What has Arumugam got to do with this entry? None what so ever. I don't even know any Arumugam....hmm, Rajakapoor...got lah. 8p I am rubbing my hands with glee at the moment. I have finished THAT report. It is O.U.T. and hey! I have finished this year's workplan...and taking my time starting on next year's project. Maybe, they should award me the most efficient staff award...hehehe.
My leave for the long Christmas weekend has just been approved, thinking of going for another short holiday. 8) And Boss has no reason NOT to approve because being the exemplary worker (ahem!) I finished my work 3 weeks ahead of time. It is currently EGO boosting time for me, here in my blog...so if anyone feels like puking, go ahead! 8p Anyway, with TIME in my hands, I am going to blog, hop, blog, hop - ok, so I am dreaming here. There will be interruptions. There is no such day as NO-WORK-BUT-GOYANG-KAKI day.
Oh, before I digress further. I am supposed to talk about Arumugam and stereotyping. When you hear the name such as Arumugam, Muthusamy or the like of it, what comes to mind? Typically, we would think of an Indian man with thick moustache, curly black hair, dark, sharp features, maybe a bit stout, a bit of chest hair (hehehe), rolled-up long sleeves shirt, big round black eyes with curly eye lashes....stop. I have to stop...I am imagining HB! Isteri mithali, katakan. *LOL* Anyway, some people say my HB looks like Sharukh Khan (is that how you spell the name??) Some of you who have seen him, go out and PUKE! To me, he is more handsome than any Bollywood Actors. 8p I am digressing...AGAIN.
I mean you get the gist, right? When someone mentioned an Indian name, you'd think of such image. Well, for more than 5 years being in this building, I would bump into this nice, friendly Indian man almost every day who works in a department 4 floors down. We would usually smile and exchange greeting like any other colleagues. I never knew his name but because of how he looks, I immediately thought he "must" be hindu, tamil-speaking and had a name like Arumugam, Muthusamy or Rajagopal.
So recently, I managed to attend a course with this friendly man. And as usual, we starting out with ice-breakers, each one of us introducing ourselves. We have more than 5000 employers so there is a very high chance of not knowing people even though you have worked here for a decade! And it was time for him to introduce himself and I thought I'd hear a Tamil name.
Lo and Behold! I was in for a shock! No lah..his name is not Ah Chong! I would have peed in my pants if it was that. 8p It was something like Mohammad Ishak Bin Salleh...a typical Malay name. Dia cakap Melayu, tau? He is MALAY! *LOL* My jaw almost dropped in shock! It didn't, of course. I am a very DEMURE lady, you know.....hahaha Wanita Melayu Terakhir, katakan..LOL.
So the lesson I learn is don't stereotype. It is good that I didn't try to start a conversation with him about Deepavali or Thaipusam. Otherwise, I will have to hide everytime I see him...so malu!
Thursday, December 08, 2005
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11 comments:
hahahahahaahaha!!!
err...with regards to #2, sebab belum tahu lah i cakap camtu...but then again, it's World Cup :p
Hey there. Thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment. With regards to stereotyping, there really is no escape. It is human behaviour, I guess. We can keep ourselves reminded day in day out but we'll still end up being prey to stereotyping no matter how hard we try sometimes. I guess the best way to avoid this is to coexist among the many races and religions we have here in Singapore/Asia. It's like the rojak theory... actually it's sort of like my own theory so if you have not heard it before, don't panic or sniff your coffee.
Rojak theory:
Rojak, as we all know, is made up of a variety of food; vegetables and fruits too sometimes. We cut 'em all up into small small pieces, mix them in a bowl and voila!! The rojak is born. *on bright light and loud church choir music so dapat feeling macam an angel just arrived*
Seeing the rojak in a bowl, we hardly ever differentiate the many, many ingredients in it. It's simply just rojak. Not timun, pineapple or whatever else. Just rojak. Most times we would not bother telling which is which until it's in our mouth and we immediately know it's a cucumber or whatever. I feel this can relate a lot to stereotyping. People are, after all, just people in general; not Chinese, Malay, Indian and so on. To know who they really are or what they are really like, we need to "put them in our mouths". Until we are able to do that, there is no better way of understanding them.
I don't know if this is making any sense to you but it does to me.
If we put 3 people in a room to view an object from different angles, they will most likely give us 3 different opinions on that same object... even if we know it's actually one and the same thing and that none of their opinions are wrong. In other words, a dark-skinned man may appear Indian, Malay or even Negro to different people.
Some of us waste a lot of time in looking for similarities between each other when all we actually need to do is understand our differences. Not the other way round because deep down we all know we're all different no matter what... as far as race or religion is concerned. (Note: I'm being general here. This wasn't meant for you if in any case you are wondering)
Stereotyping can be dangerous at times but of course in the case related to your entry, it's harmless. This was a good read. Have a nice day. Thanks again for dropping by.
PS: And sorry for taking up so much of your space. I have talkative fingers sometimes.
i can relate abt the stereotype thingy..esp when race n religion is concern..too many to jot down...kekkee
yes u are right that picture was taken months ago when she was little.
:)
she grad from that one already. :)
thanks for asking
Woiii, rambut samer kerli, misai samer melenting, tangan samer berbulu, tapi namer lain2 beb!
Regarding the 1st two paragraph tuuu...*muncungkan mulut*....: masuk lif, picit sendiri nampak, ahaks!!
This is a funny entry!! Just imagine if u were to wish him Happy Deepavali...hahahahha!!!
Hahaha... very funny... Unknowingly we've all got a lesson to learn ... never judge a book by its cover. Thanks for the great lesson, dearie BQ!
*lol*
morning sis..
ya n make me forget to snap a picture of her.
kehrkhrkhe
not all indian celebrate deepavali, there are Christian Indian , you know....I may look malay, speak malay and wear the kurong and kebaya but my ic states I'm Indian..
this remind me of hubby fren ;
name : brian wong
language spoken: chinese
rupa : 100% india
dia pon tak mengaku indian...well ya we know u r chinese but still ada kena mengena heeheeh!
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