It was a usual day on the bus.
I was watching some replays of ML when I heard, "Excuse me sir" from two seats in front of me.
An Indian man around my age was asking for direction from a local malay to East Coast Park.
However, the local malay did not know how to get there; or was too lazy to help.
As I was sitting just two seats behind the malay guy, I knew the Indian would come up to me and ask me the same question.
I was praying that he wouldn't approach me as I was very lazy to converse.
'Excuse me sir, do you know how to get to East Coast Park?'
I close my ML and went to Google the bus route of 43.
I tried my very best to direct him there but honestly it was difficult to explain thoroughly since navigating to East Coast Park even from the nearest bus stop poses a challenge.
'9 stops after parkway parade', was all that I said and he was really grateful.
As he went back to his seat, I was worried that he and his two friends wouldn't get to East Coast Park since I got lost at that area when I was in secondary school.
I was searching for the exact bus stop on Google maps to give myself an answer as to how to walk from there (and also for a chance to guide him if he asked again)
So there I was sitting at my seat and staring at the three of them, I was contemplating whether to be a kind man and explain to him and his friends in detail.
He looked back at me when the bus was at Yio Chu Kang Chapel and he signalled by lifting his eyebrows 'here?'
That was when I decided to stand up and went to sit right behind him to explain.
I asked out of curiosity, where are they from?
He replied saying that they're from India.
And I just asked which part of India (as if I know) and to my surprise, he mentioned Karnataka.
So I told them I've been to Hampi and we struck off a really short conversation.
Found out that they're studying medicine and they're taking a stop at Singapore for three days before going to China to continue their studies.
They were such nice people.
When I compare his character to the local malay that did not reply him properly, I just had felt like most Singaporeans are really so caught up in their own world.
And that is including me.
Because initially I was reluctant to help, I was being the typical unfriendly Singaporean.
I hoped my actions left him a good impression of the people in Singapore, because the people in Hampi did.
A really short bus ride, but so much things I'm thinking about.
I miss Hampi, or maybe I just don't really like Singapore.
No comments:
Post a Comment