Just another dimension?

Friday, April 17, 2009
Books I Miss -vvv

The bus that I was on stopped at a traffic light along Stamford Road. I felt a little nostalgic seeing how much the area has changed. I remembered sitting on a bench in Bras Basah Park during morning peak hour, some 17 years ago. The park was an island of tranquility amidst the sea of traffic. The canopy formed by the large rain trees covered the entire park. That area is now a massive concrete block also known as SMU School of Economics / Social Sciences.

I looked at a car in the neighboring lane. The driver and its 3 passengers were studying a street directory (amusing that it takes 4 people to read a map). Ah, wouldn't it be nice if I had a cartographic record of what this place was like?

My family used to own an old edition of the street directory (I think it was a 60s edition). It showed that there were hardly any roads in my housing estate. I believe it was mostly dirt tracks back then. My mother threw that book away. A pity.

My thoughts moved to some other books I miss. My sister and I had a set of storybooks on famous Chinese mythical tales such as the creation of the World from the Cosmic Egg, Nuwa's creation of Man and patching up the hole in the sky, the Ten Suns, etc. The illustrations were beautifully drawn. I can't find those books any more. We suspect my parents gave them away to some friend's kids who probably sold them to the karang guni man.

Then there was this old Tai Chi book that I read in secondary school. It was rather old and had a musty smell. I never finished that book because it was confiscated by the Chinese teacher when I read it during class. Funny, I thought Chinese teachers were supposed to encourage interest in Chinese culture. Oh well, at least now I'm learning Tai Chi for real instead of just reading about it.

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Yiheng made 9:16 PM

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