120 seconds of fun....

It was way past lunch hour when I squeezed my car between the roads and stopped at a traffic light interchange when a scene of event caught my eye. There was this 5 primary school children of different shape, size and height trying to cross a busy intersection of the road. Two Malay boys, one Indian boy, one Sikh boy and one Chinese boy made up the equation of the group. What a truly beautiful sight! They were all dressed up in their whitish colored shirt and dark blue pants- typical of primary school-bound children nearby, playing happily and trying to cross the busy street. While cars from the opposite direction were honking like mad men as two of the boys; the Sikh and the Chinese boy, made it on the other side of the road. A Malay boy and the Indian boy then raced across the street while tugging their shirts and short pants which looked loose as they sprinted across. They looked happy and were patting each others back as they weaved across. Then came the small Malay boy and he was tugging a Transformer kite along as he tried dashing across the street. Somehow, he slipped and fell at the road verge. He must have landed quite hard as he had quite a hard time coming up. All of a sudden, the other four guys just dashed back across the street and helped this last boy to get on his feet while weaving pass the car onto the other side of the road with the kite being taken care of nicely. What a sight! Truly what a sight! For all I care, you can interpret whatever you want from this scene but to me, this is really truly a beautiful sight and the right camaraderie spirit! What a human spirit! What friendship!
The raw touch of innocence of life in children. It is a world of colorless in their young life and such innocent hearts. At that moment I was brought back to my own childhood days were I have seen such scenes and even participated in such acts some many many moons ago. Life was simpler then, right? No fuss about colours on our skins, the sharing of meals, the games times and the sumptuous bond of friendship. How did we end up so mixed up and complicated in our lives? Where have all our respect for others and life had gone to? Where did we go wrong that we have lost that touch of innocence in our lives? As I played back that scene in my head, I really missed my childhood days. Days with friends who looked beyond the boundary of social status, colour and even creed. Days of catching spider, flying kites, climbing coconut trees, plucking jambu batu , playing flying slippers, catching fish and pinching mangos from neighbouring trees. These were bliss days. I remember Pakcik Samad who owns the mango and jambu batu trees would chase us but would not be able to catch up with us. Later, we found out as we grew up that he could actually catch us but was pretending to let us get away as he was quite fond of our group of boys whom he had labelled " budak-budak nakal". I am thankful too for people like the late Uncle Thomas, an Indian man who would shared whatever food he had and goodness in his heart with me. Mr.Boon, one of my dad's customer who is a teacher and he really encouraged me to study those days. He was the only teacher I know who had faith me and told me the importance of good manners, being humbled and study hard. There were many beautiful people that had touched this very life of mine and I am so blessed for my childhood days. Difficult it may be but the days had been made sweeter with nicer people God had put in my path as I grow up.

For 120 seconds ( that is how long it takes for the traffic lights to turn green ) , I had a flashback and a road trip down memory lane. It was truly a beautiful sight watching those 5 boys strut their stuff on the street. Sure, it could be dangerous and unthinkable of these days but weren't we were like that during our younger days - innocent, fearless, show off and kinda pig -headed in a sense? As the traffic lights turned green, I shifted into gear and launched off towards to my work place. But I can tell you this - it was the best 120 seconds in my life getting stuck at the traffic lights~!