Last Friday, I cursed a guard in the MRT Ortigas Station over a can of milk.
My wife texted me that CJ’s milk has run out and I oughta get a new can. So off I go to Watson’s Megamall, though not before I lined up the ATM machine to get some money (it was payday). And it was a long line. Sucks when everyone has the same ATM card as yours.
It was getting late, I was tired after a day’s work, and I was getting hungry, so after hurriedly paying for the milk, I went on walking towards the southbound lane of the MRT Ortigas Station, inadvertently forgetting a “Paunawa sheet” stating that canned goods aren’t allowed in the trains I saw a few months ago (I don’t quite see them anymore though).
And so there I was at the inspection counter, and when the lady holding the wooden stick saw that it was indeed an aluminum can, she told me that there’s a problem. That’s when I remembered about the policy. She called on another guard (who, I presume, is the supervisor for that shift) and asked him if I could go. The guard, with a sheepish smile on his face, said a simple “hindi pwede yan.”
The sheepish smile wasn’t all that pleasant for me.
I spat an angry “Putang ina!” at the table (not on any guard in particular), turned my back and went for the stairs. In the corner of my eye I noticed the “supervisor” get tense, and I think his face turned red too. I went down the stairs.
When the guard reached the top of the stairs he yelled “Sa susunod umayos ka ah!”
I yelled back “Eh para gatas lang eh, PUTA!” without looking at him.
Oh yes, I lost my temper. He was, after all, just doing his job. That didn’t matter though — he’s still the MRTA for me, and directly or otherwise he’s part of the people who made that policy. And of course, what I did was wrong. But when you just want to go home to a sumptous dinner, your loving wife and your endearing baby after work, only to be told that you’ll have to stand the terrible payday traffic all because of a harmless can of milk, I couldn’t stop thinking about whacking the guard with that can. All 900 grams of it.
On hindsight, if I were in a better mood, and if it were a better day, would I have reacted differently? Honestly, I don’t think so. Nothing would have changed the outcome of the situation. In the end I still have to take the road, and it took me a whole hour (and shelled out a 100 pesos) instead of half (and 12 pesos) to get home. I’m sure whatever mood I was in I would’ve done what I have done no differently.
I’m bad that way.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Trosp // Oct 5, 2005 at 5:21 pm
Lalo na last time. When the anti-piracy was hot on pirated cd. The guard will search your bag and if they wll see even a cdr with ypur personal files, they will just confiscate it. Kahit sabihin mong hindi ka na sasakay para lang ibalik yung cdr mo.
2 Sassafras // Oct 11, 2005 at 1:20 pm
(nearly) unrelated question: NAN ba ang gatas ni baby? (the 900 grams got me thinking)
nakakainis nga yung inconvenience na di ka nakasakay mrt kasi bawal ang lata sa tren. (hmmm…baka lagyan ba ng bomba?) yung mismong sitwasyon ang nakakainis. hindi mo naman din naman masisi yung mrt management dahil they’re just trying to implement safety measures.
3 Jon Limjap // Oct 11, 2005 at 1:30 pm
Nope, it’s Gain. Hindi siya hiyang sa NAN eh (nagcoconstipate), although she did take NAN 1 before.
While its true that cans can be used as terrorist implements, imagine the absurdity of disallowing, say, a can of tuna or a can of sardines into the train. I wonder what kind of terrorist device can be put there?
Saka does that mean that you will disallow the convenience of using the MRT from people who, say, do their groceries after work?
Ang ironic pa jan, mahirap lang talagang iconceal ang lata ng gatas. Pero several of my friends bring along BB pellet guns (the guns that look too real) into the MRT and simply hide them in unobvious compartments in their bags.
It doesn’t reflect competence and logic any way you put it.
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