M’sian City Life #11: I Needed Small Change. No One Cared Except This Uncle
"I was grateful and touched, but I also felt ashamed at the same time."
By Tang Ruxyn — 28 Mar 2016, 04:55 PM
Meet Nurul Syahidah Ramli. She lives in KL and has been relying on public transportation to travel to and from her office every weekday.
"I don't drive to go to my office but if I needed to go somewhere else, I would drive or take the KTM," Nurul Syahidah Ramli said.
"Someone used to ask me why I don’t travel to work with my car so I wouldn't have to get crammed together with mak cik cleaners (cleaner aunties) and foreigners."
"I had my own reasons. Parking is expensive and I wanted to save some money. Most of all, by taking public transportation, I taught myself lessons of living moderately and independence."
It would have been like any other day for the 24-year-old who was heading home from work on 15 February, if not for a man she met that eventful day
"At 6.28pm, I headed out from my office to walk to the Kerinchi station, a daily routine. It was just like any other day when I had to wait for the bus to go back home," Nurul Syahidah, who is from Kelantan, recalled.
"In my purse, I only had a RM10 note. I had set my mind earlier to go to the counter at the LRT station to exchange it for some smaller notes."
"But, I saw a bus at the junction nearby. Within split seconds, I decided to board the bus without any hesitation. I got on the bus while I held the RM10 note tightly in my hands."
"Ada duit kecil tak? Saya tak ada.” (Do you have any small change? I don’t have any.)
Nurul Syahidah recalled that the first thing she did as she got on the bus was to ask the bus driver if he has any small change.
"He shook his head without uttering a single word. I noticed a smile was also missing from his face."
"So, the next thing I did was to ask for his permission to get seated first while I went around to ask the other passengers on board if they have any small change."
"Everyone was looking at me," the Kelantanese recalled.
I managed to ask the two people who were seated next to me if they had any money to exchange with me too but they just said, “Don’t have”, while fiddling with their phones
"Then, I unzipped all the compartments in my bag and went through it one by one, silently praying and hoping to find some coins," she said.
Unfortunately, much to her disappointment, Nurul Syahidah did not manage to find any.
"But at the corner of my eyes, I saw this uncle who looked like he was searching for some money as I saw him rummaging through his wallet."
"I think he was blind, or at least, he didn't have a perfect eyesight," Nurul Syahidah said.
"When I raised my head to look up, the thing I least expected happened. This elderly uncle who was rummaging through his wallet earlier handed me a RM1 note."
"He urged me to take it and put it into the box next to the bus driver, so that I could pay up my bus fare."
"Suddenly, I didn’t feel that tired anymore after a day’s work. My shoulders were relieved when this uncle handed me his money, even when it's a small amount."
"I stared at him for little while. I was grateful and touched, but I also felt ashamed at the same time."
"He was the one who was more in need. I handed him the RM10 note in my hands but he refused to take it."
"It was the first time my eyes welled up with tears while I was surrounded by so many strangers. I pretended to look like I was busy, and tried to avoid eye contact by looking outside the window."
"We don't need to be well and rich in order to show kindness to others. Dear uncle, if God willing, I will pray for you in front of the Kaabah. I pray that Allah will bless you and let you live in paradise."
Living in the city ain’t a piece of cake but it could also be exciting and adventurous. How are you coping? How are you making the best out of things? Do you have a story or experience to share?
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