That Goes Bump...

"OK, you tell me when to turn" was the cab driver's jovial response when I told him my destination once I got into his cab this morning.

My cab driver for this morning was a small-build, most probably caffeinated uncle who was bursting with energy.

Driving fast and furious, he was so efficiently scarifying me with his driving skills as he maneuvered past between cars and switching lanes. At one point barely beat the red light along Tampines Avenue 10.

He started-up a chat with me, but I was too distracted with the driving that it took me several seconds lag before I could answer him. I eventually stopped responding to his questions by acting busy tapping my PDA away... to let him just concentrate of his "race."

It is not uncommon for cab drivers to scamper around fast just to be able to squeeze time to get as many trips as possible. The morning peak hours surcharge of S$2.00 per trip excluding the metered fare is lucrative draw in itself... but this ride takes the cake for teleportating passengers from point A to point B.

Just when it was about 60 metres away from my workplace, this cab driver finally succumbed to the lure of bumper to bumper kiss for tailgating a white van too closely as we approached the traffic light.

A screech and then a loud thud was felt, though it did not jerk me forward that hard, it was a good enough kiss on the backside of the van that made its driver quickly jumped out of his vehicle to inspect the damage.

My feisty cab driver got out from his cab too and the two started talking in their native Hokkien language.


"Great! Will I be late for work now..." I thought to myself, "should I be a witness if this dispute gets out of hand." I wondered. I should be thanking The Almighty for keeping me safe instead.

Fortunately, there was no dent at all to the van nor to the cab itself. I guess with the little cab driver's apologetic gestures and big innocent smiles, the driver of the white van went on his way without the situation turning ugly.

"Nothing... lah!" he assured me as he got back into the cab, "just a little bump. That's all." Or was he soothing himself?

I alighted and while giving him the exact fare, I gave him a gentle reminder as well... to take care of himself and others while driving on the road. "You gave me a scare with your driving."

You got off easy this time... was actually what my mind was saying. I got off unscathed.

"OK, thank you! Thank you!" as he nodded and smiled at me as I closed the cab door.

Wonder if the 4D numbers will strike... will be my colleagues' spontaneous thought of my story if I had told them... cab number 6420, van number 6555. Pick your number guys!

Smoke Them Out?

This is something funny yet true.

A friend walked up to my cubicle today to talk about work and then started to talk about smokers' predicament as the company is trying to curb smoking anywhere within the office building... not even along the open-air corridors.

It is being suggested that all smokers will have to go outside the building where a large Mango tree is to be the designated smoking area.

If implemented, anyone from the 5-storey building will have to go to the ground floor open space to have a break... a huff before the puff. Rain or shine. Well, they have to hold an umbrella while smoking in the rain if the need kicks in too hard to pass.

Fortunately, I do not smoke and actually hate second-hand smoking... not the smokers though, just their habits. Fortunately too that none in my family of 10 smoke.

Personally, I think smokers are slowly killing themselves and endangering their families and bystanders from inhaling their exhausted "breath of death" at the same time.

I think they are taking the nation's cost of medical pie to support their habit's end result after they invited and finally develop some form of smoking-related diseases especially cancer.

Smoking is even lethal while in bed... that recreational puff can poof the whole house if it caught fire.


Anyway, back to the smoking-in-the-building-ban policy... it triggered my friend to talk about the bigger picture of the smokers' predicament in Singapore.

The authorities continually try to make smokers kick their destructive habit by curbing smoking in air-conditioned or enclosed areas, and areas where there are a concentration of people to avoid second-hand smoking.

That is all good and I applaud the move.

On the economic side of it, the authorities had increased the price of this legal drug per pack and had about a year and a half, restricted the cigarette pack from the various choices of 7, 10, 12... 20 sticks per pack to only just packs of 20 sticks available island-wide.

The intention is to deter teenagers from being able to afford using their pocket money to buy the cheapest pack of 7 sticks for themselves.


Now that the pack of 20 sticks has become even more expensive with increased taxation, the teenagers work around it by pooling money with their smoker-friends to buy the pack and share amongst themselves!

Formerly there were a few teenagers in groups of close friends hanging-out and smoking together, now the same groups have become even larger... and even more "tightly-knitted" than before, simply by banding together in this habit in the rush for "adulthood."

That is not all. Nowadays, teenagers can opt to work part-time to get extra pocket money. So with that buying power, a pack of 20 sticks each is a charm... however expensive it can get.

That would have probably resulted in each teenager smoking even more sticks a day, simply because the taste will be a little off after the 3rd day onwards. That is what the adult smokers are doing anyway... trying to finish the pack within a two-day period.

This is precisely what my friend was doing.

He was a 5 to 6-sticks-a-day smoker when his regular pack was a 10 stick. Since the ban of smaller packs to only 20 stick a pack, he started to increase his daily smoke breaks to 10.

The cigarette simply did not taste well after the 3rd day, hence the rush to finish the whole pack before it was "spoiled."

I guess, with the stubbornness of hardcore smokers and the lure of budding newbies make the efforts quite useless. At least one thing is for sure... the economics of taxing cigarettes to the all time high, benefits at least some "body."


Wonder what will happen if this island bans cigarettes altogether?

Will the hardcores retaliate with hostile abandonment? Will the smokers fight-for-smog be secretly syndicated and sponsored by the tobacco companies?

