A Child Is To Play

I've had just enough time to...   play

 

A child looking for play...

I remembered as a child

Searching for the meaning of Life

Then went outside to play

When the head gets too heavy

Leaving the thinking

For another day

I was always confident

There is time to be wise

But the play is not going to wait

To start another day

Now only I realized

How wise I was as a child

So I am putting down my books

To go out and play…

while grown-up prays...

I saw this small boy in his bicycle outside the same temple in Surabaya. He was just looking for someone to play with. I contrasted him with the old man I saw sitting forlornly in the balcony upstairs and feel kind of sad. I identified more with this boy and think back to my youth and is envious of him. In the end, I turned out alright but due to poverty and due to the well-meaning but misplaced worries of adults, I lost a large part of my irreplaceable childhood which is why a part of me will never grow up but I’m blessed for that. Life works in mysterious ways.

the Gods stays...

away from the affairs of man...

Nothing Heavier Than Words

I've had just enough time to...   carry something heavier than words

Taken in a small village in Ubud, Bali of strong women with strong neck

This load is not heavy

I’ve carried heavier still

Earth, stone and ore

Sand that got into your eyes

Salt that made you cry

I can still smile

Carry my head high

See that child running there

He is mine

I carry these loads

So that his head will carry -

Nothing heavier than words

I stayed in a small resort among the padi fields of Ubud, Bali where you have to travel through the village to get there. One morning when I walked outside, I saw the women of the villagers carrying large pails of black sand on their head to fill a field. The loads looked very heavy and I wondered how they can balance it on their head when I will have trouble lugging them with my hands. And they have to walk quite a distance to and fro for the whole day for many days that will be needed to fill the field. What a tough way to earn a supplementary income – all for the sake of their family but they can still smile. This reminded me of the thousands of tablecloths (I hated red chili stains on white tablecloths as they are the most difficult to get rid of) my mum has to wash to give us a proper education. 

A Child Becomes A Man

I've had just enough time to...   see a child becomes a man

Taken at a temple in the Durbar Square in Bhaktapur, Nepal...

Yesterday a child starts a fire

The smoke rises

An old man puts it out

The master said –

Neither be too happy nor too sad

Don’t be so attached

For change is the season

Not the reason

A child becomes a man

...where I saw an old man who was once a child

Nothing is permanent. Everything changes. Whether it starts and ends and begins again, man’s life is a straight line from birth to death, a constant change – with an end? But what makes a child a man, the wrinkles on his skin, the years of his life or the wisdom he gained? If he is wise, he is a man. If he is not, he is still a man. What then must he seek in the midst of these relentless changes? How does he find his balance? Where does he seek his centre in the turmoil of his joy and sorrow? I saw the old man who was once a child. I saw the child who will be an old man. I see myself in all of them.

How I Love The Storm and The Rain. (雨中即景)

I've had just enough time to...   love rainy days

Taken from my office just before a storm...

Even as a child, I loved storms and I loved rains. No matter how violent the winds blasted and rattled. How they pushed against the windows like a wild animal trying to get in, I was never afraid. I was afraid of a lot of things but never a storm. I treated it like a loud friend who dropped in suddenly, unannounced, but who brought excitement to the dull existence of a monotone life.

I loved how the hawkers scrambled, how the housewives rushed to retrieve clothings still hanging on the lines, how the dogs barked impotently at a threat it cannot comprehend and how the smarter cat with a meow disappeared to the safest hiding place. I loved how the first few drops of rain dissipated into a mist after just a momentarily imprint on the hot paved road. Or how the light reddish brown laterite soil first took on a deeper tone, and then run off to be the first to form a puddle.

I loved the raindrops splashing against the window, how they run down like the tears of a broken heart. I loved how the coconut tree swayed its branches like a dancer in wild abundance, high above the other leafy trees that released their leaves to the wind. I loved the sound of a million chatters. The pitch according to whom they spoke  to; the zinc roof, the paved road or the monsoon drain. I loved the cool, moisture laden wind that brought relief against the heat. I’m happiest and saddest during the life of a storm.

The sight, sound and feel of the storm are now different for me. But I still love the storm and the rain.

_____________

The happiest rain song of my youth - 

雨中即景 - 刘文正 

Dragons & Pheonix and Creatures Mystical

I've had just enough time to...   see dragons and pheonix and creatures mystical...

 Taken of the temple against the rainbow building in the center of Kuching

Dragons and pheonix

And creatures mystical

Exist in this age and time

In our imagination only

They said

But I saw them dances

On rooftops and by moonlights

In the eyes of the child

And the tales of old men

Who has not forgotten to dream

Dragons and phoenix

And fairies and elves

Frolic in the twilight hour

Together with the unicorn

In Never Never Land

A Stranger Through The Eyes of A Child.

I've had just enough time to...   see myself in the eyes of a child.

Taken in Kunshan while wandering around

“He doesn’t like me”.

Maybe it was not because he does not like me. Maybe it was because I witnessed what he did. Or maybe it was because he was protective of his little sister. His sister, who was looking at me with questioning eyes.

“Who are you?”

“What do you want?”

“Why are you taking our picture?”

She could not figure me out yet. So she was hesitant with her response. Maybe she will smile if I say a kind word or two. Maybe she will run away. But I kept my distance. I have no right to intrude.

Her brother, he just glared at me. I am a stranger. I can be up to no good. I cannot do anything for them except getting them into trouble. So he challenged me with his look. If I put on a fierce expression. Maybe he will run away. Maybe he will call for his family. I am after all a stranger and an outsider. So I kept my distance. Smiled, and backed off. I am after all an intruder into their world and I have to respect that. (I was in Kunshan with a couple of hours to kill and I’m not going to do that watching TV in the hotel room. So I wandered out into the street where ordinary people lived.)

Earlier, I “caught” them playing with the stainless steel bolts and washers that they somehow dismantle from the railings of the steps and overhead bridge. I tried one with my bare fingers and found it to be fast secured. Maybe, they have found all the loose ones or maybe they did it with some tools though I did not see any. If they construct the railings so poorly that children can dismantle them, then it is not the children’s fault for you can expect a child to do exactly what they did. I did not want to encourage them though so I checked my smile and moved away wondering what did I learn from this encounter to have it so strongly registered in my memory.

Safe In Your Arms, Mother Of Mine.

I've had just enough time to...   remember I was safe in your arms, mother of mine

Taken in a sculpturing workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam

I remember though the world

May be crumbling down all around

I was safe in your arms, mother

Safe in your arms, mother

But now I am grown

And can do things on my own

Won’t you let me leave you arms, mother

Let me leave your arms, mother

______

Mother of mine when
I was young
You showed me
The right way things
Should be done

Without your love,

Where would I be?

Mother, sweet mother of mine

Curiousity Grows The Child.

I've had just enough time to...   let curiousity took hold of me.

Taken at 30,000 feet in the air.

Curiousity may kill the cat,

But curiousity grows the child.

The Child That Was Not Left Behind.

I’ve had just enough time…  to take the young ones to see a fighting rabbit.

Taken in my favorite cinema

We were all a child once,

Then we grew up.

But we ought never to leave that child
-  far behind.