Portraits of Our Lives We Paint!

I read an article by Redbean in Harro that MP, Mr. Balji raised the issue of race and language, and he felt that the Tamil group might feel threatened with the growing use of Hindhi with the influx of Northern Indians into Singapore.

I am a Chinese and am currently learning both Tamil and Hindhi from my Indian friends. I am even thinking of enrolling in some Tamil and Hindhi classes so as to expedite my improvement. I am also thinking of volunteering myself as a waitress or cook in Annalakshimi Vegetarian Restaurant as this will give me more exposure to practise these two languages.

Why fight over which language is more important.? Why not use the time and energy to learn another language? I wonder why we are getting to be so kiasu (afraid to lose out) and pugilistic in our attitude towards life!

I remember an incident when I was teaching in ACS Independent. During term exams, teachers would take turns to provide food for the staff, as we had limited time to go to the canteen for our meals. Once, I was the chief examiner and solicited the help of one teacher to take overall charge of the food arrangement. Hence it would only be fair that I gave this teacher 40 minutes less for the invigilation. To my shock it created a furore of kiasuism and someone even wrote to the principal to complain. The writer had calculated every second of every teacher's invigilation period! Although I was the chief examiner, I still took time to wake up at 3.00a.m. to cook Curry Chicken, Penang Char Koay Teow and steamed yam cakes for the teacher's lunch as I had always done for the past few years. In contrast, most of the teachers would just buy food from the vendors. Hence, everyone always looked forward to the day when it was my turn to prepare the food.

The letter written to the principal was annonymous. I remember at the staff meeting, this was brought up. I did not utter a word and kept on writing. I always used such time to pen letters to my siblings all over the world instead of joining in unnecessary arguments. Many teachers defended my action. I looked around the staff. The writer had even lamented on the "greed" of teachers as we had made food an important issue. By the way, I remembered everyone enjoying the food contentedly during the break! At the staff meeting everyone looked so happy. It suddenly gave me a creepy feeling.....who was the culprit that exhibited such kiasu behaviour? How I wished the person had not written annoymously, professing to be so angry and yet smiling at the meeting! I would have more respect for the writer if he/she had dared to sign his/her name.

It was appropriate when my principal voiced his displeasure at the annonymity. He also brought up how I had woken up at 3.00a.m. to cook the food and did not mind the labour of love. He also wished that the person who had spent time calculating every second of every teacher's invigilation slot could have used the time more productively. After all, it is always more blessed to give than to receive.

We are always so afraid to lose out. Even in the purchase of properties, some buyers count the pennies and lose out on the huge gains they could have actually earned if they had only focused on the dollars!

Ironically, when we are kiasu, somehow or other, we will really "su" or lose out in the end. This is probably why someone came up with the expression, "Sha ren yiu sha fu" - translated directly means, "Stupid people have stupid luck" or "Kiang lang chiak gong lang; gong lang chiak ti kong" - translated directly means, "The clever people eat up the stupid people; the stupid people eat up God".

I guess stupid people like me will bother to learn French when I first went to Canada, wake up at 3.00a.m. to cook for unappreciative people and learn Tamil and Hindhi and volunteer myself at Annalaskmi Restaurant.

Portraits of our lives we paint! How do you want to paint your own portraits?