Melaka

Last 2 days, an old friend from Melaka called me, updating stuff, exchanging news - the usuals that people do when they haven't meet each other for quite some times.  Talking to her reminded me why it is hard for me to fit in at Melaka during my early months there.  She talks like a bullet train.  To my ears, she talks relatively like the speed of light.  I find it very strenuous listening to people who talks way too fast compared to the time my brain needed to absorb the points.  It's tiring.  It makes you wonder whether you've become one of those deadwoods who can't understand what people are talking about.  It takes some time for me to finally be able to comprehend with the speech speed and finally move with the flow.

During the telephone conversation, I think, I told her about 5 times to talk much slower - but somehow the comprehensible speed only last for a good 30 seconds before she moves back to the bullet train speed.  Oh dear.

Now that I'm back here, in my solace zone, with all the normal rate of talking, I'm beginning to worry whether I'd be able to cope all those things again when going back to Melaka later.

*  *  *

Now that I'm back to being a student, I'm getting used with the 'student' style talk, where you don't really have to control the content of your conversation due to the worry of being gossiped and bad talked by the administration staff.  Being in the industry, that kind of thing doesn't seem too significant or worth taking time to ponder much.  But, working at a government body, in an academic line, surrounded with students and of course, constant liaison with the administration staff filled with akak-akak or auntie-auntie, things like what kind of tudung you're wearing, or what car you're using, or how many days you didn't wash your car seems to be the utmost importance.  Being there, you try your very best with your 'adult' talk to avoid being misjudged by these people so that you would not be part of their topic in the continuous gossip session.

Now that I'm tuned to my rocking student talk again, I kind of putting aside the 'adult and full of hypocracy' talk aside.  It feel so good to finally be able to converse in a laid-back manner, where you don't have to worry about washing your car, or mismatched outfit, or straight-forward talk.

So, during the same conversation with that Melaka friend, she was - how shall I put it - making a statement that criticizes the position of an academic member - which I feel reaching to the extent of mocking the role of an academician.  Ok, fine, although I am not really an academician by heart, but somehow I felt this urge to kind of defend the academicians role in the society.  She said something about how life would be much difficult is you are to be an academic member of a university and do research and publish papers and journals.  Macam profession yang tahapa-hapa.

As for me, how are you going to conserve the amount of knowledge you've gained if you did not practice it, expecting to just teach it to the students...?  That's - bollocks.  That's slide-reader lecturers.  How are you going to identify the latest technologies implemented in industry if you did not dwell yourself with latest research?

And so, since I am still in my 'student-mode' talk, I think my point of view becomes too bold for her.  Although I didn't tell her all the things typed above, the only statement I said was "Amboi...cakap besar pula kau kutuk-kutuk lecturers" just merely an attempt to pull her back to ground and stop bragging about he so-called-work at Petronas (yang boleh tidur-tidur dalam surau waktu petang-petang).  She said that my statement strucked her which causes her to be a bit distracted during driving (she's calling me while she's driving).  

Not intended pun.  But, for me, if other academician actually hears what she says about this profession, I think they too would feel irked and irritated.

And, I think I need to tone down with the 'student-mode' talk, or else, everybody will begin to avoid talking with me because my degree of directness can reach a level that not many people can comprehend.

By which in this case, me being the quite and timid person exteriorly is actually a bless.

And which explains why I find it easier to fit in with people like Azmul because my words or statement doesn't seem to 'cut' through him - unlike some people yang post statement macam bangsat dekat Facebook over a statement triggered by his own action.

Gosh, I can never forget that, eyh...  Hehe..

Actually, only very recently that I finally feel through the lyrics of Drama King (by Meet Uncle Hussein) and that song reminded me to none other than that freaking jerk.  Seriously, a good song, a straight lyric.  I like!