OF ROAD HOGS AND ATM HOGS

"Ah, I'm late".

The clock showed 4pm, and I had just reached town to deposit some money at the bank. The staff meeting ended quite late today, so without taking my lunch I drove to the bank.

Murphy's Law states that when you're in a rush, chances are that you will be forced to slow down. That's exactly what usually happens to me every trip to school, and back from school. Somehow the driver in front of me would decide to drive at a leisurely 50km/h on a busy trunk road, and I'd have to tag along slowly all the way for the next 15 minutes with a long trail of vehicles behind my car. It's always a game of 'Follow the slow driver' each day as it's too dangerous to overtake the car in front due to the oncoming traffic.

And it's worse in a busy highway when a 'kopi-licensed' driver (suspectedly-unqualified-to-drive-on-the-road driver) drives at 60km/h on the right or middle lane, and refused to move over to the left lane. Usually when that happens I'd start giving a hand signal ala Karam Singh Waliah, the local celebrity-journalist (repeatedly raising a hand straight up at 85degrees) and singing loudly whatever song being aired on the radio. A few times of that hand signal would be enough as the car in front would eventually move over to the left; the magic of the hand signal or the danger of the 'mad lady' with the weird hand signal and a Probation driver's sticker (left the P there for the extra Oommphh)? hahahaa..

Now I can tolerate most people but not selfish ones. It's one thing queing in line for your turn at the Cash Deposit machine. The machine is supposedly used for quick transactions.

There's this Amoi (Chinese young lady) waiting behind an An-nei (Indian brother). For the past 5 minutes, the An-nei had been trying to deposit some money, and she was frowning at him. When her turn came, she took more than 5 minutes. She took a thick pile of RM50 notes and deposited the money. Then she clicked on the machine again. Another pile of RM50 notes. Another transaction with another pile of RM50 notes. 3rd transaction. 4th transaction. The guard talked to her but she ignored him.

Malaysians are weird people, if you must know. We can be so slow to react, so patient with the misdeeds of others that you seldom hear a murmur from us. There were 5 people waiting in line to use the machine, and yet the Amoi didn't even bother to apologise for the inconvenience. She kept on using the machine as if it belonged to her. 5th transaction. The Abang (Malay brother) behind the Amoi, and in front of me, was frowning but he didn't say anything. All the people around me frowned but not a word was spoken. No wonder Malaysians get wrinkles so easily.

I decided to do something.

I could talk to the Amoi to allow us to do our own transactions first before she continued with hers but decided she might not even bother to listen to me. I called the guard.

"Tak adakah peraturan mengehadkan berapa kali satu orang boleh gunakan mesin ini berterusan (Isn't there a rule stating how many times a person can use the machine continuously?)" I asked the equally-frowning guard who was talking to a customer and looking at the Amoi.

"Saya nak komplen ( I want to lodge a complaint)," I said.

The guard seemed to smile. He pressed the numbers for the Abang and I, and told us to go to the bank counter. We hurried upstairs.

When I completed my transaction with the help of the bank clerk and returned to the ground floor, the Amoi was still continuing with her transactions (8th, 9th or 10th), with an even longer queue behind her.

"Orang yang naik atas pun dah turun,dah selesai urusan tetapi dia tak habis-habis lagi. Patutnya dia pergi saja ke atas, bayar terus kepada kerani bank. Ini menyusahkan orang lain. (The ones who went upstairs have even come down, managed to deposit their money and she's still hogging the machine. She should have gone upstairs instead of using the cash deposit machine. She's causing inconvenience to others.)," I heard the guard complaining aloud.