The Damned World

It was just one or two days ago when I complained about those barbaric middle aged witches and balding men about how uncivilised they are. Today I received a different touch.

It’s Monday and naturally going back to work after a weekend, where you indulged yourself with more rest and late nights, you felt rather still in a weekend mood. I was rather gloomy and I couldn’t fully open my eyes as the sleep last night was not what I would call a comfortable and fruitful sleep.

An old man in his sixties sat next to me on the 2 man bench.

From my unpleasant experience, I was struggling to think if this old man next to me would be considerate. I was doubtful if he would do something irritating like to occupy more seat space or spread his legs so wide as though he had something else hanging in between his inner thighs.

However, to my surprise, after a significant time had passed, he didn’t do anything like what I had said. He was civilized. He sat there quietly in his own space, no big movement or anything that could cause distraction to the passenger next to him. He was only shifting his vision around from the scenery outside to the passengers around him.

My stop finally arrived. When I was about to make my way out of the seat to the aisle, the old man stood up and shifted himself out to the aisle to give way to me instead of just turning outwards and leaning to his side against the backrest like most people did. I even get a friendly and joyful smile from him which was really a huge bonus and that urges me to thank him followed by a smile in return.

Just maybe to share a little more, there was another scenario that I just remembered.

A father and a toddler boarded a train in the East-West line. As it was very crowded, the father was struggling to keep himself balanced as well as holding his child.

Of all the entire stretch of people seated down in that row nearest to them, a feeble old man in his 80s with a hunch, stood up and offered his seat. He also insisted that the child take his seat as he stood up weakly and tried to find something to grab hold of.

The moved and grateful father, who felt unbearable to reject his offer, told his boy to sit down and thank the old man. The young boy gave the old man his sunny and adorable smile that sparkled my entire visual as though angels were surrounding this boy and old man with twinkling dust descending gently within their vicinity.

Anyway, that old man sitting next to me really made my day. As I alighted and walked to my workplace feeling energised by this wonderful old man, I couldn’t help thinking that if everybody in Singapore was like this, it would be a much nicer place to live in.