I was thinking in the shower about some other name when it struck me how, despite their apparent modernity, Christian morals, and sensibilities, my parents still clung to certain superstitions, though my mother vocally eschews any concept of luck. For instance, my dad stuck to taking a 016 number for me when buying a sim card, though the 014 numbers had just been added to the DiGi service. There was no difference in quality between the two, yet contumaciously he stuck to the 016, his only exegesis being “It’s a better number.” When asked about the reason perhaps being that 014 was “want to die” or “a death wish”, when roughly translated to Hokkien, he did not give a definite answer, or at least mumbled a response that was at any rate unintelligible.
A similar incident took place this afternoon when I was sweeping the hall. My mom was shifting some papers when I brushed against her feet, and, hasty apology notwithstanding, she immediately started on a tirade over how taboo it was to do that, though I was stumped as to why that was so. She goes on to chide: “ Some people are very pantang (superstitious), they’ll hantam (whack) you if you try anything like that!” I said she was doing a good impression of those people already, at which she glared at me with such intensity I feared my glasses would melt.
The way she said it though, it was as though I’d burst into peals of laughter at a funeral, though I wouldn’t mind people rolling in the aisles at mine; the eulogist might very well be Russell Peters.
Is it such a surprise, then, that I cut my nails at night with relish, or wish my peers all the best just before a paper, taking care to pat their shoulders in an exaggeratedly chummy fashion? (On the record, I used to do that to a good friend who was always first in class, and the next year he moved to MRSN.)
In any case I shall continue to to step other people's feet, just to irk some sensitive hearts out there. Mavericks FTW~
theunfallengazers
7 years ago
