Currently Playing: The Format-The First Single.
I like seeing how people react to abnormalilities. With that said, I don’t mean to imply that I agree with methods similar to that employed by Candid Camera or heaven forbid, Kamera Apo? or whatever the Malaysian version was called when it was aired a few years back. Besides, according to this, the said methods aren’t effective and would produce inaccurate results even then. Give it a read if you’re the Philosophy manic, and we’ll discuss the concept of Perception one day.
Back to the matter at hand, observing how people behave in a situation out of the conventional bubble of comfort slash norm puts them in a spot where they aren’t prepared with a template reaction. As an example, when you receive good news about something, nerves tell you its a positive thing and that it brings joy, happiness, etc and that feeling is later transformed into a smile. You smile because that is the set mould you have become used to when happy things greet you. Good for you, I’m happy too. But put people in a scenario where the unexpected is maximised to the highest level, and that leaves people unable to react, or unsure of how to react. This also begs the question: can that uncertainty in their reaction be considered a template as well?
Its funny seeing people react to my abnormalities, although with all due respect, I am as normal as they come, Alhamdulillah to that. I’ll give 2 illustrations. I’m a KL-lite, born and bred, and up until a few months ago, had yet to step into KLCC. Whenever I told people prior to my moment of ending the KLCC standoff that I had never been there before, I’ve received looks of disbelief, dropped jaws, a near weep (I kid you not) and one who almost lost his balance. It made for major entertainment if not amusement.
Another illustration in point is weird enough in itself. I wear kain batiks on a regular basis. Its easy, its quick, its reliable and its Malaysian, so hear hear for that patriotic spirit! Friends who come visiting my room for the first time though are prone to double-triple taking upon seeing me decked out in my T-shirt/kain batik ensemble. They stand back, observe me for a bit and tentatively say with a hint of surprise "Aik, Lubna boleh pakai kain batik ker?" Once its revealed that I even walk to the cafe or mart in one and that it ‘really isn’t that big of a deal’, the whole jaw-drop reactions start its cycle again.
I don’t get the reactions to the second illustration; it isn’t even an abnormality, but I suspect it lies in how people perceive me. I know I tend to speak English 97% of the time and that my BM is lying in tatters, but although I’m Arab by blood, I’ve always made it clear that I’m Malay at heart. Always. I think it’s about time for people to start accepting that just because one speaks a foreign tongue a whole lot more than his/her mother tongue, it does not mean he/she is turning his/her back on his/her culture, customs, background or adopting a new one. I even wore the kain batik during a stroll out barefoot in the gardens when I was in Scotland one time. A very "Malay in a Scottish setting" moment.
Its just a matter of how you look at things.
From psychology to kain batiks. I must need sleep.
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It was such a beautiful day on campus today that I took a long walk along the main road to get some me-time done.
Why on Earth do I feel so listless?
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Stuck:
You know me,
Oh you think you do you, you just dont seem to see
I’ve been waiting all this time to be
Something I can’t define so let’s
Cause a scene
Clap our hands and stomp our feet or something
Yeah something
I’ve just got to get myself over me.
Enough said here.
