THE STORY OF A AND B

meet A. married with one kid, A is a 27 year old malay executive who comes from batu pahat. having obtained good spm results and excellent extracirrucular activities testimonial (he represented the state for at least 3 sports), he managed to secure a scholarship from a bumiputera conglomerate to further his studies and spent a total of 18 months in australia to complete his degree (it was a twinning program). after completing his studies he began working for his sponsor. during the time when he was serving his sponsor, he was sent to qatar for two weeks for some audit work.

A just LOVES to talk. a very highly opinionated person, he feels that there is a great need for him to share with the people around him (or even the whole world if he can have it his way) his experiences. strangely enough, most of the experiences which he shares with his friends revolve around his time in either a) australia, or b) qatar. during conversations, it is most likely that he starts his sentence with either a) "when i was in australia..." or b) "when i was in qatar..." . it is highly unlikely that he has travelled to any other countries except for the above-mentioned countries.

whenever A sees something and find any differences between what he sees and how it is in australia and/or qatar, he feels obligated to share it with everyone. for example, if someone tells him that he or she wants to buy a ticket to watch a movie, he would voluntarily provide unsolicited information about how the cinemas are like in australia, how much does it cost, in which day can a person get cheap tickets and how the seats are not numbered. if his friends talk about the increase in petrol price in malaysia, he would (almost instantly) provide his friends with the information about how much does petrol cost in australia, which brand is the best selling brand and what was his favourite brand.

A is also a perfect example of a mr-know-it-all. he seems to have the answer for evertything. sadly, although what A says is always full of conviction, it often lacks credibility. his facts and statements are almost always arguable (which is weird because A cited answer.com as his favourite website). not gifted with a complicated mind, he often uses his experience and converts it to a factual statement. clearly, statistics was not his best subject in school.

for example, while driving on the streets of dubai, A and his friends caught a glimpse of a Hummer (that military vehicle thingy). seizing he oppprtunity, A quickly spilled everything he knows about the car - how the first person who got to first use it as a commercial vehicle was arnold (terminator guy) and how it is now the preferred vehicke for sports stars and hip hop stars in america. he also added that in malaysia there is only one person who owns a hummer. one of his friends, clearly agitated by his constant mr-know-it-all behaviour, challenged him to verify that fact by asking how did he know that. A, caught by his own lack of deduction skills, realised that he had to eat his words. he only managed a lame reply of "aku pernah nampak satu je kat kl dulu..." he realised that he was not in the capacity of making that statement he made earlier. what's worse is that he now realise that even a surveillance camera placed along the federal highway is not in the capacity of making that statement he made earlier.

A's habit of flaunting what he has is not only limited to his knowledge, but is also evident in his finances. utilising the credit card limit granted to him to its near maximum, A is a frivolous spender. that is, of course, none of anyone's business but his own. however, it becomes other people's business when he starts telling people around him of what he buys. and he never seem to fail to quote the price of the things he buy. again, this information is offered without solicitation. reliable sources (that would be A himself) has revealed that A is already debt-ridden with personal loan, car loan and 2 max-ed out credit cards (he does not have a property) but clearly, A is living his life to the fullest.

now meet B. an EXTREMELY soft-spoken person, B is 30-something auditor who is married with 2 kids. B did his degree in the US. however, unlike A, B does not make it a point to tell everyone about his experiences in the US. he would only do so when some asks him about it. B is also a wise-shopper. having learned his lesson from the past, he has learned to be careful when it comes to credit cards.

however, B seems to have a different problem. instead of a mr-know-it-all, B is a mr-i-have-to-ask-everything. although one would admire his thirst for information, it can get very irritating at times. this is because B has a tendency to ask redundant questions (also known as dumb-ass questions in some parts of the world). for example, B's friend was telling him that he (B's friend) had gone to a certain place for dinner last thusrday. B, for some reason only known to him, asked his friend back - "hari khamis malam jumaat ke?" . luckily for him, his friend was not a very sarcastic person and he replied B's query with a short 'yes'.

B also has a strange need to re-confirm what was earlier represented to him on a periodic basis. for example, one of his colleagues had told him that to get internet connection, one has to pay a 200-dollar deposit. within the next 24 hours, he had asked the same colleague about the deposit amount TWICE. not that he doesn't remember. he just needed to reconfirm the fact because apparently to him, ANYTHING can happen in a day. the deposit amount required to install internet is as volatile as the stock market in his opinion. and this constant need to reconfirm facts represented to him has been driving one of his colleagues crazy.

fyi, both A and B are my colleagues here.