Feels So Surreal

I am a week and a half late for my latest blog. But I've got a reasonbly good reason for my delay. Since Randy came to Malaysia, I have been pretty damned busy. I've been running around "assisting" him in workshops trying to get myself popular, going on TV and radio interviews as his "sidekick", attending dinner functions held by studios, and last but not least, bringing him shopping. Another reason why I couldn't blog earlier was because I wanted to post pictures, but couldn't find the damned USD cable for the camera.

Lame excuses aside, sometimes this whole experience feels really surreal. This cat, who has gone on tour with the likes of Destiny's Child, Sean Paul, Usher and has choreographed for Coco Lee, J. Simpson and a couple more artists, is now living in a humble middle-class home at Jalan 21/9 Petaling Jaya. Even funnier is that he had meals with my family, played with my dog, and tried to help my sisters with their homework (didn't do a very good job though). I arrived home today with my brother and we forgot to bring the keys for the main gate. So we shouted "Hello?!", and Randy replied from inside "Yo man, how you want me to let you in?!" I thought to myself: This is some weird shit. Never in my life of 20 years had I imagined that an African-American man would open the gates of my home for me.

I guess many of us forget that celebrities, people whom we admire or people who always appear in magazines and TV live on the same planet as us. We never think of the possibility that some day we might be associated with these people. Sometimes we fail to realize that we drink the same water, eat the same foods, breathe the same air, do the same things in toilets, get into similar relationships and even make the same kind of mistakes.

But a more important lesson that I've learned from this experience is that if we ever do achieve such status, we should remember that we are living in the same world as everyone else. No one is inferior to us, we shouldn't expect special treatment from anyone and we shouldn't fuss over living in humble conditions. I told Randy that he could move out to a hotel whenever he wants if he isn't comfortable here and that we'd understand. But after almost a week, he seems as happy as a squirrel in its tree. If he is feigning his comfort and happiness, he has to be a pretty damned good actor to fake it for week!

What's funny is that I actually know some friends who might complain over the living conditions of my home if they'd ever live here. Although it's a nice clean home, I know many people who'd complain about the noise my siblings make in the morning, the unpleasant smell of my dog, the heat and stuffiness of my room, the mess of my table, and the lack of mobility caused by my inability to drive. But Randy didn't even give a small grunt over these matters, except occasionally about the heat.

It seems that after housing a man who has been up there with celebrities, I have learned to be happy with the simple things down here and always keep my humility.