The Backlog

I’m currently staying in a terrace house with 3 bedrooms. I occupy the first room to myself, while the other second and third are occupied by one Malay guy and one Indian guy respectively. We have been housemates for months, and so far it has been peaceful enough. No racial arguments, no clash of religion-related issues, and no spats of any other kind. At some point, I thought we are the ideal Malaysians, staying together harmoniously without discrimination of each other’s race and beliefs.

But I was wrong.

Months ago when I was looking for housemates, the Indian guy was first to see my advertisement, then he called to inquire about the vacancy. I was desperate for housemates, so I let him n. He looked around the place, and booked the room immediately. He said he doesn’t like to stay with Indians and thus wants to find a Chinese neighborhood to live in. I don’t know what’s wrong with him for not liking people of his own race. I wanted to ask, but circumstances didn’t allow me to mention anything about it as I was more interested in getting someone to fill in the vacancy.

Fast forward a few months later, which is right now, it’s time for everyone to move out. I’m moving out at the end of the month, and would need to find someone to move into my room to replace me. The Malay guy is also moving out at the same time, and that leaves the Indian guy. At first the Indian guy said he wants to move out, so I put up the whole house for rent.

Then about two weeks later he made a u-turn and decided against shifting out. I was forced to save one room for him and then find people to fill up the two rooms. Another week later, his girlfriend came to me and said that they are considering to move because the house doesn’t have the basic facilities such as washing machine and Internet access.

Fine. So I put up another advertisement to rent the whole house. A girl called up, and said she wants to rent the whole house. Of course I was ecstatic, because I wasn’t expecting a call so soon. It was just a day or two after I put up the advertisements. I figured that the girl might want to come and look at the house so I want to let the Indian guy and Malay guy know about this.

The Indian guy, upon receiving my SMS, replied to say that they now want to stay. He went on to say that a girl had called him to ask about the availability of one room. Argh. So he wants to stay on and rent one room to a girl. What about the other room? I thought things would be easy if the Indian guy wants to move out, so I can just put the whole house up for rent. But he kept making u-turns on his decisions and it was nothing but trouble for me.

Now I know why he don’t like to stay with Indians. He must have thought his race is a troublesome lot.

(Not to mention that he is always speaking loud, even at late nights. Being inconsiderate is his virtue.)

(I was basically being considerate to let him continue his stay in the house. Could have forced him out of the house, but I am not that bad lah.)