Kuala Lampur, May 1 -- Last week, I found myself stuck in traffic on the way back to UM after grabbing lunch with a long-lost friend at a banana leaf restaurant in Section 17, PJ. It was one of those moments where every traffic light seems to conspire against you, and the clock is merciless. My next class was set to start at 2:00 PM, and it was already 1:45 PM. My instinct was to fidget - check my phone for a quicker route, mentally rehearse my lecture, or curse the slow crawl of cars.

But then, for reasons I can't quite pin down, I did something unusual: I turned off the radio, set my phone face-down, and just... sat there.

I looked out the window. The late midday sun was casting shadows across the road, glinting off a row of parked mo...