An Interesting Conversation

My phone won't charge for two days. I don't know why but I suspected my charger port malfunctioned. I need to repair it asap. So, I went to a shop in a mall. The owner of the shop is a Chinese man named here as J. He's very friendly. He was troubleshooting the phone when a conversation started. At first, we were talking about DotA, games, coffee, and smoking. These are a few things that can get you addicted. And here's the interesting part.

I was curious about the construction of the mall. FYI, the mall is up for years already. The top management had an idea to extend the mall and build a lagoon. Well, the idea sure is cool. The area covers a lot of people from urban city to rural villages stretched long in a crowded space. Universities are near and many developments are coming up in town. The mall could get a big crown if the lagoon is ready. But the problem is, the construction was left for so long. The extension at the back of the mall now looked like a haunted building.

So, I asked him when will the construction resume. J said nobody knows. Perhaps there will never be a lagoon here. He drove his car at the basement carpark of the construction once and he told me it was flooded. Perhaps there are cracks. The beams and its iron steels are already rusted. It is near possible to continue working on the building from where it was left.

There were many complaints by the people who worked here. Many of them have left the mall. I guess the top management didn't care much about a lot of things. In fact, they're problematic as well (as far as I can see it, they are!). J was once almost got charged 200 ringgit because they said his shop was dirty. Two days ago I complimented his shop for its interior design. I don't think 'dirty' is a part of his design.

On the contrary, the mall is dirty and we both agreed to this. The stairs, escalators, and lifts are not clean. The toilets? He told me that I should use the toilets in the cinema section instead. LOL.

He wanted to complain but he didn't. It won't be great to put the heat on the top management on the cleanliness of the mall when at the end, the cleaners will get to do the job.

"At the end of the day, the makcik from kampung who will clean up everything. You know what? I don't like those people who smoke in the toilet here. They throw their cigarettes away anywhere they like and it always clogged up the holes and left the toilet floor flooded. I asked them la why don't you throw it away properly and they said then the makcik got job to do. You know those makcik clean up those holes with their bare hands? I told them if I give them a hundred to clean it, they won't do it. They diam after that."

I was left in silent. Not because I have nothing else to say. I agreed everything. But I thought so hard, I believed 'humanity is restored'. Yes. J is among many people who fought for little things but think so hard that it will not mess up.

My phone was all okay. Turned out that my cable was not okay so I bought a new one from him. I left the shop and I brought along something with me. An interesting conversation is best gained when you least expected. I was there just to repair my phone and it was better than a coffee talk.