waiting for the Thai Noodle and Honey Chicken and chrysanthemum tea that i ordered, there was a quartet of a family, sitting next to my table. this was at Memory Corner in The Mall. one of those numerous by-the-corridor food outlet where u sit and eat (and try oh-so-hard not to direly mortify yourself by accidentally plunging your chicken to the other undesirable directions) very much in the face of public. but because this place comes complete with such an antique touch of wooden chairs and marble-top round table framed with wood which stand on very convincing wooden legs, not to forget its porcelain saucers with vintage floral patterns, i endured. and its Kampung style gastronomic delights with big portions that leave you breathless in finishing it (my ordered meal comes with a lot of noodles and two pieces of chicken, a drumstick and a wing with the drummette still attached), man, that is something worth chasing for (i was being rhetoric, you could of course simply order and pay).
oh, the quartet. excellent food can be so distracting. yes. there were a man, a woman, both possibly in early 30s, an older woman that could be an upper-echelon maternal figure and an infant in a pram. it was around 7pm and the small human was getting restless with all the conundrum and crying being the only means of communication that it knew, it did exactly that (please do not find it derogative that i refer to the infant as it. i had no idea whether it was a boy or a girl). first the man, possibly the father, picked it up and rocked his kid in his arms, walking around to lull the baby to sleep. the younger woman prepared milk in a bottle and then when that was done, the older woman with alacrity, took the baby from the man so that he and his wife could resume eating.
she fed the baby, cooed and sang and rocked the pram. she blathered to the baby, she rocked it in her arms and then put it over her shoulder to lull it to sleep. and somehow, in her mélange of relentless cooing, her lullaby on loop shuffling from one to another, her warm voice that only a mother could have and grant to their offspring and the gentle yet secure way she held that baby with such enormous affection and protection from the wearying world, it was i along with my treachery-stricken ears, my eyes that kept pilfering glances, and my moribund, shattered heart so jaded of running from its cavalcade of hazards, that were now soothed. pacified. at peace. albeit temporarily.
perhaps there’s hope for mankind.