Singh who only drank beer. When he gave up, he would be told the

correct answer. Jasbeer Singh. Once, convinced that Ravindran was

pulling a fast one when he labelled a soccer crazy Singh as Bhola

Singh, he had gone to ask Manmohan Singh if there was such a

name. There was, and Manmohan Singh confirmed it. Manmohan

Singh never asked why he had asked and he never asked Manmohan

why he had not asked why he had asked. Weng Chai had picked up

a whole list of names that could be used as jokes and these

included Kuldip Singh (the Singh who takes a cool dip on a hot

day) Jaswant Singh ( the Singh who wanted everything) and his

favourite one was Mersing ( the place in Malaysia where Singhs

merged for a meeting).

The jokes were in clean good fun but Weng Chai and his

friends never told them to Manmohan Singh, fearing that they

would offend his religious sentiments.

Weng Chai was very sure he was a policeman. He looked

strict and fierce. Years earlier, he recalled how once he had

walked past a group of gamblers with Manmohan Singh and his uncle

after school and the gamblers had scattered in all directions

when they saw Manmohan's uncle. For most Chinese bad hats, the

misconception that Sikhs were policemen remained.

Singh's family included his wife, son and daughter. They

would make guest appearances at the window from time to time.

And it was always possible to see the whole family trudging off

somewhere every Sunday morning. Manmohan Singh had told him that

there was always a wedding at the Khalsa Club every Sunday and

it was possible this was were they headed.

He wondered if Singh believed in making sure his children

married according to his choice. A year ago, Manmohan Singh's

uncle had married a girl his father had chosen. Weng Chai had

met him recently at Orchard Road, looking none the worse for this

experience.

Manmohan Singh had also told him that most Sikhs gave a

dowry when their daughters got married. Manmohan's uncle had got

a bedroom set and electrical appliances. He wondered what Singh

would give his daughter with the changing times. A COE possibly.

And the younger Singh. He called him Singh Junior. He

looked every inch a hockey player. Most Singhs were anyway.

Weng Chai never failed to notice a racial trend in games.

Indians went for Hockey, Soccer and Cricket. The Malays were more

into Sepak Takraw and Soccer. And the Chinese always went for

Soccer, Basketball and Table Tennis.

Weng Chai himself had tried hockey after some persuasion

by Manmohan and had promptly been shelved from the team after an

ankle injury.

Page 7

Weng Chai knew that all the people in the opposite block

whom he knew by habit and nature were prisoners of his

imagination. They were imprisoned by what he thought and

inferred about them. He had the power of painting them good or

bad, evil or kind. He had the power to give them names, and to

change the names as and when he liked. They would have

ordinarily objected but they had no power to control his thoughts

and imagination.

"Bird-man", "Rain-man", Minah or Nona. He had named

them all.

He gave them a little past or future to liven their

lives. His was a prison from which they could not escape- a

prison of the mind and imagination.

He was confident none of them knew they were prisoners

of his imagination - caught in the drama he played out for them

from time to time. Once, he had seen Singh's daughter talking

to a handsome Sikh below the block. He had wondered if it was

the man the father had picked for her marriage but had discarded

it for a more fanciful love story that would in time unfold as

a drama in the Singh family - the father objecting to this love

marriage, the mother weeping silently and the daughter adamant

in wanting to marry this man and no other. Very much like a

Tamil story he had seen on a SBC 8 Sunday afternoon slot.

Or perhaps a News Write-up about "Bird-man's" hobby

that finally saw his mata-puteh clinching a top award in a bird-

singing competition.

The sudden shrill alarm brought him back from his

thoughts. It was six-fifteen p.m. and he knew it was time to

walk that 600 metres to the Primary School across the road from

the opposite block to fetch his sister home.

The fact that he was finishing his A-levels and his

sister her Primary Three was in no small way due to his mother.

He owed her a debt that would be difficult to repay.

In the dark days after his father had died while he

was in Secondary Two, his mother had worked hard to provide them

with what they needed. She worked hard even in the evenings

after coming home from her regular job as a chambermaid in a

hotel , sewing dresses for people to save that extra money to

send him to college.

The rain had stopped.

Weng Chai locked the door carefully and shut the

grille. A Malay neighbour who lived down the common corridor

nodded at him and he nodded back. Courtesy begets courtesy.

As he stepped out on the void deck, he felt a coolness

as a gust of wind blew against him. The rain had stopped, but

all the indications that it had rained remained.

As he entered the void deck of the block opposite his,

he noticed a young couple coming in from the opposite direction.

They were clearly not people he had noticed at any window.

Page 8

The woman said something to the man and the man looked

at Weng Chai. It was a concealed look, covert and sudden but

Weng Chai knew at once that the woman had pointed him out

verbally to the man.

Weng Chai was still at a distance as the couple went

up the stairs to take the lift on the first floor landing, but

his curiosity got the better of him. He moved towards the wall

that partitioned one side of the stairs leading to the lift

landing.

He heard the clatter of footsteps as the couple

walked up the last few steps and a dull thud as the lift button

was pressed.

Weng Chai bent over, pretending to tie his shoelaces.

There was a sudden silence as the couple waited for the lift to

come down and then he heard the woman's voice.

" You saw that man or not. So kay-poh and cheeko.

Always peeping into other people's houses...."

There was a whirr as the lift arrived and a thud as

the door slammed shut.

Weng Chai felt the bars of his own cell shutting on

his face.

Glossary:

Bhola A pun on the Malay word "bola" which means ball.

cheeko Local slang for cheeky.

kay-poh Local slang for busy-body.

mata-puteh Malay word for "white-eyes". A songbird.

Songkran Thai water festival when water is splashed on

everyone.