In the car..
Me: Maybe I want to work in a museum?
Dad: Then when you grow old you can be part of it!
Took a longer way home by car after dinner today. Drove pass Little India, Albert Court, Geylang.. To say Singapore has nothing much in it probably does her a little injustice. Such a diverse population, different ways, different people. A melting pot.
Something struck me along the way. While stopping for a traffic light, I saw in the 2nd level of an old shophouse, a man. Okay there's nothing interesting about him really. He had a big stomach. But through the little window I saw that he was lying down reading a book, and there was yellow light behind him. His space was so small, his curtain around his bed was his clothes hanging to dry. Yet he looked so at peace, comfortable, reading his book.
From the other window I saw similar set-ups in the room. Clothes acting as curtains, cordoning off the beds. I wonder how many people could that small room hold. Those people finding a way to live here to support their family in some other country, actually find peace just by reading a book in small cramped place, overlooking a quiet road.
The cashier at Carrefour was an old man with long sightedness. He was really slow in his movements and in finding the barcodes. The people in front of me knew that he was slow, but did not let any signs of frustration or impatience loose. That comforted me in some way or another, that in this bustling mad city where time is money and money can't buy time, people still know how to give and take, and allow others a little of their Sunday night.
Places hold memories don't they, flashbacks of when I was little come and then emotions that I had then flood in too. There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. (Nelson Mandela) Sadly, people go, places go, and everyone changes.
There are many things that my eyes see, and then my heart feels. I wonder if there is some kind of way I can replicate it as it is, for others to feel and see as well.
