Muhibbah incident on a bus

(Writer’s note: The first draft of this blog first appeared on a piece of Damai Laut’s Swiss Garden Resort & Spa writing pad, written during the first of many presentation sessions throughout the 3-days Strategic Planning Session)

The bus was supposed to leave at 2.30 p.m.

We finished doing some last minute adjustments on some presentation slides at about 2.00 p.m. The half hour left just enough time for me to perform my solat jamak Zohor & Asar and submitted a quick entry on my blog – but no time for lunch.

I did not have a proper breakfast because Mr Teo – my former SUB who is now a TKSU- asked me to accompany him to meet the KSU to discuss some outstanding matters involving some telcos at 8.30 a.m. Both the junior and senior officers who are actually handling the matters were not around then, so since I was the one who previously prepared a report on this matter, Mr Teo decided to seek my help.

Right after the meeting – I had to assist my fellow junior officers with last minute corrections on our Division’s presentation slides. In between lintang pukang running everywhere to get information on this and that, I managed to stop at my clerk’s place and had a kaya bun. That, plus a mug of plain water was all I had before the bus left the office.

I was hoping that the bus would stop at any R&R area so that we could buy some snack - we would only be reaching Damai Laut after more than three and a half hours. A long trip and I was hungry right from the very beginning. The bus almost stopped in Rawang, but there was a minor accident involving a car and a one-ton lorry at the entrance of the Petronas station, obstructing our bus from entering it – so the driver drove on without stopping.

I then hoped that the bus would stop in Tapah R&R area. However, the driver chose to go to Damai Laut via the Bidor exit, so we did not pass by Tapah at all.

In between napping, catching glimpses of Jet Li and DMX on “Cradle 2 the Grave” video shown on the bus’s TV and reading a few pages of “13 Secrets for speaking fluent Japanese”, I was praying that we would stop some place where I could get a filling snack. My stomach started to growl, so I opened up an individual pack of 6-pieces calcium crackers that I managed to grab before leaving my desk.

Apparently I was not the only one who wished that the bus would stop some place to get some snack. Mohana, sitting next to me, across the aisle, was also disappointed to learn that the bus would not be stopping in any R&R area since she was feeling rather hungry. By then I had opened an inidividual pack of 2-pieces butter cookies given to me by Miss Chan and was about to pop the last piece inside my mouth. I immediately stopped and offered her that cookie – which she gladly accepted.

I confessed that I too haven’t eaten anything that day and was rather starved myself. Perhaps she overheard us, Miss Chan, who was seated in front of me, turned back and offered, “A.Z., would you like to have this scone?”

That scone definitely looked tempting – with lots of raisins and fruity bits. I turned to Mohana and thought she might like the scone. “Miss Chan, maybe you want to give it to Mohana. I’m alright, don’t worry.” (Okay, maybe I wasn’t telling the whole truth – but I really thought that the under weighed Mohana deserved it more.)

“Mohana, would you like to have this scone?, ” Miss Chan turned her attention to Mohana.

“No thanks, it’s okay. You can give it to A.Z,” Mohana refused politely.

“No, Miss Chan, just give it to Mohana. She’s starving,” I insisted.

Miss Chan did not waste any more time arguing with us. She straightaway put the scone on Mohana’s lap. I could tell that Miss Chan was feeling a bit hungry too. Earlier in Rawang, she too confessed that she hoped that the bus would stop – later on, I noticed she munched on some butter cookies. Still, she was selfless enough to offer her scone to Mohana and I when she overheard our declarations of feeling hungry.

“Hey, at least I already had some cendol for lunch. Here A.Z., let’s share this,”
Mohana broke the scone in two and gave me one part.

I smiled. A piece of scone being offered by Miss Chan to me, but passed to Mohana on my insistence and Mohana in turn, shared it with me.

A truly ‘muhibbah’ incident.