Friday, May 16, 2008

Receptionist for a day.....

Today dawned like any other Friday much to my dismay. I was happy because: getting my first pay for doing absolutely nothing and awaiting a long weekend to cool my soul. Everything was quite the usual until "the call!!". "The call" can be described as a signal when one is expected to do a specific task or in a business sense being fed to the sharks- a scenario not done by the individual before.

I was told to man the front desk and I had no say in the matter, whatsoever. I have undermined the job description of a receptionist; its times to think bloody hard all over again. The first thing I did was to photocopy a list of extension numbers of all the people in the company. It was not easy drilling your brain with numbers at such a rate. I never did get all of them down, but having it on paper did proves useful. I got down and dirty with it. Surprisingly, after sometime I began to enjoy it. A challenge arose and that was speaking in BM (Bahasa Malaysia). I could converse a little to save my soul, but this was far from the usual situation. Anyway, I managed quite well to my surprise and the people in the office thought I was doing it good too. I ended up being on the job from 11 am to 5 pm.

At about noon time, I got all my bearing wrong and walked out of the office thinking it was time for prayers. On the way, the Indian shop from which I normally eat lunch was open, which made me puzzled beyond Prof. Calculus in the comic book Tin tin. When I looked at the watch, then pictured myself wearing a 'dunce' cap and walking around feeling like an utter ass. Soon after realising my folly, I went back to office. Talk about an embarrassing situation that only you knew- now that's a slow killer. Then again at 1 pm I set out to the mosque, this time it went well.


On my way back, of course, a situation erupted inside the feeder bus back to the uni. Apparently, this new chap didn't know that the bus only takes RM 1 bills in order to issue tickets. As i was getting in the driver made some rude remark to that person, which I didn't care to ascertain. After being in the bus, I realised that he was trying desperately to change a RM 50 note. One guy gave him 5 notes of RM 10, but that didn't solve his frustration. To make matters worse, the driver was becoming very bossy. I felt like giving that s.o.b a few sharp edged words, but then again, no point wasting good English on a bus driver. I felt empathy, and gave him a RM 1 note and said "Go and pay this". Even after saying it he was still trying to get change without any luck. Then I pushed him towards the driver and said "just go and get the ticket" in an affirming matter. After getting the ticket the poor soul looked very much at ease and grateful. He offered to pay me back; I wonder how he was planning on doing that??

It felt really nice deep down inside, at the thought being able to help a person come out of stranded situation, in my own way. My policy is to do good whenever, wherever and to whomever as possible as I could. This is not because I expect a favour in return, but hope and pray that at a certain time when I am in need, God will send help to me through one of His creations.

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