It was yet another day in which we had finished our squashingly fun Mrs. Nagappan tuition at Methodist High School (MHS). We threw insults at each other in our regular process, went through the majority of the class Not paying attention to the teacher's lessons- Umesh had his fair bit of 'treatment' from us as usual that day- it was all in all a regular brat day we had in tuition, and it was time to go back.
My cousin brother was at Sitiawan as he studied in MHS to repeat his Form 5. so he too was attending Mrs. Nagappan's tuition classes, so that allowed me to coax my parents into giving us the bike so that we could go to tuition (I didn't have a license, so I technically couldn't and shouldn't be riding). And that was a glorifying day for all our bike riding panaches.
As my cousin brother is riding the bike, a fellow tuition-mate passed us by on her bike. HER. So it was a girl. And our pride got hurt in it, not ours, but technically, it was my pride which got hurt- 'why do you even let a girl pass you like that?' I asked him. As silent and non-responsive he was to my question- the next thing I knew he was sprinting the tyres off in overtake the girl in return, and I must mention here the girl in question wasn't an easy spring either, she was literally sprinting her way back home. Once we passed two traffic lights and still found her some good ground ahead of us, I decided to call it quits- but I wasn't the one riding the bike.
My cousin was too far immersed in it that he did not want to call it quits when it looked like an obvious 'defeat'. As if magic struck, she slowed down just before the corner to our housing area arrived. But she wouldn't slow down for no reason wouldn't she? There was a Transnasional bus which is making its way back to the road after being parked at the roadside for sometime, and she had slowed down to allow the bus to take its place. My cousin brother however kept going. I figured he must know what he was doing- he had a license afterall. But that was when I understood licences are nothing- it was too late by the time urged him to step on the brakes. He rammed his enthusiasm straight to the back of the girl's motor, but largely thanks to his pysichally tall figure, he got our bike under control, but she definitely did not share our luck. I looked back at her as she tumbled and screeched onto the road, but my cousin was too panicked to bother, he simply overtook the bus and landed me straight at our house withoutthe slightest of stops.
That is the first time I genuinely felt like a criminal. Have we killed her? That was the question which was raised in my mind. The next day, I received a phone call from Dayalan and he told me the girl has identified who had hit her, because I turned around and looked at her while she fell from grace to the tar floor. She was his friend, and she knew that he is my friend. My cousin brother was too nervous to do anything that he just blatantly handed over RM100 to me and asked me to settle with the girl. And I met her the following day, and she demanded RM50, and I was the most relieved person in the world to see that she has sustained minor bruises here and there and thats about it. However, called her a 'vanity brat' and that ringed up the compensation charges straight up to RM100. Two words later, and the compensation charge was a good RM50 more expensive. Enough said.
But what I saw the following week was a blossoming romance between my cousin (the hitter) and the girl (the hitten). And as always, I have become the negotiator for it, though this time in different dynamics. The romance did not last long though, soon enough we all went in our own ways. And we still have a laugh about what happened back then.
From then on- I dropped my own pride, and disclaimed women with an ounce too much of vanity. However cheapfully fun they may sound, both could make you hit and could make you fall (literally).
And there ended my sexist pride, when I was only 16. Now all my pride resides in who I am as a human and what I am doing to better myself. My gender is just an existing fact, I do not use it as a measurement tool of better or worse.
My cousin brother was at Sitiawan as he studied in MHS to repeat his Form 5. so he too was attending Mrs. Nagappan's tuition classes, so that allowed me to coax my parents into giving us the bike so that we could go to tuition (I didn't have a license, so I technically couldn't and shouldn't be riding). And that was a glorifying day for all our bike riding panaches.
As my cousin brother is riding the bike, a fellow tuition-mate passed us by on her bike. HER. So it was a girl. And our pride got hurt in it, not ours, but technically, it was my pride which got hurt- 'why do you even let a girl pass you like that?' I asked him. As silent and non-responsive he was to my question- the next thing I knew he was sprinting the tyres off in overtake the girl in return, and I must mention here the girl in question wasn't an easy spring either, she was literally sprinting her way back home. Once we passed two traffic lights and still found her some good ground ahead of us, I decided to call it quits- but I wasn't the one riding the bike.
My cousin was too far immersed in it that he did not want to call it quits when it looked like an obvious 'defeat'. As if magic struck, she slowed down just before the corner to our housing area arrived. But she wouldn't slow down for no reason wouldn't she? There was a Transnasional bus which is making its way back to the road after being parked at the roadside for sometime, and she had slowed down to allow the bus to take its place. My cousin brother however kept going. I figured he must know what he was doing- he had a license afterall. But that was when I understood licences are nothing- it was too late by the time urged him to step on the brakes. He rammed his enthusiasm straight to the back of the girl's motor, but largely thanks to his pysichally tall figure, he got our bike under control, but she definitely did not share our luck. I looked back at her as she tumbled and screeched onto the road, but my cousin was too panicked to bother, he simply overtook the bus and landed me straight at our house withoutthe slightest of stops.
That is the first time I genuinely felt like a criminal. Have we killed her? That was the question which was raised in my mind. The next day, I received a phone call from Dayalan and he told me the girl has identified who had hit her, because I turned around and looked at her while she fell from grace to the tar floor. She was his friend, and she knew that he is my friend. My cousin brother was too nervous to do anything that he just blatantly handed over RM100 to me and asked me to settle with the girl. And I met her the following day, and she demanded RM50, and I was the most relieved person in the world to see that she has sustained minor bruises here and there and thats about it. However, called her a 'vanity brat' and that ringed up the compensation charges straight up to RM100. Two words later, and the compensation charge was a good RM50 more expensive. Enough said.
But what I saw the following week was a blossoming romance between my cousin (the hitter) and the girl (the hitten). And as always, I have become the negotiator for it, though this time in different dynamics. The romance did not last long though, soon enough we all went in our own ways. And we still have a laugh about what happened back then.
From then on- I dropped my own pride, and disclaimed women with an ounce too much of vanity. However cheapfully fun they may sound, both could make you hit and could make you fall (literally).
And there ended my sexist pride, when I was only 16. Now all my pride resides in who I am as a human and what I am doing to better myself. My gender is just an existing fact, I do not use it as a measurement tool of better or worse.
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