Harem Pants, as i never know 'em.

I'm no liberalist but in the matter of civic conciousness (mispelled, i know), i often learn from the West n the non-muslims.

Venue: KFC
Characters: Me, Hubs, 2 hip omputehs

The KFC was jammed packed n we only managed to get a table which was just recently been abandoned.  Therefore, the table was littered. Hubs went on to the counter for orders and i waited at the table for the waiter to come clean it. 

 One table away frm us were 2 young female omputehs. I admired the Harem pants wore by one of them so i kept stealing look at her theehehe.  So vintage one. When hubs arrived at my table with food, i immediately told him of the Harem pants.

"i know u would like it.  I saw the minah salleh at the counter b4 she seated herself there n i thought, u'd be having ur eyes on the pants", Hubs had that impish 'i-knew-it' look on his face n its annoying.

But I grinned despite feeling menyampah at Hub's pride in finding me predictable.
I am a book when it comes to fashion, after all.

For awhile we forgot the omputehs n just feasted on the forever-loved Snack Plate. I did complained of the slow service though, because our table was still pretty much littered. The cleaning boy seemed so busy with other tables. We simply pushed some of the scattering rubbish to a side, not bothering to look for other clean empty table as we were just famish.

Then up to the end of our hearty meal, we saw the two minah sallehs stood up while taking the trays with them.  Our eyes follow them as they went round the food outlet to the back where one of the cleaning boys was arranging the trays.  There, the 2 minah sallehs threw the leftovers off their tray into the dustbin n arrange their own tray where the cleaning boy had. And non-comittally they left, making the previous gesture so natural n unnoticeable (perhaps we woudnt noticed if it's not for the minah salleh's Harem pants we'd been gossiping).

I looked at hubs & he at me. Something inside us churned with both admiration (for the omputehs simple gesture of clearing their own table) and contempt (at how we rather ate on a littered table n never thought of cleaning it ourselves).
Then Hubs,

"How can they be so civic n civilised in other people's country?"

"Coz that's just their way.  It's who they are"

"And what are we?" (cam dialoque drama ke hape but yeah)

We looked regretfully at the scattering of leftovers and tray on the table around the KFC outlet to find the answers (though we had actually known it by heart so long ago).
I became squirmy with something like shame and ruefullness.

"It doesnt matter baby.  We would start to make a difference today.  Even just a little", That's my hubs, standing up holding his tray like a trophy.  And i pushed my fists in the sky like a real (hot) cheerleader, exhorting him as he went around the outlet to the dustbin, modelling a minah salleh who wore civic mind the way she wore her nice chic Harem Pants- casually and quietly impactful.

And we thought that day, a little something inside of us altered.  We hope it's the way we wanna do things just so the rest of us would benefit from it.  Even if that benefit merely include a random person that day, who would happen to get the chance of sitting at a small empty clean table, for once.

*****

"And i'm starting with the man in the mirror. 

I'm starting with ME"

- The late Micheal Jackson/ Man in the Mirror