COMMENT | A lot of people like working in cafes. To be honest, I like it too. I hate office settings because I find them quite boring.

However, with how expensive things are these days, I can no longer afford to buy the expensive coffees to sit at these places regularly. Hence, I do a lot of work at the mamak.

And so there I was sitting at one of the many mamaks the other day, trying to get my work done. But it was a bit difficult because, as you know, one of the other key activities at the mamak is to eavesdrop and judge other people sitting around us. That’s just the Malaysian way.

The guys at the next table were having a heated debate. One was gesturing wildly with a half-eaten paper thosai, arguing about the latest unity compromise, while the other was just staring into his phone, scrolling through the Employees Provident Fund i-Akaun app with a look of intense concentration.

The phone guy whined, “6.15 percent. Not bad, but after inflation and increase in cost of living, I guess I can afford two glasses of teh tarik now!”

I think that we are a society that is...