic crowd. When I was about to reach home, I heard my father yelling at me for he had been frantically looking for me. He dragged me to the house and asked me repeatedly whether I knew the great danger I was in.

I learnt in my growing years later that the much feared Red-head soldiers were from the Federal Reserve Unit or better known by the abbreviation as FRU. They were called Red-head soldiers because they wore red helmets. Its main duty is to disperse illegal assembly, riot suppression and to maintain public order.

I wonder who would have won had it not been for the appearance of the Red-head soldiers. I still do not know why they were there. At that particular moment when the game was stopped, I thought the Red-head soldiers were truly the wet blankets!

19 July 2011

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Why?

Post 101 Why not?

I was asked to say some words of wisdom after giving a talk to a group of thirty graduates. I told them I have some to tell them, if I must.

“Do what you are interested in and good at, and excel in it. When others ask you why, tell them politely why not?”

When we are too concerned about the opinion of others, we lose our designated direction. There is a need for the nurturing of our critical thinking and the ability to make our own decision. All men are born equal but no two persons are alike. Hence it is wise for us to concentrate on only one career in our life and do it well. We know our own strengths, inertia and aptitude. Others do not.

A medical graduate told me in the 1970s that he was not interested to be a doctor. The logical question to be asked was why then did he take up the course? “I did it because my father wanted me to”, he said. He then enrolled for another course in literature. We met up 30 years later and I came to know that he did his medical practice three days a week. He spent more time now travelling with his writing and drawing. He knows what he wants in life.

As a rolling stone gathers no moss, do one great thing which we have a passion for. One is a greenhorn when one is young but becomes an authority in one’s field of study when one is experienced.

I feel good living my own life.

12 July 2011

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

From a single digit to three digits

Post 100 Follow through on our plan

I attended a motivational course in the 1990s and what caught my attention was the story of ‘eating an elephant’. The facilitator told the class figuratively that it was impossible for anyone to finish eating an elephant within a day. However, it could be done by eating a small portion daily for a year. The moral of the lesson is that when we develop a plan and follow through it with sustained effort, we will succeed ultimately.

When I started writing this blog, I gave myself three years to do so weekly. There are 52 weeks a year and in three years there will be 156 blogs written. It may take two to three months extra to reach the figure due to the vacation taken in between writing. The beginning is always the most difficult. Now that my blog has reached 100, I have left the beginning far behind me.

One of the most common excuses we hear of nowadays is not having enough time. Time is what we make it out to be. When we put our priorities in life in a proper perspective, we can then use our time wisely. One must control the time and not the other way round.

When we have a plan for achieving our target and a deadline for its attainment, we need not lament over the lost opportunity by saying ‘I should have done that!’

5 July 2011