The Talk

Talking too much about other person is perhaps just a waste of time, energy and money (well, if you accompany it with a shisha), worst of all, it does injustice towards yourself.

Get near to a trained burung kakak tua (parrot bird), if its caged, get as close as possible. Try to grab its attention. Snap your finger or clap once or twice. Once you get its attention try to hum or make sound which this bird made. Slowly, you’ll notice the bird repeat after you. Sometimes with occasional neck swings, humping and furs on its head rising as if there’s some electrocution happening. The birds then will reposition itself to the left and right shifting weight, trying to balance on the wood stick. Then, you try from making animal sound to human verbals, you’ll notice, the burung kakak tua slowly mimics your words.

There is nothing unlawful or sinful to talk about other people achievement or greatness. Sometimes it inspires us and gives us the confidence to face the world and its various challenges. I did that too on my previous entry like on Tun Dr. Mahathir and the filmmaker Steven Spielberg. They are figures and respected people in what they do, and there are plenty of these successful people outside there which stories we haven’t heard of yet.

But, come to certain extend where we heard too much of a person, then, it has become somewhat discomforting, annoying and patience testing. Especially when those people that are not considered as figures or not worth mentioning more than once. Boasting about the how great life has been being personally affiliated to the particular person because they own something great or attain position that’s high. I believe, once a while we encounter these type of conversation.

“ I knew this datuk and he can do such and such, I knew this Tan Sri, he can do such and such… he/she is great! It was fun being around them! “

For those who are familiar with me, I rarely talked about third-party in my conversation. I assume talking too much/long about a single person could stagnate the mind, hindered continuity of conversation and were merely sacrificing ourselves into giving cheap publicity towards this non-present third-party. Furthermore, it makes me wonder, if these people we zealously mentioned is larger than life and greatest beyond words; then, where have we put ourselves? Apart from having sense of pride because this ‘revered’ person is on the ‘friends list’ of our Friendster, Facebook or Orkut account?

I was never a social-science student during my high school (although it is being offered), but there is no doubt you can tell people who takes advantage of our vulnerabilities. When people knew have phobia against iguana, then people starts throwing fake iguana to just to poke fun to see us freaked out. In real life, for instance, people knew my vulnerabilities of having short temper, and start doing things which test my patience. In the hope that I’ll snap and start messing around. When they succeed in doing so, they will start a smear campaign telling people that I’m a big-bad-short-tempered-hatred-motivated person, which would make them in upper hand position since I lacked in explanation channels to tell what really happened. In short, I call this ‘decision traps’, or in Malay term telan mati mak, luah mati bapak.

But when a certain person talks too much about another ‘revered’ person, it has become the opposite way. This one qualifies as a person who took advantage of others strength. Not weakness, but strength. I do not know if they felt harsh inferiority, but they seem to lay everything on the strongmen. Everywhere they go, the strongmen becomes the subject that they epitomize. This ‘revered’ person is idolized in many and different aspect of life. Two most common reason why this they become much of household names were: The position they attain, the material they possess.

You talk about food? This revered person has eaten at RM500 per-reservation eateries. You talk about cars? This revered person has the highest spec, turbocharged, supercharge, moonroof-ed of that… his amongst the few in Malaysia. Talk about famous people? This revered person has had breakfast, lunch, hi-tea and dinner with the famous person… his/her amongst the few in Malaysia too. Talk about clothes… this revered person has gotten the limited edition of it… and his/her is the only one in Malaysia which possessed it… plus, I’m confidently proud to know this revered person. It’s a kind of talk which I lastly heard when I was still a short-pants donning standard 2 school kid.

Call it egoistic, arrogant or plain jealous, there are limitation to what extend we may cherish a certain person. No matter how great they are, we certainly cannot emulate them since we have limitation and has got our own style in administering matters of our lives. Furthermore, this limitation of how we emulate others are not self-imposed

The real self-imposition here is trying to be someone else. We start branding ourself with similarly what you seen on media. We start labeling ourself with something outlandish. In the end, when the desired response is not achieved, you get puzzled. Yet, there are certain things that we can possibly do which this ‘revered’ person cannot do. Probably in better and bigger ways. That is what I mean by injustice towards yourself. I pity this people who do not realize their true potential and instead beating on drums about others great and significant achievement. In my place, the kampongs folks metaphorically regarded them as burung kakak tua. Only to impress others by repeating words.