Today at The City

Now I am not an attention whore. I like attention just like any other regular person on the street-perhaps may be a little more than that- but I am certainly not an attention seeking prat. There’s a slight difference between the two, a guy who is an attention whore likes to give toothy but vapid smiles, flaunting glittery clothes, mentioning the labels he or she is wearing, the latest exploits, the latest trends, all the top of his or her voice with exaggerated facial expressions and a irritating habit of looking left right and behind. On the other hand, if I wore a 5 dollar tee that has a sperm shaped Nike sign with the caption below it saying ‘Just Did It’, then that doesn’t make me a attention whore but you couldn’t help feeling a bit, elated you can call it, when people pass you looking at our tee shirt and giving you smiles (in some cases naughty winks).

So today, I was roaming Melbourne city on my own. It was a very sunny and consequently warm today. What I love about roaming the city is that I get to see many people from different countries and backgrounds. It is good sight the Norse, South Americans, Africans and Asians skittering from one place to another all jibber jabbering in their tongues, which are totally unintelligible to me. I spent an hour at Helal Kebabs, a food outlet near Flinders Street Station. The biryani there is extremely good and I have become mates with the staff.

One of the staff there is a former government schoolteacher from Mandi Bahaudin, I struck up a chat with him and found out that he had come here in the hopes of a better future, but fate had led him to this kebab and biryani shop working on a meager pay of 10 dollars an hour. But according to him if he works every day , without taking a day off, come hail or sunshine, then he can save up enough money to send back , money which is actually triple the salary he got as a government school teacher. A smattering of white hair on his head and a serious but inspiring out take on life suggested to me that he was married with children. And my guess was right. The thought of his wife and two children is the only thing, according to him, that really motivates him to get up every day and come to work and earn money. Talking to him, I realized that his former pupils had just a lost a very simple mannered and dedicated teacher. But that dedication was not enough to feed his family, so now he must reside here and save up enough money to go back and open a kebab shop in Mandi Bahaudin.

After begging my leave from there, I headed towards Crowne Plaza.

Ah! Crowne Plaza, the place with a seductive smell of deodorant, expensive suits, air fresheners, Givenchy’s, Versace’s, fresh-minted money and the smell women. Really, it’s the smell of luxury, which is a great motivator to acquire ore wealth. Some call it induced greed and some call it human nature. I call it tapping the already existing human desire to have more of everything. Anyways, I watched the Descendants there, which is a very moving story of a father trying to reconnect with his family, which is torn up by grief and betrayal. I certainly agree with the critics that this was George Clooney’s most intimate and emotional performance yet.

After the movie, I headed back to my home meeting a couple of homeless folk on the way, who were waiting for somebody to get them a cheeseburger or some drinks. Somehow my thoughts drifted to the Pakistani beggars I smiled and crossed the road to Flinders Street Station. Where I was caught up between a desire to stay in the city the whole night or head back home. I chose home.