Some little philosophies

Had a two hour long phone conversation with Bong, and it is always entertaining albeit crappy. I am particularly inspired to pen down what we have talked about today because being a typical bimbo who doesn’t really like to think that much, this will be my first time delivering some of our musings. Hope it doesn’t sound like some General Paper essay.

1) This world operates on looks. To hell with crap like “inner beauty is more important” and “brains over brawn / boobs” and the laleedas. We have seen so many examples to be convinced that our pockmarks, thunder thighs etc will put us at a disadvantage in this society (maybe Bong will do better than me). It is unfair that people with benevolent natures and good characters get condemned because of an exterior that does not live up to everyone’s expectations. Especially for E and WK, we are genuinely sympathetic but we cannot do much. Bad girls don’t finish last, pretty girls do.

2) This world will do so much better without social inequalities. I realized that a university education only serves to distance myself from the people around me. Back in secondary school, who cares if you have friends from the Normal stream? I don’t, because most of the times these people make better companions than those snooty aristocrats and scholars. Despite their not-so-competent academic performance and bad influence, they are much more fun, they are street-smart and they stand up for you.

As I progressed further up the education ladder, I started to lose such friends; and even as for the remaining ones, I realized a growing distance between them and me as we really communicate on different planes. We lead such unequal lives anyway. When we call our ‘same-level’ friends and ask what they are doing, we get tortured moans of “FYP” or “tests”. When we call those who do not have academic obligations like us, they can be “inside 大头 (accompanied by sounds of drums and cymbals)” or “just finished fighting”. D can call me in the middle of the night to tell me he has been slashed. S is always dragging drunken friends home and helping bail out a friend who likes to spit at policemen. And all the interesting and dark stories on gambling, drugs, loansharks, clashes, prostitution etc. I cannot imagine myself in this kind of life. I can only picture myself, holding the dammit degree cert and become a hamster in the wheel, slog in the office until death. As the saying goes, 同人不同命 .

I cannot understand why many people look at such people with tinted glasses. Be it looking for jobs, social status and achievement, and even dating, social bias always disparage them. Does education level determine one’s capability, one’s integrity, one’s achievement and fulfillment in life? Does there have to be a stark differentiation between an accomplished high-flier and a disgruntled menial worker in terms of social image and the public’s perceptions towards them? Why does a relationship between a university graduate and an N level cert holder make many shake their heads?

3) This world is full of strange twists in fate. I reminded Bong of the movie ‘Sliding Doors’ starring Gwyneth Paltrow, which shows how a simple action like missing the train can cause a major turning point in life. Bong supported me with a story of an air stewardess whose menses cramps prevented her from going to work and inadvertently escaped a plane crash. Yeah, yeah, life is full of surprises. Maybe I will surprise my parents one day by being a bei pio soh (and sit at the kopitiam all day long, gossip, smoke like a chimney, and tame my coiffure with my trademark pointed comb).

4) We are clueless about our futures. We fear that we will not have enough friends to fill up the tables at our wedding banquets. I don’t even dare to dream of a Vera Wang gown, a Sentosa Cove, and a honeymoon to Alaska, in case I get left on the shelf.

5) There is no distinct line between love and lust. Leaves me wondering for a long time what I really am looking for.