Yesterday evening, I saw a meme post on IG and noticed there’s a new addition to the usual ‘badge lady’, ‘hwa chong lady’, ‘racist guy’ lineup. There’s now a ‘Gong Lady’. Wow. Then I went to track down the video to watch. It might as well have been choreographed. Guy’s doing his prayers and ringing the bell and lady dashes out of her home and begins hitting a gong with admirable fervour. OK… so what’s her problem? I don’t mean that in an accusatory way. I mean to ask… why is she doing what she’s doing? Often, we won’t know until we ask. We can only speculate / assume, and we might be wrong.
I wish someone would ask her.
I did notice the two households seem to be located really close to each other.
And yes, I think the guy is definitely entitled to go about his prayers.
Just as we have added the word ‘umbrage’ to our collective vocabulary, it is evident (from comments on social media) that we are also learning that Hindus ring the prayer bell to “welcome divinity and dispel evil”. Ok… so if I chase evil out of my home, where do the evil spirits go? And if my neighbour then decides to use a gong to chase away the evil spirits too, is that necessarily wrong? We’re essentially performing the same action using different instruments according to our own culture and religion.
And yes, you might question that neighbour’s gong-hitting intensity and that look on her face (Anger? Spite? RBF?)
I’m only saying… someone should really ask her.
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As I’m typing this, a fire alarm is ringing in a neighbouring block. 
It’s almost 10am so it’s not too bad. Exactly a week ago, the fire alarm at my block rang at around 4am. I wrote to my MP after that and someone from the town council responded to say the alarm was due to “faulty heat detectors”. Erm… ok.
As we’re forced to work from home these days, we’ll get bombarded by distractions and disturbances. In my case, it’s neighbors smoking by their windows and rogue fire alarms. What’s yours?
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And if it seems like the crazies are coming out of the woodwork, well, I do think there’s a lot of pent-up frustration.
Truth be told, I’m uncomfortable with this tightening and loosening of measures. One week I can dine in restaurants and the next I have to carry reusable containers with me.
I’ve had makan sessions with pals cancelled, and work’s affected too.
We hunker down and get community case numbers low, and then we have imported cases (no biggie if there’s no ‘leakage’ into the community). And why are the “Permanent Residents” not permanently in Singapore but still flying in with COVID-19 infections?
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And this is a true story. Just last month, my darling and I had gone to Punggol Plaza to get lunch (and for me, bubble tea). Driving out of the carpark, we stopped at the pedestrian crossing to let a lady (probably in her forties) cross the road. I was happily sipping on my bubble tea.
She had walked till about the middle of the pedestrian crossing when she suddenly did a sharp kekanan pusing (right turn, military style) so she was now facing our vehicle and standing in front of the driver’s side mirror. Her right arm was raised in a salute. She was saluting… us (?!)
I was stunned. And I think a few bubble tea pearls dropped back into the cup.
My darling’s the kind with a wacky sense of humor and he took this to be perfectly normal. He played along. He simply raised his hand to his brow in a salute and the lady began marching away.
Meanwhile, I’m gripping my seat and looking from him to her and back, and wondering what in the world just happened. Is this some prank? Is there a camera somewhere?
What would have happened if I was behind the wheel? I’d probably have driven around her. Then… would she still be standing there saluting all who went past? Well… I’ll never know.
Likewise, we’ll never know what a pissed-off neighbour’s actually thinking (or suffering) till we ask. Ask your neighbour what’s his/her problem. You may even be able to help, once you know.
