I had finished my meal for some time when the old lady (think 60s, at least. grandmotherly) who had been going around progressively clearing the tables came over and cleared my tray for me. I had fully intended to bring the tray to the tray return myself and was slightly embarrassed that she had come over to take it away from me. I sheepishly smiled and said 谢谢 [thank you] to the lady. The brief conversation that followed was something like this,

Auntie: 谢谢你。
[Thank you!]
(upon seeing that I was getting up to leave)
不用紧！你慢慢坐。今天不会很忙。
[don't worry! sit as long as you want. It's not a busy day today]
Gideon: 哦，不用紧，我也是差不多要走了。
[Oh, it's alright. I was planning to leave already.]

A: 要回家读书啊？
[Going home to study?]

G: 是啊。我刚刚载我妈妈来机场。
[Yes, I just sent my mum off at the airport.]

A: 哇，辛苦你了。
[Not quite sure how to translate this but it's something like, "Oh, it must have been troublesome for you."]

G: 不会啦。Auntie,我先走了.
[Not at all. I'll take my leave first!]

A: 好，慢走！有空再来！
[Alright. Take care! Do come again!]

A simple, short conversation. But it stuck in my memory. So often we see these aunties and uncles doing those menial tasks and we think, "oh no, so poor thing." (guilty!) I daresay this was the first time I actually had a conversation, however brief, with one of these "aunties." Looking at her tired face and her shuffling feet, you wouldn't imagine how chirpy she could be when you talk to her. In some way, I regret not staying to chat. But I left with a warm feeling in my heart.

The inherent evils of a society that only has money at it's centre I have gone on about for long enough. But the flip side of it is these little encounters that we lose. Maybe, just maybe, some could accuse me of being a little xenophobic. But I cannot imagine a society, with the immigration rate we have now, where such conversations take place. I think that there has to be some kind of shared history and shared culture, no matter how short or shallow, among a population. Many of these aunties and uncles also speak a smattering (or be comfortably conversant) in another major language, such as a Chinese dialect (for the Malays and Indians) or Malay (for the Chinese). We're losing that in this rojak society. You can have all kinds of so-called integration efforts and laud success stories but you will never have the kind of comfortable familiarity that exists among a people that have grown up together, that share a common experience. I don't normally cuss here, but we're really living in a shit society. Little things like this encounter remind us of the intangible threads that bind a people together. I really can't see the same auntie having had a conversation with a tiong or pinoy. What does that say about the future of our society?