On Fights.

July 27th, 2008 by georgie-gurl

July 28, 2008. 7:07am
Mood: Somber bordering on sad
Music: The sizzle of our neighbor’s frying pan

Two
weeks ago, with a lack of better things to do, me and my friends
(Futher, Noy and Carlo) were all in front of my computer browsing on
iPhone prices and luxury bags. The phone rang. Carlo picked it up, and
for the fourth time that day, a polite lady from the credit card
company was asking for our friend, to routinely remind him about his
dues. And also for the fourth time, Carlo made an excuse and told her
our friend wasn’t around, even if he was.

After five minutes the
phone rang again, this time it was me who picked up. He was an old man
with a commanding voice, again, looking for my friend. "Asan tong taong
to?" He was rude right away. Automatically, I made something up, "Nasa
trabaho po." He said with a raised voice, "Kanina umalis, tapos
natutulog, tapos nasa trabaho. Ano ba talaga?" Woah, temper. I calmly
answered, "Wala po talaga." I was shocked by what he said next, "Hoy
tatanga tanga kang babae ka, pinapayagan nyo sya mangutang sa credit
card tapos ngayon tinatago nyo pa!" I was stunned for awhile, but
quickly snapped back. "Kuya, unang una, kung nagiisip ka, hindi sya
nagpaalam na mangutang. At hindi namin sya tinatago!" Lie. But would
anybody ever ask permission to use his own credit card? I mean really.
What a pointless argument. And as if he wasn’t rude enough, he said,
"Hoy tangang babae, sabihin mo sa baklang to, pumunta sa bangko at
magbayad nang matapos na ang pagtawag namin sa inyo!" I couldn’t
believe what I was hearing, and I couldn’t take anymore of his insults.
"A p—-ina mo kang lalake ka, wag mo akong tatawaging tanga at pano mo
nalamang bakla sya?!" I think he meant the ‘bakla’ term as an insult
not knowing that my friend was indeed gay. Funny. We exchanged a couple
more insults, then he slammed the phone on me.

I was
silent for a while, then I realized all my three friends stopped what
they were doing and now were staring at me. I have never cussed a
stranger in my life, and being my anti-confrontation self, this was
probably one of the most ‘violent’ conversations I’ve had. My heart was
thumping. So that was how it felt to bluntly curse someone. It was
intense, and I strangely enjoyed it. I just experienced the fun of a
‘baranggayan’ fight. Hahaha, I love et!

Carlo said that some
credit card agents were trained to be rude that way. Damn. I wanted his
emotions to be real, because mine were. I refuse to think that he just
‘acted’ because that would make the fight invalid.

It seems
that it’s a ‘confrontation’ season these days. I have heard of some
brawls that had happened, and it seems to be more than occasional. Is
it the weather, the mood or the moon? Do the spiked up gas prices have
something to do with it? Or is it that people are just beginning to
stand up for their rights, or at least what they believe in?

Whatever
it is, I can’t really place this whole thing under good or bad. As long
as people don’t get physically hurt, I think that a dose of
confrontation can be healthy. I like the
speak-out-your-mind-and-not-think part of it. And it’s perfect that I
did it on the phone with a complete stranger that I will never really
meet, let alone care about. But I still don’t plan on becoming a
warfreak though, I still like wearing my polite shoes.

The
conversation turned out to be effective for the credit card company
because my friend who heard the whole thing stood up and went to the
bank and pay. Wow, good job for Mr. Rude!