On commuting

That day I revisited my former commuting days using the public transport to work. While waiting for the next train, I watched the lady sitting next to me on the bench sewing a cute baby girl dress. She seemed a bit apprehensive when she noticed that I was observing her work. If I were less shy, I would approach her and tell her that the dress is very pretty and that she’s doing a great job and that I’d like to learn from her. Onboard the train, I saw two mothers with their babies, one looks about 6 months, and the other a year plus. The sight tugged my little heart. Babies. Sleeping in a commuter train at this time of the day.

Mujurlah Adik dapat sambung tidurnya dalam komuter ni. Aduhai.. harap-harap nurseri di ofis sebelah dapat terima kes emergency ku hari ini. Kurang-kurang dapat ku jenguk-jenguk waktu rehat nanti. Apa nak buat – orang gaji lari lagi. Nasib baik Adik tak apa-apa. Sanak saudara jauh, jiran pun tak dapat bantu, nak ambil cuti pun tak feasible sebab ada meeting penting hari ni. Teringat perbincangan ku dengan Abang semalam. Nampaknya tak dapat lagi aku nak berhenti kerja. Kira-kira kami atas kertas: hutang PTPN, hutang rumah, hutang kereta, duit dapur.. itu belum masuk duit untuk mak ayah, aku pun mahu menyumbang kepada mereka! Tak cukup. Mungkin aku perlu lebih aktif mencari pendapatan tambahan. Rakan sepejabatku minggu lepas beria-ia mengajak aku join bisnes MLMnya. Tapi nanti terpaksa pula aku korbankan waktu malam dan hujung minggu pula.. aduhai.. Ku kucup dahi Adik. Maafkan Mama, Adik…

In the evening, the wait was longer for me to get to the nearest commuter station from my office. Traffic crawled at snail’s pace. The bus didn’t stop because it’s already packed. I stopped a taxi, but a man got the door first. He said to me “Sorry”. Ah, there’s the white van, my colleagues told me the white van would take me to KL Sentral. I rushed along with several other passengers towards the van.

Mujurlah van putih dah sampai. Memang aku tau van sapu ni dikira ‘haram’, baru semalam aku baca dalam suratkhabar kerajaan nak bertindak menangkap pemilik kereta persendirian yang angkut penumpang tanpa lesen. Tapi bagi penumpang seperti aku, adanya van ni bagai rahmat. Waktu menunggu sekejap, selesa, dan harga berpatutan. Orang atas sana apa tau? Cuma duduk dalam kereta mewah yang dipandu orang lain, atas seat empuk sambil baca suratkhabar, dengan polis menyediakan laluan untuk memotong orang lain yang beratur masa traffic jam. Yelah.. kami ni bukan orang penting… aduhai…

The next leg of the ‘race’ involved ‘fighting’ for your way into the commuter. I lost the first fight, and waited for the next train. Alhamdulillah, I managed to squeeze in this time. To say that the commuter was packed would be an understatement. You can bid your wish not to touch or be touched by other commuters goodbye. If you’re lucky, maybe you happen to be surrounded by people from the same gender. If you’re lucky, maybe you won’t get back or neck pain from standing in an uncomfortable posture for so long. Within my limited sight, I saw a couple pretending to use the packedness of the commuter as an excuse to snuggle up to each other, with the girl’s head resting on the guy’s shoulder and the guy’s hand resting on the girl’s hip. My cold stare met the guy’s gaze but he quickly averted. Okay, so they were non-Muslims, but the signs on the windows clearly stated that ‘indecent behaviour’ is prohibited. The focus of my attention moved to the girl with the tudung labuh over there, she seems to be memorizing ayat al-Qur’an. Now that’s one thing you can still do to fully utilize your time, how inspiring – something I should emulate. A lady gave up her seat for a pregnant lady.

Mujurlah ada orang mahu beri tempat duduk. Aduhai… penatnya bersesak. Dahlah penat seharian bekerja. Dan di rumah pula, selonggok pakaian tunggu dicuci, beras dan ayam tunggu dimasak untuk jadi nasi dan lauk. Ku gosok perut boyotku sambil berbicara sepi pada Alang, apa khabar sayang, tak tendang-tendang lagi perut Ibu petang ni? Aku bayangkan penuh rindu Along dan Angah yang sedang menanti di rumah, tak sabar untuk bermain dengan Ibunya, setelah seharian ditinggal di rumah pengasuh. Tersenyum ku sendiri, bagaikan hilang penat sebentar. Ya, aku perlu kuatkan diri demi suami dan anak-anak.

Note: Rants (or rather, whines!) in italic are totally just figments of my imagination.