One of My Imaginary Competition(s)...

It's not a turn down, but a slight postponement until Monday. I supposed to meet a friend of mine as a potential investor for my Maithuna project right after the Friday prayer. Then, instead of taking a Friday prayer in vicinity of his office, I went to the one near my house. For sure, it's gonna be a walking underneath the mid-day sun.

During the Ramadhan, it's one of the method of calorie burning since I won't be doing cardio during the day and usually after the iftar (breaking the fast) one has to have a will to go up for a cardio at night. But most of all, the strolling to one's neighborhood mosque is opening up the possibility to bump into your neighbor. In fact, today, still in a bit disappointment from the delayed meeting, I bumped into an old friend of mine. I won't say his name, but let's called him Mr. M.

I've known Mr. M since childhood. As the only son in the family with several female siblings, he is a bit expected in the family. Especially with the good look that he has, back in the 80's many girls had have a crush on him. Then, he boasted that he spent most of his time receiving a call from his admirer. Every Saturday Night, he is the one who went missing for spending time with one of the girls. Mr. M also has a gift of making something artistically. He was a good painter, still is. But, when I say artistically, back then, it should be a complete package. Most of all, it was someone who is good in making a great model miniature kit. We loved to built a model kit. I had my collection ranging from military stuffs to modern commercial vehicles. Mr. M had collection of commercial vehicles (sedan & trucks) that he scrapped and transformed into a stylist car with the protruding wheel and an inside roll bar in it. I built the model as instructed, while he built it more with his imagination. It was his gift. He was so good with his this skill so to me it mutated into a vanity. Eventually, I built up a competition within me against all of his skills and attributes.

His opening line to me today was that he still has my VW Beetle model kit that he rebuilt into a different car despite the look of the Beetle is still there. Wow, even I myself have long forgotten about the model kit let alone the specific model.

After several years, with limited conversation between each other, the strolling to the mosque has opened me with the news of him. I found out in the middle of the conversation that he has the same back problem as mine. And this back problem has refrained him to continue his job as a driver in one of the biggest taxi company in town. What surprises me is not that he has the same back problem like I'm having, a possible dire competition, but the fact that he is working as a taxi driver. Once again, not that I view the occupation negatively, but I have practically grown up with Mr. M, and being a driver was perhaps, then, not his option. He was the slick of the week type of person who refrained from riding a cheap transportation when visiting any girl's.

In retrospect, I took a look at the built up or imaginary competition that I had against him and the trivialities surrounding it. What a pernicious of me to create that situation. I caught up between a self-laugh and cry altogether. He is so harmless. In my strolling, I put myself in the position where Mr. M won't see any competition built up between him and his passenger. He is simply driving the client where to go. It's an irony that back then he was driving himself to any girl's or admirer's house he wanted. He was the one who decided what this model kit would look like after he glued and painted together. Now, he waits for an order to the location which several times he doesn't know where it is.

I dug more into the conversation regarding the back problem. I was sustaining myself in mentioning any chiropractic treatment. It's not that I don't want to help someone with the problem like mine, but the chiropractic treatment is not really a cheap solution. My simple solution, I considered it cheap solution, is to take a pain killer when the pain attacks. This time, he repeats my solution over and over again as to memorize it in his medication workflow. I also remind him to take a rest while he roams around in his taxi. Too much sitting down will make the back problem worse. I ask him to drive to the side and stand up and have a good stretch while resting in between duty. That's the least I can ask him to do.

So much for the stroll as we arrive at the mosque, lastly he informed me that he spent several weeks at Suralaya Islamic Compound. There, I'm a bit curious for anyone who was once a nonchalant for religion but all of a sudden start attending the pesantren (Islamic Compound). Satiating my curiosity, I ask him what is he doing there. A simple answer of learning Islam more in depth is what I got. I value him for that...a once expected man in the family, a juvenile casanova, a gifted artist is now learning something more for his life. As the qomat calls us to stand up and pray, Mr. M added more to my question. His answer is that in Suralaya is also the place to look for the woman. I bet he is still is....:)