suDdeNLy, an advice from hEAVen or MayBE heLL..i don’t knoW…

Two unanswered calls. The timing of the ringing was so inappropriate. Why not later? Why not earlier? Why now? With my feet and hands still wet, i took the phone and looked. 2 missed calls. I called back. "Ei..sorry just now, can't hear the phone!". "Oh. I happen to be here in KL. Free boh? 2.30! I go find you", he says.

He, was a friend of mine from as long as a decade, or something close to it. I never would have thought of him arriving here, considering that he is working at some place far from here. Some few hundreds kilometers away. Anyway, it was his relatives function he was attending, and it happens to be nearby, and so, the visit.

Today I find him different from the friend I once known. Very different. Not his attire or his look, coz is still as shabby as always. But his thinking, and the way he looked at this world. In the short conversation that we had, I knew he is a changed man. You couldn't have imagined how a man he was 2 years back.

"The penny is even bigger than the wheels of the cart", a Chinese saying goes. THIS is the impression he gives before this. He values his money so much, that he eats he cheapest food he can get hold of during Uni time, he shops for the cheapest shampoo brand to use during sales season. And worst of all, he is still using the 14" CRT monitor from the 80's in his Uni time for his computer, and even back then, LCD is already considered to be normal. And we never succeeded in asking him to join us to wherever outing that we happen to organise, be it a short trip to the cinema, excursion to the Taman Negara, or even the countdown session on every christmas eve.

But right now, in front of me, he is saying that he has been to Taiwan recently, and is planning on going to Shanghai at the end of the year! "Don't you know? I put it up in my Facebook account!", he says. Then he ask me whether I played the "restaurant city" game. I said no. "What? What la...u so outdated one! Everybody has a FB account right now, and its fun!", he continues. It's kinda strange to have him say this to me. Among all my friends and colleagues, he is the one least qualified to say that I am so so outdated, at least it was true 2 years back. Coz old fashion was his theme. Conservative and conventional was his belief back then! TNS! And now I find myself lectured by this fucker friend of mine about me not being active in FB. Basically, I'm not that anti FB, but just that i still can't get accustomed to the idea of sharing all your photos for others to see. And the "what's on your mind" thing, sometimes i feel like is becoming of a gossip at the fish market, and it can be a great time waster sometimes. Of coz many times, it's great entertainment to see people whacking each other. But i have got to salute this creator of FB, for he has the power to convince even uncles and auntys and even grandpas and grandmas to use FB. E-circles failed to do it. Friendster fails to do it. Even Myspace failed to do it. For this I salute him. 100%.

So i asked him what made the change. He says it was the accident that made him change. He was hit by a car and he broke his leg, arm, and some other bones, and is still walking a bit awkwardly as of now. Very lucky for him. For him, every single day after the accident was a day earned. It's like to live after you have died. If we were to think this way, then there is really nothing that can make us fear or shy or whatsoever. There is nothing worse than death itself. I still remembered him saying last time that the first thought that came across his mind when he was lying on the road is "What is the purpose of me having so much money?"

I guess that is really true. To be truly engrossed in making money only and neglect the other important things is life is just something too stupid to do. At least true from this real life experience of my friend. I am happy that he has made this visit today. Coz i think this is an advise from heaven...i suppose. I hope my friend will continue to lead a happy life. BTW, he still not very successfull in detaching himself from the money thing, just much better than he was 2 years back. Coz 70% of the conversation with him this afternoon was about analyzing the ups and downs of the stock market. Well, at least not 100%. Is good enough already.