There is no
limit to the number of things you can do to be happy in Singapore. The island
city state is clean and beautiful and every little thing that the Singaporeans
do is done with a sense of beauty – whether it is building a landmark or mending
a garden archway.
While we
lived there, no evenings were spent indoors. We explored most areas – from the
shopping malls at Orchard Road to the little Indian, Chinese and Arab pockets
of the island, and the distant suburbs.
One evening,
after visiting a museum, we sat on a bench facing the Singapore River at Clarke
Quay. As darkness silently crept upon us, we watched the floating pubs and
restaurants with their colourful lights reflected in the river. Most families
with young children had returned home. On the bench next to ours sat an elderly
Chinese couple.
It was a
warm evening although it had been raining through the day. My husband went to
buy fruit juice from a juice centre nearby. I sat on the bench by myself
guarding our backpacks.
It was then
that I noticed the lanky teenager. He wore black from head to toe. The hood of
his overcoat shadowed most of his face. It seemed a bit shady to wear an
overcoat on a hot evening like that.
Hesitatingly,
the boy approached the elderly couple sitting on the next bench. He spread out his hands and said something in
Chinese. I heard the woman arguing and shooing him away. Backing away from
them, he walked towards me. I held on tightly to the straps of our backpacks.
He glanced at my loneliness.
In heavily-accented
English he said something that I did not understand.
“Money,
money” he said to me spreading out his hands. Beneath his hood, his eyes were
drooping in the haze of hallucinatory drugs.
I said
“Sorry” and gestured for him to go away.
He refused
to budge and kept bothering me with repeated pleas.
Exasperated,
I said to him in Marathi – my mother tongue – “Hey bagh, tu kai sangtos te
mala kaahi samjhat naahi” – I do not understand what you are saying.
That annoyed
him and he started arguing. Silently, I looked away from him and held on
tightly to the straps of the backpacks. He moved closer but just at that moment
I saw my husband approaching from the corner of my eyes. The boy saw him too
and resignedly sidled away to merge with the darkness around.
(It is a
pity to find youth wasting away in some of the most beautiful and prosperous
places in the world. Singapore has strict laws against drug and inhalant abuse, and this includes trafficking, possession and consumption of drugs. Also, orientation programs are regularly run to
avoid youth falling into these traps.)
