At 8.55am this morning, I was at the Kelana Jaya LRT Station reloading my Rapid KL pass at the ticketing machine. While I was halfway through topping up my card, an Indian man who looked like he's in his late 50s approached me. He was holding a RM 1 note in his right hand and a dark coloured duffel bag on his left.
I ignored him at first and continued my business but he was still standing next to me so I looked up and said "Uncle, sebelah boleh beli" to which he replied "Tamil something" (I didn't catch the second word, I think he meant he can only read Tamil characters) so I said "Sekejap ye, Uncle. Nanti saya tolong Uncle belikan ticket". He nodded.
Once I was done, I asked him "Uncle, station mana?" He said "Taman Desa" I was thinking to myself I'm very sure there's no Taman Desa station so I asked him again and he said "Satu station" while gesturing with his hand and I said "oh Taman Bahagia ke, Uncle?" He said "ahh, ya, ya". He passed me the RM 1.20 he was holding, I inserted the money into the machine, we waited for the token to be dispensed. I passed it to him and led him to the barrier machine, taught him to scan the token and made sure he was walking with me towards the escalator. He kept saying terima kasih ya, terima kasih ya.
I wish you well, Uncle. I'm sorry you weren't able to read, I'm sure you had your reasons. I'm sorry I didn't ask you more, I didn't know how to ask properly, I'm afraid that I would hurt your feelings. Next time, maybe next time I will see you again. Till then, take care of yourself and I hope you'll meet a kind soul who would be willing to lend you a hand the next time you need to buy a ticket. I couldn't help but think of him during the whole journey to KLCC to meet my cousin.
