CITY LIFE A CHANGING LIFESTYLE

Thursday 5 December 2013:  This morning we were in the city. At first together with the young office and departmental members who were in their attires waiting at  'PUTRAJAYA SENTRAL' for the KLIA transit to take us to 'KUALA LUMPUR SENTRAL'. Mind you there is no mistake in the spelling. The Putrajaya Railway Station, similarly Kuala Lumpur central railway station go by that name and spelling. 

I find it absorbing and interesting to look at things and where and when possible click the shutter and there you have the moment captured. In this case the first two pictures have stories of their own. Maybe on a casual and fleeting observation you may not see the secrets and the lifeline they displayed but with the evidence at hand you realized the sanity and the life style adopted. The fellow passengers stood in proper order, one behind the other, queuing before the train arrived at the point where the doors would be when the train stopped. Give another look and you will notice at least they don't stand ideally but busy .... reading. It's either the pages of a book or the screens of their hand-phones.Messages, twitters, blogs, news, music, radio programs, games etc are items you get on your cell phones and connectivity gives you sound and music too.

 

Similarly, another group close by are at it in the same way. All oblivious to the surroundings and the fellow human beings around them. All are casually dressed, black being the favoured colour and the haversacks have become good companions. I remarked to my wife that once mothers carry their young babies in similar styles. Well is this then an adoption or adaptation? One thing for sure the sale of such bags is a hit. Is it lighter or easier carrying the bag in this manner? For sure you have both hands free.

It is not hard to guess that daily such routine applies and you wonder how much the group pay to things that move around them and realize the human factors participating.

The transit train arrived as announced and we moved into the  carriages, each one taking his seat or standing in the crowded train that arrived at the city centre in quick time. Another routine in the daily mobility of persons has been casually observed.

Then in the city, Kuala Lumpur continues to present its never halting expansions. The earlier train ride was a good respite from the normal traffic to the city. As I walked to KLCC( Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre) I noticed this part of the city, a section sandwiched by two tall buildings, yet it occupies a business centre of a unique kind, designed as a restaurant or a coffee-house even offering an open-air first floor.  It even advertised that a 'flea' market will be opened here.

Now are we so congested or devoid of space that we allow for such construction to take place? A few minutes later, I came across these two brave workers who are already in their gears, checking that all are clear before they are hoisted up into the sky to begin their duties for the day. One moment you see the road cleaners and the next the window cleaners in the sky. 

Hopefully they will not repeat what we saw earlier at the railway station  ... taking a short break, having a breather and a casual look at their hand phones while up there.

Questions? In future will books be on sale for the masses? Will reading newspapers and magazines  be a continuing affair? Will persons carry pens for the normal usage i.e for writing as clicking away on the phones continue to be the norm? Will we be knocking into each other and likely to say 'hello' and be introduced? Many of our lifestyles and norms seems to depart from what it is now!