First to Bata...
then to school.
It was like the first tag-line in my life, ever. I grew up with that embedded in my soul.
Fast forward to 2008...
I was walking in Berne. It was in the midst of Euro 2008, and I was in this city with 17 other people, mates from my High School MBA class.
My eye suddenly caught a Bata outlet.
My good friend Riel was walking by me and I said to him,
"You know bro, for a very long time, I thought Bata was Malaysian."
"Haha... well you were wrong, coz it's Indonesian."
"Where got... no lah..."
"It is man..."
Suddenly, our three Indian friends come bounding along, and I tell them...
"Riel thinks Bata is Indonesian!"
"Hahaha.... of course not, it's Indian!"
And I stopped all of them.
"It is not Indian either!"
"Yep it is! You can find Bata in every city in every state in India..."
"In Indonesia too..."
And the debate went on and on and on...
"I swear Bata is an Indian name!"
Thank god the other 13 didn't join in. Otherwise, Finland, Costa Rica, England, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Italy would be claiming Bata as well.
For the record, Mr. Bata is Czech.
*******
It's unfortunate, but my more recent memories of Bata in Malaysia, from a few years ago, has been the line "Sorry, no stock."
Perhaps I will walk into the next Bata outlet I come across. For old times' sake, to relive my childhood...
then I will make a trip to my school!
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11 comments:
Hmm, i think i saw a bata during my trip to geneva.
Haha.. i still wear Bata. A for comfort. Yaa.. funny how we grow up thinking bata is ours... i knew about bata's origin few years back and felt betrayed :P~ I thot i was supporting malaysian brand... tsk tsk tsk...
recently, while having dinner, a fren asked me "Why is Milo more popular than Horlicks in malaysia?" cepat... sapa bleh jawab, dapat sepeket milo free :D
and Malaysians are the largest consumers of Milo worldwide.. making it so malaysian :P~
Anon - probably it was a Bata, wouldn't be surprised ;-)
Zleenz - is it coz Milo sounds more Malaysian? Milo sounds like come here in a certain loghat, Horlicks, well donno what it sounds like....
Either it is sorry no stock or sorry no size! Good blog by the way.
milo sounds malaysian.. ha ah laa... sangat agree with that. Next time i see you, I'll expect you to be by my side when I say Milo.. haha...
oh... answer, once upon a time, in the greener days on earth, Milo-folks used to distribute trialpacks to kampungs n town ppl, rich n poor as nutrition supply. So legend says, ppl are used to drinking milo from small and even when they grow up and move to modernisation, they stay loyal to Milo. That's d reason why thesedays, almost everyhome has Milo or every restaurant have them on menu :-) malaysians grow fond of milo and cant live withiout it...
Sorry no size... another common dialogue in Bata...Thanks Anon... :-)
Zleenz - macam cerita Red Bull kat Europe - they distributed the drink at all the cool parties in college, pastu it just grew and grew...
i saw a bata in paris! masa tu ingat bata malaysian brand lagi.... :)
-aida-
There's a Bata museum in Canada...
that's weird.
how come everyone claims national ownership on this brand?
I mati2 ingat bata malaysia punya.
global urband legend nampaknya.
Lol (>_<) It's funny to find a lot of people still thinking that Bata is a Malaysian product. But anyways, Bata itself is a great corporation. In fact, the passed away founder actually has a simple yet noble aim which is for everyone in this whole world wear shoes. I guess the cheap price of the shoes and the number of stores in the country made people think it's a Malaysian brand. Way to go Bata!! At least, they are working towards their aim?? lol (>_<)
They are like "the world's local shoes"... :-)
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