Little Pop of Joy

The thing about Chong Pang Market is that people who go there, often have time to stop, chat and smell the flowers. Apart from the hawkers and stallholders who are, of course, busy busy busy, everyone else goes there to hang out and chill out. Groups of doddering old men sit together around the table in companionable silence. Their wives come by after marketing and a flurry of conversations start, only to die down... and then, they all sit in companionable silence.

I watch them. They watch me.

I say nothing. They say nothing.

Together, we are denizens of a lifestyle hub where everyone sees each other and no one knows each other. Note that I have used the word "lifestyle" which is often used to denote classy and elegant living. Sipping morning coffee at Helios93 in One15Marina is more often associated with "lifestyle" than eating 80c tauhuey at Chong Pang Food Centre. I stubbornly maintain that Chong Pang represents a lifestyle too, and it is a lifestyle that I have chosen and wholeheartedly embrace.

When I first frequented Chong Pang Food Centre, I noticed that people would stare. I don't notice the stares anymore. Either people have stopped staring (because you can't possibly keep on staring at the same person every day, right... you would get bored) OR I have become immune to the stares. I don't even bother to notice them anymore.

One morning, I had an interaction which gave me a pop of joy in the morning. A lady sat frozen on a wrought iron bench with a half smile on her face. I stared at her and she was so afraid to move that she spoke without looking at me, her voice full of repressed excitement... "It landed on me!"

The "it" was a butterfly.

I squealed at the lady, which attracted a few more women. We all oohed and aahed at the immobile lady. She was afraid to move because she did not want the butterfly to fly away. It gave me joy to see her happy face, and to note that it is exactly such simple joys that make life worth living.

I helped her take a picture because she did not dare to move to take her own picture.