I was busy grocery shopping for my Hari Raya open house last weekend when I received a phone call from mom. So placing my trolley to the side of the aisle, I began conversing with her.
All too soon however, I picked-up the incessant buzz of some women talking animatedly. I whipped around and picked out a group of aunties lounging on the benches in the mall.
One of the aunties, I assume the most kepoh, was pointing at my slipper-clad feet with her face all distorted as if someone had just pumped a litre of freshly-squeezed lime juice down her throat.
With my attention from my phone conversation now effectively disrupted, I soon realised my ears beginning to burn once I caught snatches of their conversation.
“Look at her feet. Really bad case of psoriasis lah.”
“No no. That is eczema. My friend last time also got this disease.”
“Not same meh?”
“No. This one blood disease, you get when you eat seafood. Like my friend lah, ask her not to eat, never listen one. There, her feet also like that one lah…”
I found myself staring down at my own feet as I bid goodbye to mom. Yes, my eczema is bad. Yet I felt they were rude to speak so loudly of me in my presence as if I was invisible to them. And why did they even bother about my skin problem?
This reminded me of a similar incident when a friend made an insensitive comment about a woman walking in front of us at the mall. She pouted her mouth, pointing at the woman, complaining how her eyes ached at the sight of the full-figured woman bursting against a body-hugging shirt and short mini skirt. Yes, my friend was being a kepoh too and if the woman had heard her comment, I am sure she would have felt hurt too.
However it is not only strangers who make these stinging, and may I add, unwarranted comments. At times, family and friends have proven to be even more kepoh than outsiders.
During Hari Raya, I met a distant relative whom I had not seen for donkey’s years. With a big smile, she walked towards me and the first thing out of her mouth was: “What happened to you? You used to look so pretty when you were in your teens. Now you have gone so fat that I can’t even recognise you!”
My God, so becok her mulut that instantly I wished I could sapu some sambal belacan extra pedas on her mouth using my berus jamban!
Seriously why are people so kepoh?
“When are you getting married?”
“Why aren’t you popping babies yet?”
“When are you buying a house?”
“Why are you not losing weight?”
“Why aren’t you wearing a tudung?”
“Why so sexy?”
“When are you sending your parents to Mekah?”
Can’t people just mind their own business?
To those kepoh people living among us, thank you for your time, observations and free consultations/counselling/advice – even when it is not solicited.
Perhaps in the future, if you wish to be kepoh, try finding a worthwhile subject to be kepoh about. Try la to be kepoh about our country’s continuously growing debt; the unresolved 1MDB scandal; Tun M’s proposed political party; the rise in parking rates in Kuala Lumpur and other living costs; the contributions of our leaders (or the lack of it); terrorism and how it affects us; or even the latest news of Malaysia being one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
For God’s sake, if you wanna kepoh pun, kepoh la properly.