Compiled by FAZLEENA AZIZ, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
AN accountant in Malaysia said he finally regained a sense of living after quitting his high-paying job to become a hawker, Sin Chew Daily reported.
Posting anonymously on a Facebook group, the 32-year-old said he majored in accounting at university and had always believed that success meant joining a big company and working in an air-conditioned office.
As he did well academically, he managed to join a multinational corporation with a starting salary of RM4,500.
He was over the moon but after working for a few years, he found that things were not as rosy as he had thought.
“Every day traffic jams, getting scolded by my boss over small things, losing all dignity, dealing with demanding clients, bringing work home even on weekends.
“I couldn’t recognise myself anymore. Even my mum asked why have I become so skinny.”
The final straw was when a colleague mocked him by saying despite how intelligent he was, he was still working for someone else and doing their accounts.
The man said it felt like a slap to his face and that was when he remembered he felt truly happy as a child when he was helping his father at the night market.
He then quit his job and returned to his hometown to start a fried chicken stall.
“I was terrified – afraid of failing, afraid of embarrassing my parents, afraid of being judged,” he said.
Business gradually picked up and he now earns a modest income.
“I used to count money for others. Now, I count my own money. I’m not useless – I just took my life back.
“My time, my mood, my life are no longer controlled by my monthly salary,” he said.
> A group of teenagers stumbled upon a massive stack of cash exceeding 100 million yen (RM2.7mil) after breaking into an empty house in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture, China Press reported.
Police suspected that the teenagers trespassed into the house on multiple times between May and June this year and each time they removed portions of the money to buy k-pods and to indulge in entertainment.
Police believe that more than a dozen people have participated in the thefts and are currently questioning the suspects.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a, it denotes a separate news item.
