Not Just Another Pretty Face: It was snowing in Malaysia on X'mas

Sunday, December 26, 2010

It was snowing in Malaysia on X'mas

Pavillion, KL 25-Dec-2010

I've always loved Christmas time of the year, if only for my own, frivolous superficial reasons.

As a child, I remember begging my mother for a Christmas tree at home, to which I never got one, but I think she was only being practical as the reasons for me wanting a tree ran along the lines that I thought the presents on display at the supermarket came along with the plastic tree and that it would be fun to hang ornaments on the Christmas tree to decorate it as the families in books and movies did.

I also remember writing a list to Santa on things I wanted, with a half-baked notion to post them to him in the North Pole. I don't even remember what I asked for anymore.

As I grew older, I think what I loved most this time of the year was how pretty it was during Christmas- the malls & cafes would be transformed and decked in all their glittering, colourful and fanciful glory with cheerful Christmas carols playing overhead. I swear in the week leading up to Christmas, there was always one carol or another playing silently in my head throughout the day as I went about my daily life. I dreamt of a white christmas, just like the ones I never knew while I drove to buy some bread. I promised myself that this year I'd give It to someone special since last year I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away, as I scanned my work documents. I thought about Rudolph's glowing reindeer nose as I brushed my teeth.

Anyway, I will always remember Christmas 2010 as it was the day I was at Pavillion and saw it snowing as I stepped out of one of the restaurants on the top floor. Watching the white flakes fall silently from the sky behind the glass walls of the mall, I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined myself standing in a chilly snowy street someplace far, far away in the dead of winter. It really was a magical moment, even more so because I didn't expect to witness the pretty sight.

The thought that was running through my head as I reached my hand towards the sky to try to catch the white stuff falling from above was that, if they could make it snow in Malaysia, anything was possible. The sky was the limit. There was hope for me, for all of Humankind. *cue for the sappiest cheesiest inspirational music*

Cheesiness aside, I think at the very least, some semblance of cheer seeped into my heart to temporarily nullify the sadness, dissappointment, anger and hurt at the hypocrisy, the selfishness, injustices and dreams unfulfilled, even more heartwrenching is the lack of any real effort put in to fulfill the promises. It's not that I don't want to let it all go, mind you but it's not so easy as dropping a bag of stones and saying, goodbye, fare thee well. I wish you the best and nicest life has to offer you and I will be fine and dandy, thank you so very much for asking.

I suppose the more cynical and scientific of you are dying to point out that a) it was not even real snow, it was some kind of tacky foamy substance b) technically, the stuff did not fall from the sky, it fell from the foam generating machine near the roof of the mall c) it's just another commercialized aspect of Christmas to draw more shoppers to the mall

I know commercialization has a hollow ring to it sometimes, but yesterday, it made my day and it touched me for some reason. It touched me enough for me to write this post. Perhaps it's always been my whimsical wish that it would snow in Malaysia, and I really never thought it would come true, but yesterday, it did.

It was all the more special because for me dreams have rarely if ever come true.

Labels: Me myself and I, Random Stuff