Life, Laughter and Everything Else

I had a bet with a friend That the old woman worked Not to fill her time But to fill her pocket So the next time she came in wearing the same green uniform and the same white tudung and the same black gloves and holding the same old forceps I could not resist but engage her in some chit-chatting She was 77 A mother, grandmother and very recently, a great grandmother Her chattering belied her age Half Malay, the rest Minglish I could barely comprehend what she said But I just nodded And she did not stop And in the middle I popped the question “Aunty, why you still working” “Aunty sit home, Aunty read book Aunty sleep” She said faking a dozing off Guess I lost my bet And my friend won a drink But the conversation with the woman in green was worth the morning Though I have but one regret I asked her almost everything but alas I forgot to ask her her name 

There are two sticky notes on my desktop. One for my assignments, one for my daily goals. In the latter, one stands out for its redundancy in being there: 'Talk less. Listen more', a statement meant to arouse in me some kind of mature, adult behavior. Not that I never tried. There has been days when I have kept a straight and mature face and nodded calmly when people were talking to me and gave the impression that I was always in deep thought. Such days really existed. Just that they did not last. Sooner or later, somebody would come along and make a rather stupid comment, a situation I call 'Asking for it'. The temptation to point out his brilliance would be too much and once it started, it never really stopped. Though the person you see today is a far cry from the same boy who used to rush to the library after lunch during primary school, the same boy who loved his books and the same boy girls loved to share their secrets because they knew he could do anything but...

During my NS, I remember the army loved to measure everyone and everything. Even before you enlisted, all your body measurements were taken, your IQ tested and your suitability for each vocation checked through a series of long tiring tests.Once you enlisted, you had fitness tests, weapon tests, SIT(leadership) test and the list never really ended. Though, in my opinion, SAF only got it right with a few tests, out of which the most important was also the one that was more of an unofficial measure. The measure of friendship. The rule was simple. To see who your true friend was, wait until the whole platoon was going through some real deep shit. Wait until you cannot take it anymore. And then wait and see who would come to help you despite the fact that he was going through the same pain. And this test always tended to produce some extremely surprising results, at least in my experience. I remember clearly, during a particular training exercise in Taiwan, I was totally drenched a...