At that very moment, Mr. Danny Teoh’s respect for the kings of the past, shot up like fireworks on National Day. “Honestly, how did those blokes put up with so many wives? I can hardly get by with one!” thought he, as his eyebrows crinkled into anxious curves. “Were their crowns perhaps designed to cover up the ears? Or did they scamper into the wild simply to avoid being eaten up at home?”
If an average person were to glance casually at Mr. Danny Teoh, he might just notice a short, stocky build and a bald head. But if that average person were to observe Mr. Teoh with intent for a while, he might be able to make out the faint outlines of a burden that he carried around on his shoulders. That burden moved around with Mr. Teoh wherever he went, weighing down upon him every single hour of the day. Perhaps it even made him shorter. This was the burden of a shipyard business, passed on from generation to generation, which under his able governance had grown heavier.
And after much deliberation, Mr. Teoh had decided with 99.9% firmness, on whose shoulders the burden ought to be transferred. And that is when his wife walked into the picture, placed her hands on her hips and blew away the numbers and the decimal point. Mr.Teoh looked at her reflection in the dressing table mirror, as she held her face close to it and carefully applied a second coating of lipstick on her lower lip. At that very moment, he detested that lip. The same lip that he had once been mad about, when his head had thicker foliage.
The hand applying the lipstick paused. And the reflection of the eyes above the lips turned to him. A single eyebrow rose up slowly and shot a questioning arrow at him.
Mr. Danny Teoh laid down his weapons and surrendered, “Okay… I shall make Beeru the Managing Director...”
***
“Doors are closing”, announced a pleasant-sounding female voice. Ramu stood frozen in front of the train doors. The crowd bustled past him into the waiting train, in a hurry to not get jammed between the closing doors. There were a couple of “Sorry!”s and some polite pushes, as people twisted themselves to fit into available space. Peem-peem-peem! The train doors closed and it chugged along gently. Not a muscle moved on Ramu’s face.
A few moments ago, a number with four zeroes was his annual income. And now only one zero remained. “Where did the other digits vanish? What could I do next? What could I tell Sita? What went wrong with Mr.Teoh? Why did he dismiss me and appoint Beeru in my place?” These were but a few questions that bounced off within the walls of Ramu’s head.
Ramu was alone on the platform. He recollected the worried faces of his parents as they bid him farewell at the airport several years ago, when he departed for Singapore from his hometown in India. “Singapore is just four hours away. Do not worry. Your son will be fine” Mr. Vishwanath, one of the representatives from a university in Singapore had comforted them.
And what a roller coaster ride the past ten years had been for him. Met Sita, fell in love and married her. And that was when Latchu moved to Singapore for his studies. And now all gone in a jiffy! There he was standing on the empty platform with glass doors shut in front of him and a pretty model winking at him from an ad, asking him to drink some soy milk.
***
Beeru soaked in the entire panoramic view from his window. The Singapore wheel was there. Standing still, behind the glittering Marina Bay Sands. He wondered how the wheel managed to appear still, while it was actually moving. Slowly…. very slowly… The earlier place where Beeru sat, all he could see was a white wall in front of him. On the left, was a closed wooden cupboard with some rotting files. And on the right, the posterior of secretary Jane, as she kept standing up to greet the manager, who kept passing by. And now he had a room all to himself. Finally! And a splendid view to top it off.
He stood there nose-to-glass with the window, gazing into the distance like a visionary, trying to fathom from the greyish wisps in the sky, what secrets the future held for him. And as he turned to take his seat, the vision that met the visionary’s far-seeing eyes, shocked him. His left eyelid that always lost control when he was in fury, got unhinged and fluttered as he shouted, “Khan! Where the hell are you?”
A lean guy dressed in a white formal shirt and loose pants tumbled in with folded hands.
“Yes sir.”
“What is this thing that I see lying on my chair?”
Khan followed Beeru’s quivering finger and looked at the spot on the chair that it pointed to. Right there, in the middle of the chair’s dark grey seating area was a pair of blue rubber slippers.
“What’s a filthy pair of slippers doing on my seat?! And whose are these?”
Khan stuttered. “Oh I am profusely sorry sir. I did not know about this. Maybe the cleaner aunty left it there. Might be Mr. Ramu’s.”
"Well... do you want to confirm with her?"
"Sure sir. In a moment." Khan whirled around to find the cleaner aunty. Frustrated that his sarcasm was lost on the poor creature, Beeru banged his fist on the desk.
“Khan! Stop! Do I have to tell you everything?! Please do arrange to have it removed!"
“At once sir” spoke the assistant and did the usual thing that assistants do. Bent his back, picked up the filthy thing in his hands and scuttled out of the room.
Beeru heaved a sigh of relief. He somehow expected Ramu to jump out of those slippers anytime and grab his seat. And that thought troubled him an awful lot. With another heavy sigh, he sat down on the chair and leaned back. Trrrrgg… Trrrrrggggg… dssssh… In the span of a few seconds, the backrest of the chair gave way and Beeru fell over. There was a light thump as the back of his head hit the carpeted floor.
***
“Brother... let me tell you one thing. Honest. You want two bedroom house for that price? In the city? For sure cannot. Woodlands or Hougang maybe can get", pronounced the agent. He sounded as if there were thousands of other clients queueing up to speak to him at that every moment.
“Okay do look for a house in Woodlands then”, said Ramu in a grim tone and cut the line.
