So tired!
It was the Monday following Chung Yeung Festival or the Double Ninth
Festival, the day we pay respects to our ancestors. I had arranged with my
sisters to visit my parents’ niche in Diamond Hill Columbarium. Actually it was
my father’s niche but long before her passing away, my mother had it processed
for her urn be placed alongside with my father’s. As the columbarium is conveniently
located and we still miss my mother, we go there quite often not only on
ancestor-worship days. There is no elaborate practice. We just bring her
flowers and stand there in front of the niche. With eyes fixed on the photo, we
talk to her.
I boarded the MTR at Kowloon Tong Station at about 11 in the morning. I
was so pleased to find the compartments not crowded at all. As I seated myself,
the man at the other end of the bench caught my attention. He was sound asleep.
He must be dead tired. I started making up stories around him.
“Can he be a night-shift janitor on his way home?” I know a security
guard taking two shifts for three days of the week. Or “has he taken a long
homeward-bound journey?” I was almost sure that he was heading home because
otherwise, he would not be this relaxed in such deep sleep.
This observation of passengers and exercising my imagination has always
been my favorite pastime when commuting until phone games captured me. In
recent months, I succeeded to redeem myself and I am now back to this
fun-filled mind game.
We are much smarter on our own without the smart-phone.
