By Malkeet Singh | Malaysia | Experience |
I wish to share my personal encounter with the sheer power of gratitude and compassion after I had a life-changing experience some time on a working day in 1988.
I was driving from my home in Rawang to my advertising agency, Bloomingdale, located in the then, UMBC Building, Jalan Sultan Suleiman, Kuala Lumpur. As I was exiting the then, Jalan Kuching Toll Plaza, and heading towards the city center, I noticed a car had hit a motorcyclist and driven over the leg of the poor rider who had fallen onto the tarmac road.
I had two choices – one to chase after the traffic offender and apprehend his vehicle or to simply stop and help rush the victim to the General Hospital. Saving a life was more important than heroic theatrics!
On seeing the motorcyclist groaning in pain, I stopped near him to help him. Thank God, another good samaritan joined me in helping carry the injured man into my vehicle.
As this was happening, a young Chinese lady also stopped by and offered to assist take the victim to the hospital. For a moment, my whole worldview collapsed as I so used to see my fellow Malaysians through racial lenses. My perception had always been that the Chinese were often reluctant to help accident victims because they were afraid to see blood splattered in their vehicle or for someone to pass away in their vehicle. What diabolical thoughts had I been indoctrinated with?
I profusely thanked the young Chinese lady for her very kind offer of assistance and told her my Isuzu Trooper’s seats could be folded and there was ample space for the victim to lie down comfortably en route to the hospital. The good samaritan said he will tag along with me to the hospital as well. We quickly rushed to the emergency ward at the GH and got the victim admitted and made a police report as well.
Before leaving I asked the injured motorcyclist if I could help call his family and inform them of the accident. He passed the contact details and I was able to call his family member from my office. This was the pre-mobile phone era. Very few had mobile phones which were then looking more like wireless radio sets!
Moving fast-forward, as I settled down in my office, I received a phone call from my bank, UMBC. The caller asked me my name and if I had accidentally left RM500 at the UMBC ATM in Jalan Sultan Suleiman, where my office was also located. I was very honest and told the bank officer that I was sure that I had misplaced or dropped some money but for certain I could not confirm if it was at the said ATM. I never expected the Universe to conspire and return my lost money on the very day I helped save someone’s life.
The Officer asked me to come downstairs to the UMBC counter for further clarification. They asked me if I had withdrawn some money from the ATM some days earlier and I said yes. I then asked them, how sure were they that the money found at the ATM was mine.
I was amazed when they told me that after I left the ATM leaving my withdrawn cash uncollected, an officer from UMBC was next in the queue and noticed the uncollected cash. He retrieved the money and continued with his personal transaction and kept his withdrawal slip. He later reported to the bank who managed to trace through their system my details based on the ATM tracking transactions queue.
I was so overjoyed that finally, I was able to retrieve my misplaced money on an eventful day when I had stopped to help an injured total stranger and rushed him to the hospital.
More importantly, my whole life view changed from seeing my fellow Malaysians in terms of racial stereotypes – Malays, Chinese, and Indians – to the kind, compassionate and caring fellow brothers and sisters of the human fraternity.
The Universe had thought me a priceless lesson – never ever see anyone through a racial lens and profile them into various stereotypes.
That one eventful morning sent me a very powerful message – the accident victim was a Malay, the good samaritans were an Indian man and a Chinese lady, and the honest UMBC bank officer was a Malay. The Universe had brought all of us together as one beautiful human race of brothers and sisters.
This incident happened more than 34 years ago and is deeply entrenched in my soul as a priceless lesson – we are all One spark of the Almighty Divine Spirit.
Let us make Malaysia Great Again!
Note: I wrote a letter to the President of UMBC and thanked him for an honest employee the bank should be very proud of. Something, our corrupt politicians can learn from the humble ordinary Rakyat. I sent the bank officer a basket of fresh fruits as a kind gesture of reciprocal thanks.
Malkeet Singh used to run a public relations and advertising agency based in Kuala Lumpur. He remains a fire-starter of a writer till this day, firing on all cylinders from his one-desk office in Rawang, Selangor
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The history of Sikhs in Malaysian advertising (Asia Samachar, 9 May 2021)
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