Always... Coca Cola!

Not nearly as pretty as the ones i saw... Sigh..

As i squeezed through the crowd of people and chatter in Amcorp's flea market, my eyes scanned the room for prized possessions which might have been on a bargain. And then i saw that something which would change my life forever. 4 limited edition bottles of stainless steel Coca Cola Bottles with graphics on them. Collectors items i tell you!! See, i have this crazy obsession for antiques. Give me a HupSeng cream crackers tin from the 70's and i would be obsenely delighted and perhaps perform one of my flamingo dance for you.

Back to the story, as i see the four bottles amongst the other clutter, i picked one up carefully and coo as if i was holding a puppy, "Oh bernard, look at these! OMG". My discovery was shortlived as the next thing i knew, the uncle mending/Owner of the stall put down his plastic spoon and started shouting at me, spitting nasi lemak out of his half rotten teeth mouth everywhere.. His exact words were;

"You jangan sentuh sentuh!!! Ini you tak tau punya. Dua ratus lima puluh linggit ah kalau you buat pecah!! Ini Coca Cola punya barang, lu mana tau punya??!!! Jangan pigang pigang, lu pecah, lu tada duit bayar.. Letak balik letak balik.. Haiyaaa..."

I stood there, still holding the bottle in my hands, examining its delicate markings for a good half a minute before realizing the uncle was shouting... AT ME? Perplexed, i tried to be patience and respectful, so i inquired politely and tried to explain to the uncle that i was a coca cola collector.

So i asked him, how much was it and told him (despite the embarassing shouting that earned me a mob of spectators) that i will be careful to be gentle with it.

And he says...

" you letak!! Letak Balik! U tak boleh beli punya. Dua Latus Lima Puluh satu set lu mana ada duit??!!! " Letak balik!!!"

I stood there like a moron shocked at this old man shouting at me when clearly, i was about to beg bernard to borrow me some money to buy the bottle collections there and then. Bernard just yanked the bottle out of my hands, called the old man a "soh hai" rudely, and pulled me away.

Again, my brains were numbed by the blistering heat and it took me a minute to fully realised what happened. I started cursing and swearing at the grumpy old man for being such a f***er! Gosh, i was fuming like crazy..

After a while, i figured out why he treated me in that manner. I was wearing one of Bernard's big oversize t shirt and a pair of peddle pushers. Bernard was wearing his old MSSD shirt. Cummon.. It was the weekend!! But aha, we were still judged. The uncle gave us one brief look and passed a judgement. The truth is, "Uncle Grumpy" might have earned that 250 bucks yday if it wasn't for his judgemental decree. Another thing that could have affected the way we were treated was (Bernard's theory), that he probably thought we were.. ahem.. "malays". I shall not go into details as to why or how the prejudice came about, but let's just say he lost a very willing customer.

It's annoying how people are often judged by appearances. Not to say that i am entirely non-judgemental when it comes to looks. Everyone is, even if a little. It's our nature to judge and criticize. This however, made me feel discriminated as if i was vermin.

I wonder whose loss is it..."Uncle stick-up-his-arse" for losing rm250... Or me.. for never being able to add those 4 bottles to my collection just because of the way i look...