A story I read recently in the book of short stories titled
‘Singapore Noir’ captured my attention. The writer S. J. Rozan, titled his story ‘Kena Sai’ which colloquially means ‘hit by shit’.
Whiner
The protagonist, a white American man, was a web designer who could work from home anywhere in the world. His wife, on the other hand, was a corporate go-getter, who had been sent by her company from New York to London to Prague to Buenos Aires to Nairobi to Singapore, every couple of years. What caught my attention was the attitude of this female big-wig globe trotter. Before moving to a new city, she was very enthusiastic about the relocation. However, after a few months, whichever city she was in was negatively depicted: traffic on the wrong side of the road, gray weather in London, a medieval city; narrow streets in Prague; dust, failed internet connections and armed guards in Nairobi, etc. After leaving a city which she had negatively described only recently, she would only mention its positive points when she moved on to the next city, which was now on her condemned list.
I feel that such people can never be truly happy or satisfied. They never live in the moment, never enjoy the here and now. Here and now is always shitty, somewhere else in the past or future is always better.
Perfect Place to Be
This is directly opposite to what I consider ‘ideal coordinates’, that the place you are in right now is the perfect place to be in right now. You are happy, you are satisfied. If you have not done so, I recommend you read Count your Blessings.
Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison, used the jail time getting the LLB degree from the University of London by correspondence course, and other meaningful activities. I don’t think he was just preoccupied with complaining about inadequate prison facilities, of which I suspect to be many.
Mindfulness
Another related issue is the practice of mindfulness. One focuses on the here and now, enjoy it, thrive in the moment. When doing mindful walking, just enjoy the walk, the foliage, the chirping birds, the surroundings. When your mind wanders, as it invariably will, bring it back. When you multi-task, which is the opposite, you often forget what you have done. This can create ‘Senior Moments’, or momentary lapses of memory. See my previous post Senior Moments.
Kena Sai
Coming back to the story that inspired this blogpost, why the title of Kena Sai? This lady globe trotter corporate big-wig, had hitched up with a Russian she met in the course of her work. She divorced her husband, and planned to move to Moscow with her new partner. The hitch was that she wanted to co-parent their one year old son, who had all along been brought up by her stay-at-home husband. This meant that she wanted her son and ex-husband to move to Moscow from Singapore. The American ex-husband was gobsmacked, and having picked up Singlish, described the situation as being ‘Kena Sai’ or ‘hit by shit’! How did the story end? Go read the book.
Singapore Noir is a compilation of 14 stories by contributors about Singapore’s underbelly, cynical and morally ambiguous. It is edited by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan.
lingsinglin
Dr Ling Sing Lin is a medical doctor by training. She worked in MOH HQ for many years, in policy making and administrative positions, until her retirement.
