As I walked down the corridor of a HDB block yesterday evening, I couldn't help but look into the windows. I could see kids playing in the living room, teenagers surfing on the internet and parents watching tv.
I saw one particular apartment that only had an old CRT TV and an overturned carton - which acted as a makeshift table of sorts - in the living room.
I turned to boo to ask, "why is their place so sparsely furnished?". In my mind a scene of people carting home tables, chairs, boxes and plants from Ikea suddenly appeared.
"Because some people don't have a lot of money baby", he responded.
It was a simple and truthful answer.
Hearing the sounds of the television and of kids playing, it all felt very surreal.
I stepped into the lift and looked around again. It was tiny, slightly claustrophic and had a black-and-white printed A4 sheet selling something or another for $1,000.
I kept away from the walls of the lift which was kind of grotty.
And then I felt afraid, and inched closer to him for comfort.
He looked at me, patted my arm and smiled.
The only thing I could think about on the way home was "how, how do they live with people looking in their windows all the time?".
I read online that over 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats.
And all of a sudden I felt very sheltered.
I thought of the dinner we had a few weeks back at Ichiban Boshi. I was just in a mood, and went crazy with the food, ordering every other thing on the menu; while he ordered just a soba and tempura set.
15minutes in, it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to finish the food so I started eating just the toppings of the sushi, leaving behind the rice.
He hates wasting food. So he told the waitress to pack up his uneaten soba, and started eating my leftover sushi rice with his tempura.
It made my heart ache to see him eating my leftovers, and I tried more than once to take it away. But he wouldn't let me.
And so I sat there, watching him finish his meal. Never once reprimanding me.
But strangely, in doing what he did, I felt more ashamed of myself than I would have if he had taken to giving me a lecture on how the children in Africa are starving.
Being with him makes me want to be a better person.
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Hi, this might sound a little bit misplaced but, you remind me a lot of Norah Jones. Just the kind of things you see and the ideas you draw. Its all very sweet, in a good mellow way you know. (:
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