He looked up at the glass skyscraper, on the opposite end of the road. Its metallic signboard seemed menacing. He gripped the folder in his hands tighter. Took in a deep breath. Fast, repeating beeps resounded through the air. The signal for pedestrian crossing had turned green.
“Excuse me, I am here to meet your manager for an interview?”
A guy with a round face and thick-rimmed spectacles looked up from his desk. He had a tired expression as his eyes grazed over Ramu’s facial features. Then, there was a spark of recognition.
“Why… you’re the guy who stars in that serial right? The one at 9pm on Channel 5.”
“Sorry… what?”
The round face was completely lit up now. Two rows of white teeth and a dimple on his freckled cheeks were unveiled.
“Oh please follow me. This way. I’ll show you to the manager's office. Wow! I cannot believe that we are going to have a star working amongst us very soon…”
“Sorry but you must be mistak…”
“Oh my wife and I never miss an episode. Am a big fan of yours. I didn’t get your name though. What was it again?”
“Ummm… The name is Ramu.”
“It’s a pleasure meeting you Mr.Ramu!” said the thick-rimmed guy with a gentle bow. He pointed with the back of his palm at a door.
“Good afternoon sir”
“Oh please come in. Mr. Ramu right?”
“Yes sir. Am here for the interview. The manager position...”
“Aahh yes yes. Do sit down and tell us about yourself Mr. Ramu.”
“Us?”
Ramu looked around the room. He couldn’t spot anyone other than the manager, who was seated behind the desk. He was completely immersed in his laptop screen.
“What is the experience you’ve got Mr. Ramu?”
The manager had not lifted his gaze from his laptop. Ramu’s right hand which had gone into the folder to fish out his resume, stopped on its track. He began talking, unsure where to look.
“Well… I’ve… I’ve worked for two years... at IUTIA Pte Ltd in a senior manager role. And before that...”
“What would you say is your greatest achievement?” The manager shook his head slightly with a grin and typed something into his laptop, as he asked this question.
“Is this guy chatting with someone else?” thought Ramu as he replied, “Oh there was this one occasion in my previous company when a bunch of workers were creating a nuisance. I personally dragged them out by the collar. I believe in enforcing values. I believe in getting my hands dirty. A manager’s not just someone who sits in a chair and gives...”
“Two glasses of milk and three ladies. How would you split it among them?”
“Umm… does it have to be equal?”
“An old man and a young boy are drowning. Who would you save?”
“Well… Depends on the…”
“Have you ever broken a vow?”
“I try to keep promises I make...”
“How about a bow?”
“Sorry what?”
“Haha. Just kidding!”
The manager finally looked up from his laptop. He had a polite smile plastered on his face.
“Sorry Mr.Ramu. But I think you’ve still got to prove yourself.”
“But...”
A closed file was handed over to him, “Could you please pass this to my secretary outside? Thank you.”
As Ramu shut the door behind him, the manager turned back to his laptop screen.
“Nasty afternoon... I wonder why he seemed familiar though.”
He began shortly to whistle a tune.
***
Some birds looked cute. Some had vibrant colours, which could produce arresting visuals on camera. Some had sweet voices that you could listen to when you had your fingers intertwined with a lover in a park. Worst case, at least their meat tasted fine. But, these yellow-beaked, yellow-legged creatures were among the most useless biological products manufactured by nature. Nasty voices and incorrigible public behaviour. He shooed the two birds perched on that particular bench with the contempt of chasing away a fly from the food that one planned to relish. The two grey blotched blunders of nature simply hopped a few feet away from him and continued their purposeless existence.
“Mickey, how about next weekend? Let’s please meet up. We need to make a film.” A male voice pleaded with him on the phone.
“Have patience my friend. Creativity needs inspiration”, spoke Mickey as he parked his posterior comfortably onto the bench he had just conquered, “To be honest, I don’t feel like I can write a story now.”
The voice on the phone turned sarcastic, “Oh what do you feel like doing then?”
“I feel like…”, Mickey thought for a while, “...like picking up a stone and hitting one of these nasty birds.”
***
There was no maid to wash vessels. There was no air-con to spit out air, cooled down to a specific temperature. There was no washing machine to churn out clean clothes. Two chairs and two table fans were all they had in the house in Woodlands in which Ramu, Latchu and Sita began to perform their daily chores. Earlier, Ramu would be calmly seated in his house sipping Starbucks coffee, while the world news popped up in his iPad. But now, he trudged everyday to the market nearby to buy the newspaper and look for available job openings.
On one such afternoon, as Ramu sat at home wading through the classified ads, there was a knock at the door.
"Hello sir! My name is Syeda”, a young girl greeted Ramu with a smile as he opened the door. She had a pen in her right hand and a bag slung over her left shoulder. What has she come to sell? Perhaps she’s a friend of Latchu…
“Latchu! There’s someone here to see you!” said Ramu absent-mindedly and walked back to his newspaper.
“Yes?” Latchu walked to the door.
“Sir, do you know about Cancer?” began the young girl, unfolding a brochure, “5 out of 10 people in Singapore...”
Latchu banged the door shut.
“There are people here rotting away with neither a job nor money to live. And I must educate myself about cancer it seems!” he muttered to himself.
Syeda stared at the closed door in shock for a while, before turning around and trotting off. Her hand that held the pen quivered in anger.
***
To be continued...
