Recession: A Night to Remember

According to the definition, recession is when a period of general economic decline; specifically, a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters. This is where the amount of business activity in the economy by looking at things like employment, industrial production, real income and wholesale-retail sales has reached its peak and starts to fall until the time when business activity bottoms out (Mike Moffatt, Your Guide to Economics).

It will only unleash to spurt when it hits the rock-bottom – a place nowhere else to go but to bounce back up.

Forget about how the economists look at it. As far as I am concerned, during the time I came back from overseas; our country was still being enveloped in recession. We were among the first countries to tumble in the domino effect of it and funny, among the last to stand right up. It was a bad timing for me to be back when the country was still recuperating from a waft of recession. Jobs were scarce and I was jobless.

It was a big blow on me since I used to have a good job with a good pay and had a good living in overseas and all of the sudden I had no means of income after returning back to the home country. If only I knew it was really that hard as what I was being forewarned, I would have had delayed my departure from the place until such a time that was right for me to be back. The pinch of not having source of income came to life when I started to exhaust my savings. It was at a speedy rate. Was it me or recession to blame?

I was having hard time to ration over the subsistence for having no clue on how the outlook of life course would fabricate for me. I was being trained over the typical day-to-day life in a foreign country and had no bona-fide-benchmark to compare with to fit the newly encountered life in Malaysia. Mind you, I was only a high school student when I left the country and had no idea on how the working life like in my own soil.

I felt miserable. At times, I would take refuge from my worrisome by roving around town especially in the night, to have moments for myself amidst the hustle bustle of the city. I still remember, the land area that sandwiched between Jalan Tuanku Abd Rahman and Jalan Raja Laut where Sogo is now located used to be an open area with a nice big stage in it called Pentas Sultan Sulaiman. The place was used for many types of events like cultural shows and such during weekends.

I was there on that Saturday night when the cultural dance was being performed. It was a good cultural dance routines by the dancers from the Ministry of Culture with thousands of people were watching and it lasted until 11:30 pm. After it was over, I decided to stay a while longer.

Crowd started to get thinner after hours past especially when it was way past midnight. It was a nice feeling to witness the changes from huge crowd to a smaller crowd, from very noisy to quiet or rather less noisy and from hot to a bit cooler temperature. But then I became curious when I noticed the place was gradually filled with transvestites. Well it was at least 40, 50 of them encasing the area until the parking lots behind EPF building over that side. Only then I realized that area was used as a pick-up point for those transvestites.

I have a habit of sitting quietly in a corner watching people. People are to me a very interesting species that are with clear distinctions from one to another. I would be in my own world reading the movements, the way they communicate, gestures, body languages, facial reactions and what not; of which in some ways it is analogous to my own self. I could never stop exploring and wondering about people and their characters and always get pleasant surprises in my findings.

I could see those transvestites were very pretty that put the local female artists to shame. I came to learn that they dubbed their names with the girly sounds like Suzy, Elly, Misha, Mimi, Sherry, Rose and the likes. And I am very sure they were way off from the actual names officially registered. I was so amused seeing them seducing the guys as much as outraged by the swear words with the kind of husky-feminine-manly voice when they got irritated by some cheeky guys.

I was actually not that naïve in the knowledge of gay world as I had seen it even worse in the overseas but it confused me a little looking at what actually exists in our own country with the attitude of it-only-happen-in-the-western-countries. Come to think about it, well, the basic rule of economics says, when there is a demand, there is a supply. I was also astonished seeing the patrons were rather of higher bracket of income people judging from the luxury cars stopped by picking them up after short conversations with the glass window rolled down, engine kept running.

I was watching at the closest group of “ladies” from where I sat down. There were 4 or 5 of them flocked together. One of them was very outstanding. I knew “her” name was Ju when I heard her friends calling her by the name. She was in a class of “beautiful lady“ that would make the authentic ladies envy over her look and poise. She was a quiet type and many young guys were teasing her. Being her, she had no problem in getting attentions. One moment or another she was engrossed with the potential "clients" she was after… or maybe those guys that were after her.

Policemen came. They were in a big truck. I think that was a routine surveillance by the enforcement unit in that area.

“Ju… polis datang… polis datang….” Her friend by the name Mimi shouted form yards away.

[“Ju… policemen are here… they’re here”]

“Ju... Cepatlah Ju… dah ada kat jalan sebelah sana….”

[”Hurry up Ju… they are over that side”]

It seems that Ju was still engrossed with her move and hardly heard what Mimi had shouted.

“Hey…. JUSOH…. Polis datang laaaaa....”

[“Hey JUSOH… policemen are here….]

Hahaha, then I knew HIS actual name was Jusoh.

Those transvestites ran helter-skelter and it was a funny sight to see when the ladies with the energy of men made their ways in hurry.




GAB