was having dinner at my current favorite joint yesterday..Popeye's Fried Chicken outlet in TTDI. this time i refrained myself from gorging down on excess grub and just ordered a two piece set that came with the usual mash and mash (i usually trade the coleslaw for another mash) and a soft drink. this time, i chose to sit by the window over-looking the busy pasar malam stalls below and was about to swallow my first bite of their truly tasty finger licking chicken when i noticed a man or half of him from where i could see, sitting almost near the middle of the road peddling something...that piece of chicken got stuck in my throat when i squinted my eyes and realized that the man was actually only half...meaning he had no legs!! he was just sitting on his bum or whatever there is left when a person has no legs. his left arm stopped right at his elbow..only the right arm appeared normal from where i could see..
damn..i nearly choked on that piece of chicken. i decided to just eat the mash and gulped down my mirinda grape to ease the passage of that chicken down my throat. i then decided to order a take-away 2-piece set meal for the fella. good thing they made me wait as what i got was freshly fried chicken. if only the biscuit had just come out from the oven, that would have been really perfect..but anyway, i took it to him and placed it in front of him and gave him a pat on the shoulder and very quietly walked away..i watched him from behind and saw him open the plastic bag, took a good sniff of what's inside and then closed it back tightly and placed it protectively by his side...probably saving the food for later...that moment really broke my heart..
..i did not want to alarm him, so i took these pics from his back. i noted that he was probably a foreigner and he was selling something but i dont think anyone was buying but yet, he had an open plastic bag in front of him containing a few ringgit notes. i also noted as i observed from a distance that there were the occasional people who dropped some money in his bag but mostly, people would just walk past him like he was just a tree stump that sprouted from the road...the cars were zooming pass him too like on an obstacle course..
i know..i know..some of you may say that, hey, he's just being put there by some syndicate to beg for money and knowing malaysians are generally (?? really??) softies at heart, he's just a product used to make money. he could have been smuggled in from vietnam, (for a brief moment, i thought he may have been a victim of agent orange..coz i dont think anyone could have survived if he had had an accident and had his limbs torn off that way leaving what this guy had left.) by the syndicate to block the streets of KL for sympathy..BUT hey, i dont care how he got there or what his purpose is but no human being should ever be placed in that position...
i had a sleepless night. i cried in my heart for what i saw. i felt helpless..what in the world have we become..?
p/s: if any of u guys are in the ttdi pasar malam area on sundays and u are a softie like me, do buy him a nice take-away meal instead of dropping off cash..he can be seen with his back to the kfc outlet, facing pak pa nasi lemak stall...if i decide to start a mobile free kitchen, would anyone be interested?
