What A Sheer Coincidence!

"Choo Choo, this is Jasmin", the voice on the other end of the phone sounded unfamiliar.

"Hai! Why is your voice different today, Jasmin?" I asked.

"Choo Choo, this is Jasmin," the voice repeated.

"You sound so different today," I reiterated, thinking that my tenant, Jasmin was playing a trick on me.

"You wouldn't know me. But I have been asked to call you. This is Jasmin from Dennis Wee Group," she asserted.

"Oh, I see."

An hour, later, the phone rang.

"Choo, this is Jasmin."

"Sorry, Jasmin, I have not been able to contact the client yet about your viewing."

"I am Jasmin from ERA. This is my first time calling you," replied the lady.

Fifteen minutes later, someone from the People's Association called me and asked me for my feedback on my violin teacher, Mr. Yan. I told the lady on the phone that Mr. Yan is an excellent teacher. Later I asked her for her name.

"Jasmina".

Gosh! What a sheer coincidence. I told my tenant, Jasmin about the phone calls. Perhaps readers would be curious to know why my tenant is called Jasmin. Jasmin has an elder brother and his father longed and hoped for a daughter, and prepared the name of Jasmin for the second child who turned out to be him. Nevertheless, the father still used the name of Jasmin and that was how he got the name which gave me such a confusion! Many of my friends and colleagues have assumed that my tenant Jasmin is a lady.

I suggested to Jasmin that perhaps his papa could have changed the name to Jasmon, which would sound more masculine.

"But what's the meaning?" asked Jasmin.

"Don't know leh. But Jasmon sounds nice. Like my sister, calling her son Darion - a coining of the words of "Daring and Lion."

"Jasmin is a meaningful name - a flower that has herbal qualities," defended my tenant, Jasmin.

"Alright, alright, so be it."


Ah! Names! What's in a name? Plenty!