Unzip

I am so accustomed to people not being friendly here in Malaysia (by my standards) and not polite. If you hold the door open for them, they would just walk past you and not even attempt to hold the door after you, as if it is your job to hold the door open for them and their entourage. Hardly anyone says “thank you” be it from the service staff, or the customers themselves. If you want to order something at most restaurants, most of the time you’d see the waiters/waitresses chatting and not looking, or pretend that they can’t see you. And if you do get their attention their attitude is more often than not they give you the “why the hell are you here ordering me around and if you don’t like me then get out of this place” look.

This morning as I walked to the lift lobby, I caught the female security guard smiling at me, greeting me, “Selamat Pagi!” while the male guard had this wide smile on his face. I returned the greeting and smiled back. Then a guy approached the same lift door as I, and even he had this smile on his face. The moment I got into the lift with him, he looked at me and smiled.

I mustered a smile but it must have looked insincere, plus the puzzled look I probably had on my face. I turned slightly to my left and started feeling my fly in case my zipper was undone.

I’ve had that experience before. There was this time more than 5 years ago that everyone smiled at me all the way to the car park. When I sat down in the driver’s seat of my car did I realise that my zipper was undone. It was open wide.

The guy exited the lift at Level X, and I saw the sign on the wall that says the building management’s office is located on this floor.

No wonder everyone was so polite.

Or maybe it was still early in the morning and I have never been to office this early.