Today, the revered Daw Aung San Suu Kyi celebrates her 61st birthday (though I'm not too sure if 'celebrate' is a correct term... given the circumstances)... Unfortunately, she won't be blowing any candles... unless if the Junta decides to buy her a cake. I highly doubt that would happen.
Who the hell is Aung San Suu Kyi... well, I'll skip the facts (you can wikipedia it yourself) and go straight to what she means to me. When I knew about ASSK... I reckon I was about 14. It was through her that I learn that not everyone who is in prison are 'bad people'... If there's anything else that I learnt was that sometimes the people who put the so called 'bad people' in prison are the real bad people themselves.
Despite it being ASSK's birthday, I find myself showered with gifts these past 3 days. Not really gifts actually... more like random acts of kindness; which when received unexpectedly are the kind of things that you'll cherish for as long as you can remember (sounds redundant, but I forget easily). Little gems that help keep the world in perspective... that the world is not as fucked up as I would think it is.
Here are exact accounts of these random acts of kindness...
Saturday, 17 June 2006
I was in Central Market hoping to catch a free dance performance by friends of friends. Unfortunately, the traffic was horrible that day and I missed the performance completely. On top of that, being in a bus for an hour straight calls for some serious bladder emptying. I rushed to the toilet when I arrived. Alas! No coins, all I had was a RM 10 note and the entrance fee for the toilet was 30 cents (I think I need to review the phrase 'the entrance fee for the toilet'. I made it sound like some theme park. But then again, in Malaysia, toilets can be just as amusing as theme parks). The attendant had no change and stared blankly at me... I stared back at him with an agony in my eyes. We could go on forever, staring back and forth... fortunately a nice samaritan behind me tapped my back and told me that he'll pay for me. I thanked him and zoomed straight into the toilet. I know I should have said more than just 'thank you', but unfortunately it was either that or me wetting my pants. So, between bad manners and embarassing myself, I unfortunately chose the former.
Sunday, 18 June 2006
I was supposed to go to the Chinese Assembly Hall with Mien today to celebrate Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday. Unfortunately, I was struck by the bug and wasn't in the mood to spread my lovely disease. Later that night when I went to see Mien for our location recce (Mien's producing my next film 'While You Were Eating') , she gave me an Aung San Suu Kyi t-shirt. It was really sweet of her, considering the fact that I am not paying her for producing my film... heheh. Can't help it, no budget... no financiers... So anyone who's reading this post right now is welcomed to finance my next film. I don't need a lot, it's just a 3 minute film.
Monday, 19th June 2006
I wore the AASK t-shirt today in conjunction with her 61st birthday, even though I was stuck in my studio all day long by myself. After spending almost 12 hours cutting a music video, I am stressed as hell and my head was standing by to spontaneously combust. A remedy was to go to my once regular Starbucks (I think I've not been to this outlet for about 3 months now) for a much needed iced hazelnut latte. I walked in and everyone was so surprised. "Where the hell were you? We were thinking if we should dispose your tumbler already" (yes, I have my own reusable tumbler there because they prepare iced drinks in horrible disposable plastic cups), one of the barista says. Glad to see me again (I am trying to not spoil the moment with my cynicism), she prepared a cup of iced hazelnut latte for me... on the house. That was really nice of her. I wanted to dwell on musing "Do I deserve so much kindness", but I thought "what the hell', and just sat down, enjoy my coffee, and read my book (A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby... funny as hell). A night well spent and not a dollar spent.
That's about it... that's as much kindness as I can deal with... anymore and I think I'll morph into a carebear (which is not too bad actually). Given all the random acts of kindness, I reckon maybe I should go buy lottery tomorrow... but then again, maybe I should just simply be a nicer person tomorrow. Or maybe I can do both... well, whatever. Happy Birthday Aung San Suu Kyi, thanks for everything.
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