Humbled

Scene 1
I visited a peer in one of the offices in KL. His office is located in a shabby building - cracked walls and peeling paints and pot holes in the yard and well - just plain old. His desk is not much better - cluttered with forms to be approved, reports, and stacks and stacks of papers.

I thought the visit would last about 30 minutes or so - he only need to verify like 15 rows of information with about the same number of columns.. or so I thought - he verified every cell on the sheet. Any column that he is not sure about he referred to the papers that are on his desk. He even went to his car to get a manual (which coincidently dated 2001) to cross-ref the columns he is not sure about - and also made a looong phone call to validate his assumptions.

I left his office after spending 3 hours in there. I also left humbled. I discovered the guy who doesnt seem to fit in the corporate-savvy image worked really hard and seriously and honestly for the corporate.

Scene 2
A couple of us were sitting in a small and cramped office on a visit to see the users the other day - they had some problems with their transactions. There is no way anyone can move from their tables to the PC and file cabinet without passing in front of us. There was a TA who is older than all of us who moves to and fro the PC and his table - and everytime he passed he would bent a bit like we would do if we walked in front of our mum or makciks.

I was touched, I thought I should do that - not him. And humbled I was.

*****