Bored?

Today, the security personnel guarding the entrance of my gym told me that my name is very similar to her son's name. Except that instead of "A", he uses an "E". Apparently, he is also more "beautiful" than me. When a couple of Yeahs and Uh-Huhs from yours truly didnt live upto her expectations of a decent conversation, she dismissed me.

Idle chats. Boring as hell.

You would think that after that experience, she would be too proud to start another conversation. Ever. I thought as much. But this was only the third time the conversation had played out in the same manner. The crux has always been the similarity of the names but over time, my Yeahs and Uh-Huhs have become shorted and shorter.

She must be bored to death.

This is despite the fact that because of the recent outbreak of Swine Flu, her position has become much more powerful as nobody gets inside unless she says so. Further, she also gets to ask for visitors' IDs, phone numbers and sometimes comments on the similarity of their names with her son's.

Some jobs simply slow down everything for you.

Then again, there are worse jobs out there but when matched adequately to the individual, it is a bright spot to run into them. In KL, I used to frequent a particular shopping mall almost every other weekend. The entrance to the parking lot is granted if you press a button which would simultaneously issue you a parking ticket and raise the barrier. Its easy and hassle free. All you need to do is line up your car, roll down the window, reach out to the switch and bingo, you are inside before you know it. But like most things Malaysian, it can never be as straight forward as that. There is of couse a guy standing right next to the switch-board. Since the lane is narrow, you have to manage the complicated task of not running him over. And you have to do it despite your best intentions to the contrary. But then the guy smiles, issues the parking ticket for you and bows to an impossible angle as he passes it to you. You feel good and sufficiently important. So much so that you even let others get past you in the elevator.

And then you think that he does this for at least 500 visitors a day and you wonder what they pay him to remain so cheerful all the time.

It has to be for the love of life.