There's not a day in the hectic city life that bores me. There's always so many things that I can do and I'm blessed enough to have a job that allows me to run everywhere around and across town (i.e journalist).
In a cosmopolitan like Kuala Lumpur, where I was born and bred, we are fortunate enough to experience the rich diversity of different races, religions and cultures.
And is there anything better than diversity?
Oh I think there is. I'd say when the differences actually come together as ONE.
One fine Saturday at work, I was asked to cover an event called
Tali Tenang.
The event came about after an unfortunate event that took place in this country that we love - some of us resorted to violent acts that affected places of worship in order to get their message across. It was a sad thing when the church was partially gutted but there is always a silver lining behind every cloud.
Tali Tenang happened when a small group of like-minded people from
Random Alphabets decided to show the entire country that they are level-headed citizens when it come to sensitive issues such as the one we are facing currently. They want to say that come what may, they would still keep their cool and be calm.
So they decided to ask people through Facebook and Twitter - and most are complete strangers - to join them in this cause by bringing along any type of string. The strings would then be tied together, resulting in a very, very long rope. It's especially meaningful, I think, as the different strings reflect the differences in its owners but once they are tied up together, the long string signified UNITY.
The meeting point was at Bangsar LRT station. Most participants came wearing white (it was an impromptu assignment so I wasn't wearing white) and prepared with strings, ribbons and also flags.
Zain HD, the project manager, gave instructions to the crowd to tie the strings together.
I thought they would just have the super long strings tied as such and perhaps sit in a circle and start doing ice-breaking session but boy, was I wrong. We were told to walk from the LRT station to the Bangsar Sports Complex which was a good 2-km away!
Yours truly. All Tali Tenang pictures sourced from
this Facebooker. Do check out his page.
I thought I didn't want to join in, but then since I'm writing about it, I might as well experience what it was all about. It was definitely a long walk and thank God I was wearing flats because I saw a few girls that wore heels. We were encouraged to smile, wave and invite curious onlookers to join us so that was what I exactly did. Passers-by honked at us in support, I hope we made their day when they saw this loooonnngg string going around Bangsar!
I've never participated in group events like this so it was new to me, to be able to come together with this group of strangers for a cause. I spoke to some new people I met at the event and it felt like I've known them ages ago. We clicked. Like-minded.
The long string was cut for us to became smaller in groups so it would be easier for us to cross the roads but it was reconnected again when we finally reached the sports complex. It was a tiring walk but one that I would do all over again to feel that sense of accomplishment.
We were all sweaty and tired but everyone had a smile on their faces. My job only started when the event finished as I had to interview a few participants and the prominent figures that attended.
Tali Tenang was a creative way to bring people to together. Earlier in the morning before Tali Tenang, I had the chance to go see The Most Important Thing In The World, another initiative by a group of young people held at Jalan Bukit Bintang. For this event, participants were asked to communicate WITHOUT saying a word. And in order to do so, they use stethoscopes and listen to heartbeats instead, which I find very interesting. Imagine, a stranger, close to you, without any guard or defense and both of you share the sound of each other's heartbeats. Imagine the amount of blind trust put into that.
It was a late night for me at the office. The next day,
my story (which I wrote with another colleague who also covered the event) was published. KL-lites sure know how to come up with extra-curricular activities such as these, don't you think?
