Street life

“Ping-pong, ping-pong, incoming chat request.” I looked at the computer screen. A photo of Jessica Simpson without a top on. It was clearly another pervert. I should click “ignore”. But, then I thought, “sod it. Even if she is a pervert, at least I will have one more friend on this site and thus look a little more like a trusted and legitimate user.”

Amadine: hiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Ricky: Hi [I use the name Ricky when chatting with strangers; he is more confident, more brash, than I am.]
Amandine: Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii [I am most disheartened by all the “i”s; this gurl is clearly full of hope, and I know I will disappoint.]
Amandine: how are you?
Ricky: Fine, and you?
Amandine: awesome [I hope she is not describing her state of well-being as “awesome”. I am not good with excessively cheerful people. Perhaps she is just nauseatingly happy that I am “fine”.]

Amandine: i am fine here
Ricky: Where is here? [I may as well find out where this not Jessica Simpson character is from before I dismiss her completely.]
Amandine: where means the place i live
Ricky: And, where is that?
Amandine: It's in India
Ricky: So, what languages do you speak?
Amandine: i speak Hindi
Ricky: Ok. Write “water” in Hindi. [I decide to test his Hindi; it is hard to trust a word of what anyone says in online chat, and to my mind someone using a photo of Jessica Simpson as her profile picture is even less trustworthy than most.]
Amandine: Pani
Ricky: Ok. Write a lot, as in the words "a lot". [“Water”, “a lot” and “dirty” are the only words of Hindi that I remember from when I did voluntary work in Bihar years ago wif my father.]
Amandine: bhut zayada

Ricky: Ok, you are for real.
Amandine: hahha
Ricky: But, why do you have a photo of someone who is not you as a profile picture?[I kindda like him too. hahax]
Amandine: she is my favourite
Ricky: But, she is not you. So, my first impression was that you must be a pervert.
Ricky: not at alllllll
Amadine: I am just telling you the impression that you give.

I felt a bit guilty that I had been so suspicious of her in the beginning, so, even though she was not going to be useful for the project, I turned on the microphone and talked with her about India.

“There are a lot of people living on the streets in India,” he said.

“Yes, it is possible to live on the streets in India” I said. “Of course people live on the streets here too, but not so many; it is not acceptable. Malaysian society demands that its homeless are provided with shelters.”“Some of the people here live on the streets because they want to. They give away all their possession and live on the street because they want to be nearer God.”“People don’t do that here.” I said.

Thinking that if someone here in Kuala Lumpur said that they were living on the streets to get closer to God they would be classified as insane and sent to a psychiatric hospital. And, yet since reading “The Perennial Philosophy”, I know that ultimately the only thing I possess is my free will and that I should give everything else up as it is a distraction. But, I am still having trouble even thinking about this concept let alone putting it into practice. Up until a few months ago, I lived my life trying to get more and more of everything, and now even the doubt that this might not be the best way to live is very traumatic.

“So, what about you?” I asked. “Are you tempted to go and live on the street.”

“I would like to, but I have responsibilities. I have to take care of my mother and my younger brother.”

I remembered a newspaper article that I read back in February about an Malaysian family who had chosen to live in the slums of India. When I first read the article, I felt strongly that they were very selfish for inflicting a life of unnecessary poverty upon their children, but now I am not so sure. I would need to speak to them to understand.