A happy family?

Well, an essay-like post about what I saw on the MRT today...

I tried to look like I was standing straight while slouching over a little, and used my bag to shield my rumbling stomach from the wind while waiting for what seemed like the longest 3 minutes of my life for the MRT to arrive. My stomach had been showing signs of pain in the morning, but I chose to ignore them. I should have chose differently.

My stomach was keeping me from taking a nap since I boarded the MRT 3 hours ago, and acted up again around an hour ago. Of all things, I was shooting halfway, when I felt it start to do a whole set of twists again. I had to take 10 minutes to unsuit and get to the toilet before returning to complete my 100-shots.

Soon after, when the shooting-detail ended, I decided to leave early since I wasn't in a state to continue for another 1 1/2 hours of dry-firing. Luckily, the bus came early, and there I was, waiting for the MRT.

The moment the annoying and ever-present "For your own safety..." message was played, all the passengers, as usual, decided to crowd around the entrances. When they finally squeezed in after knocking the people trying to exit the carriage, the first few rushed for the empty seats, while I heard others grunting or whining in dissappointment and annoyance.

I headed to the centre of the train (Wait. At this point, I discovered that I seem to be a very good and polite passenger! Do I, like, get a prize or something? They should set up and award for this! Anyway, back to the story...), I grabbed hold of one of the handles with my right hand, and used my bag to again shield my stomach from the air-con with my left.

I looked in front of me and saw a family occupying three seats. A little girl was sitting right between her mother and her father, who was holding a pram that contained a boy not over the age of 2. Nothing special or amazing about this, so I was about to nod off to sleep. Standing up. Shows how tired I was.

However, I suddenly noticed that the father had tattoos printed all over this hands and legs. Some of them were pictures of scantily clad girls, others were some arabic scripts, and one that was even more disturbing was chinese words that translated into "evil demon". Not exactly your average family dad.

The man looked half-asleep, more tired than me, even. His eyes were closed as he held on to the pram. The little girl was playing with her baby brother, while the mother was watching them. Once again, I was about to continue my nap when again I saw something even more astonishing.

As the girl started clapping her hands, I noticed that there were scars on a few of the fingers. More on her legs. They seemed rather old, some of them look like they've been cut or injured at the same spots over and over again. Well, I, sad to say, made quite a bad and horrible assumption. Could the father, you know... I'm talking about child abuse.

It seemed rather natural to assume it. You can't blame me (Well you actually can, but that's not the point). Just look at the father. Even without the tattoos...

At this point, he suddenly woke up, and I quickly turned away, afraid that he might see me staring at him, which wouldn't be a very comfortable situation. Luckily, he didn't, and proceeded to play with the baby boy. When he bent down a little, I saw the tip of yet another tattoo peeking out from his neck. The man probably has something across his whole back and stomach.

After awhile, the baby boy grabbed his finger and put it into his mouth. The father twisted up his face in mock agony, while the little girl screamed in laughter. After that little scene, I started to feel guilty about making a harsh judgement on that man. It wasn't really nice slapping on a stereotype just because he had... less than presentable tattoos, or a passion for body art.

Well, it really got to me that even though I always knew and told myself not to judge a book blah-blah-blah, I sometimes still slip up a little. It seemed pretty much a good lesson and memory that I want to remember.

Reached Outram Park, gave my seat to an eldery malay lady (See? Good passenger!), and was swept out of sight by the incoming horde.













Wow. You read it all the way? Collect your prize from me on the first day of school! xD