Internally, will there be a temporary yet lucrative market to benefit economically from setting up of cold-turkey centres?

Ramadan Week 4

Wishing All Muslims
An enlightened spirit
With praises to The Almighty
As we journey into the fourth week of
The holy month of Ramadan

My Yesteryear Raya

Around this time of the year, during the Ramadan month, the most anticipated day will always be 1st Syawal... Hari Raya Eidulfitri.

It is the celebration of faith after a month of abstaining from food and drink, and leaving the bad habits like smoking and trivial-yet-destructive habits like idle gossiping from sunrise till sunset.

Passing by the office cafeteria that is being renovated, the smell of fresh paint reminded me of the coming Raya excitement that always felt intensely while I was a child.


Those Wonderful Kampung Days...

It never ceased to make me smile to myself whenever I recall the wonderful times I had while I was a child back in the kampung days during Ramadan.

As a child of seven to ten years old, the toughest thing to do was to not break my fast. I was really hungry at about lunch time and the worst stomach-groaning hunger pains at about 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

From then onwards, I would survive the rest of the hours until break fast at about 7:oo pm.

The most challenging was to skip playing... running around across the village, climbing trees and other physically demanding activities a hyperactive child that I was, would play with my friends until we were flat out.

After the fun came the thirst. Tough luck! None of us would give up and break our fasting by quenching our thirsts with a gulp of water. We were that competitive then, I guess.

Instead, I think we dozed off once we were back in our homes... all energy spent.

One funny thing that happens to many children and some adults... I guess I am included, would accidentally reach for a drink and some times actually gulped down before we realized that we have started fasting early into Ramadan.

Fortunately, rule for the day's fast will still be valid as long as it was not intentional. Phew!

I was totally skinny child mainly because I spent more calories than I took in. On top of that, I was too choosy with food. I chose not to eat and suffered the hunger pains than being forced to eat something... yucky.

Yet, during Ramadan, all was reversed. All the food Mom or Sis cooked looked and smelt delicious. I would eat anything that was served at break fast... it tasted heavenly at sunset.


Hari Raya Is Coming Soon...

All that fasting was telling me that Hari Raya was coming soon. Simply because the many wonderful things my senses told me...

The smell of fresh paint in the air when Dad and my elder Brothers started to pain our wooden house with new colors for the year.

The smell of Mom's and elder Sisters' baked Raya cookies and cakes a couple of weeks before Syawal. The whole village would smell heavenly. My friends and I would go around the village homes, went very near to the kitchen windows to smell and guess what cookie our neighbours were baking.

Fasting then became even more challenging to not break it when the aunties would give us a piece or two cookies. We would save it for break fast. I can still remember Bik Aton who gave me Kuih Bantal Peluk or pineapple roll cookie that looked like a miniature bolster.

At home, I would always loiter around my Mom and elder Sisters who were baking cookies hoping that they would break or burn a few pieces that had to be discarded instead of going into the air-tight container for the visiting guests.

I would get a few to save and eat them after the break fast. Though on occasions, I failed and eat it there and then and regretted it later when I was not able to join the family at the same table during break fast... for I had broken mine halfway.

I would watch my Mom sow the Raya drapes with the manual leg-powered sowing machine... seeing all the mechanical parts moving in sync. She made beautiful curtains every year that would be hung the night before Syawal.

And the most interactive and actually meant something to me was when I finally get to contribute in the preparations of Hari Raya - weaving the Ketupat cases, a traditional Malay rice dumpling cooked in a weaved coconut shoots.

I think it is an ingenious Malay creation easily hundreds of year ago, when Malay merchants had to bring food while traveling long distances for weeks. The cooked rice cases could last for weeks.

They would weave and cook new ones when there was opportunity to stay in one place long enough. It may very well have been an early version of eco-friendly packed meal-on-the-go.


Ketupat Equals Hari Raya...

Today, the ketupat is a traditional symbol of Malays celebration Eidulfitri... though not many Malays actually know how to weave it.

It is somewhat a dying tradition as the new generations fore-go the hassle to weave and cook it. Some have a ribbon version of it for decoration purposes only.

I remember learning the weaving techniques from Dad and Mom through repeated practices after numerous wrong turns and torn leaves.

Once we weaved about a hundred cases, Mom would prepare the rice after cleaning it with water, ready to be placed into each case before sealing it with a last slide-in-lock of the leave.

The cooking took 8 hours or more. The longer the hours the longer the ketupat will last. My job was to keep a lookout and top-up the residing water level in the big steel pot while keeping the fire going.

Dad makes the most tightly woven and consistent size ketupats. It was always too beautiful to eat and he knew it... and proud of it. My eldest Brother had since succeeded Dad for the title.

These cases were hung to dry and cut down each case whenever anyone wanted to eat it.

The rice dumpling was eaten with almost any Raya dish... Rendang, Kuah Satay, Sambal Goreng and many more than I care to elaborate, now that I start to feel hungry talking about food.


The Express Generation...

Nowadays, many young families choose to buy either the woven cases or the cooked ketupat from Geylang Serai market out of convenience since both parents work and have little time to toil in the kitchen.

Hope the art of weaving ketupat will not die with my generation.

I would certainly like to impart it down to my son.