who me???

I was having a conversation with an old banana friend yesterday and he said to me that I too was a banana. Wait...hang on a minute...who is he calling a banana here? Me? Little kampung girl me??? That got me around to thinking just what makes a banana a banana.

For starters, a banana is one who is yellow on the outside and white on the inside....hmm...yellow on the outside...now, that certainly is not how I would describe myself on the outside --- hey, I'm a brownie!

Next, a banana is white on the inside... I don't think I'm white on the inside. Okay, sure, so I have some westernized values (whatever they may be!) but does that make me a banana? I mean, is there anyone out there at all who is really untouched by any westernized values??? (Okay, let's keep the Orang Asli out of this, okay?).

I guess that brings me back to Mac's question a few days ago of how much of a kampung girl am I really? Let's see... my kampung is in PJ. Afterall, one's kampung is where one grew up and where one's parents reside and for this kampung girl, it's good ole PJ.

I'm bilingual and I code switch between both languages when I speak unless of course I'm speaking to a monolingual person. My Malay is great, I don't speak it with a Mat Salleh accent (I have seen that phenomena on a few people who have been educated overseas --- don't know why it happens). In fact, I am equally capable of speaking the northern dialect as well speaking the more standardized and perscribed standard version. Okay, my writing skills in Malay is much to be desired... nothing that I am proud of. I am unable to express myself in writing in Malay as well as I do in English but that's probably due to lack of practise rather than anything else.

When I was young dad used to think that it was a great idea to take us kids back home to his kampung. I used to dread those long road trips. Back in the kampung, was certainly where I didn't belong and I knew that even as a child. I guess the fact that most of my cousins were at least two decades older than me, if not more, didn't really help as well.

Okay, I admit that I now prefer men who are not home grown over those who are but is that really my fault or theirs??? It's not like I haven't given our local boys a chance (or in this case, loads of chances) before I gave up on the local products and considered the imported stuff :P.

Hey, you know what --- I may be not a banana and neither am I a kampung girl... I am me and I'm okay with that!