What goes around, comes around..

Ever wonder how news travel fast? Start a rumour and it spreads like wildfire. Best part is when it comes back to you, it's probably juicier than the original ! Take for example years ago, my colleague walked in telling us that Jackie Chan was in Port Klang - Maybank ,to be exact, doing a shoot for a film. The thing is, Jackie was really in Malaysia at that time so that piece of info seemed quite reliable. He heard it from people in the coffee shop where he was lepaking that morning. Seems that Jackie was with another kwailoh actor, can't remember who, and they were doing a scene about a bank heist.

When I got home, I asked my sis if she saw the filming in Maybank that morning. Our shop is after all, just across the street. She asked "what filming?" and I said "Jackie Chan was here with so and so making a movie, right?" She started laughing and asked me where I heard that from and I explained. She said that she must have started a rumour unintentionally. Jackie was NOT in Port Klang. She explained that for some reason, the bank was packed with people that morning. A customer walked into our shop and asked my sis "Apa hal Maybank ramai orang ah?" My sis made a joke and said " lu tak tahu ka, Jackie Chan ada sana ma.. buat movie".

That Malay guy must have told somebody and that somebody told another somebody and suddenly everybody was talking about it! Anyway, my sis said she only mentioned Jackie Chan, not the kwailoh, which meant that along the way, somebody added details.

Incidents like these can start innocently so beware what you say! We had a neighbour, an Indian Muslim who runs a coffee shop. He looks very much like our ex PM so we called him Mahathir among ourselves. A couple of years ago his wife passed away. Just before that, the ambulance came and took her to the hospital. The neighbours, being busybodies were hanging around outside the shop and ambulance until it drove off. Later, news reached us that she was declared DOA.

At about the same time, my sis got a call from Shinny, a close friend who used to spend a lot of time at our shop. My sis told her " eh, Mahathir's wife passed away-la " and before she could elaborate further, a customer walked into the shop and my sis said she would have to call her back. Imagine the damage already done by the time my sis called her! Shinny had to call everyone that she had relayed the 'news' to, to explain. I'm sure her friends had to call their friends too.

I'm sure you have all encountered such situations too. Care to tell us about it? F