Do unto others...

"There are no longer any lauk but beef, and they cannot eat beef. Kesian...", Farizan noted as she sat down.

We were at PICC, attending PTK 3 course. By "they", Farizan was referring to Suresh, Subes and Kumar, three Hindu guys in our group. Compared to other groups, we were late in taking our lunch that day, which explained the lack of 'lauk' refill.

My head immediately turned to the main table reserved for the panelists. Seemed like they had finished their lunch, leaving just one of the organizer chatting to one of the panelists. I walked towards them and my hunch was right - there were still plenty of chicken and fish among the leftover lauk at the main table.

"There're not much lauk at the buffet line except for beef, and those guys over there cannot eat beef. Would it be okay if they help themselves with the chicken and fish here?"

"Oh, yes, sure!"

So I called out for the boys - Suresh, Subes and Kumar - who initially were malu-malu kucing to come to the main table, but came anyway, and seemed glad to have other lauk in their plate apart from some limp veggies.

"It's good to have someone from JPA in our group, after all", Farizan said when I returned to my seat. I smiled. Being from the same department with the organizer of the course had nothing to do with me trying to look for alternatives for the boys. I think being somewhat more senior than them - in terms of batch and age - somehow automatically put me in a "kakak" position, and it's a duty of an elder sister to look after the younger ones, right?

I guess, being part of the minority in Japan has taught me to be more sensitive and aware of the needs for minority. I had been touched by non Muslim friends who checked with me first on the suitability of a particular makan place before we go out together. I had been touched by Hien who took extra effort to prepare seafood based spring rolls especially for me when she prepared meat based ones for the rest of our Nihongo Ichi class. I had been touched by a zemi-mate who ordered sea food pizza just because she did not want to offend me since we were sitting opposite each other in the restaurant when most of the gang ordered steak.

The least I could do is to do unto others as what others have done unto me before.