QCE52B NIE Lit 2018

Driving to your block, I slide in my father’s cassette of old Hindi songs and I am humming in twilight to the legendary playback singer’s baritone releasing those sounds in that language that makes me feel like I am home. In the back of my throat, I can taste my grandmother’s translucent thin chappatis that as children we would hold up to the light, the dough so evenly rolled out by her hands that not one lump would show. I never appreciated them till her hands shook so much, she could no longer grip the rolling pin. I hear the children from the slum that emerged behind my grandparents small two-storey apartment block. They are swearing in that deliciously punctuated rhythm only the born-and-bred tongue can dance to. I am home for a while. I can smell dust and kerosene in the air and hear high-pitched devotions to the gods blending without objection into the stone thud bass of the latest film song. Jamming my brakes at a traffic light, I realise h...

ah beng is so smart, already he can watch tv and know the whole story your kim cheong is also quite smart, what boy is he in the exam? this playground is not too bad, but I'm always so worried, car here and car there.          at exam time, it's worse because you know why?           kim cheong eats so little. give him some complan. my ah beng was like that, now he's different, if you give him anything he's sure to finish it all up.          sure, sure, cheong's father buys him          vitamins but he keeps it inside his mouth          & later gives it to the cat.          i scold like mad but what for?          if I don't see it, how can I scold? on saturday, tv showed a new type, special for children , why don't you call his father buy some? maybe they are better.   ...

We don't care: we like to speak it leh; When we end with lor, hor, lah, People say our English kana-sai Why do they care? Hard core kaypoh- Bo dai chi cho. It got rhythm- like when you say Who pass urine in the lift? Chau si! Aiyah; Chau Ah Lian; Chau Ah Beng; Chau Buaya; Chau Ah Kua; Chau Mamak; Chau kayu; Chau Goondu- Who else? It got reason- like when the secretary say You hold on arh, he's on another line; So you wait for him to finish- wah piang, talk So long, boey tahan, some more I kena Scolding from boss for wasting time. We say sorrysorrysorry to make sure we are: So pai say, we have to repeat two, three times; Then say excuse! When we overtake or cut in- Only once. Short cuts must be short and sweet, If sometimes we cannot cheat, so chia lat No lubang; so teruk. Kiasu cannot lose, Kiasi cannot die; machiam machiam words We also try. Proper English? So lecheh, So correct, so actsy for what? Wah lau, Already got your meaning before you finish...

Where the neighbourhood wives, After a morning at the wet market, Sit facing the breeze To trade snatches of gossip About leery shopkeepers, The local louts, (Like that fella who's always drilling his walls – Gives me migraine) And that mad woman Who throws things from her window. With careful put-downs they  Fashion boasts, about stubborn sons, Lazy daughters, who by some miracle or mistake Always score well in class. When words falter, Gestures take over: pursed lips, rolling eyes, Animated hands adorned by bangles of Gold, jade, steel, string. And children orbit around them Laugh without diction – Their games of tag a reassurance That there has been no hothousing  Of who is unclean, unwashed, Untouchable. When they break out Into some kindergarten song, One almost believes in a generation Cleansed of skin-deep suspicions,  And free from the superstitions of the tongue – And old folks sit like sages  To...

After discovering the Internet, my mother has trouble finding a connection, and calls me up for help while I am at work. We keep miscommunicating. She has clicked open so many windows the computer threatens to hang. And my logic runs out of variations to explain the same thing over and over. Suddenly, I imagine she is looking for her future through that glowing screen and I am really helping her to find back her life after all her children have left for new homes, new families to love. ‘What now?’ she asks. ‘Try again,’ I reply, the phone pressed to my ear. ‘Close all the windows. Tell me — what do you see?’ Commentary: It might be useful to teach students the etymology of words, and how the meaning of certain words alters with the culture and time. Technological change, in particular, has brought about linguistic and cultural changes. Words such as ‘windows’, ‘connection’ and ‘logic’ have been prescribed new meanings...