Call from old friend
An old friend, Shunkun, just called. He was my friend from Pugilistic Society, and we used to chit chat quite a bit on the phone when I was in junior college, and in the months before I got the results for my A-levels.
I confided in him because he had an uncanny ability to see through what I was thinking. Truth be told, I later discovered it was because it didn't take very much to read me, he just told me what he observed when some other people chose to keep quiet. His call was a pleasant surprise. I remember I last chatted with him when I was cramming for my 4th semester exams in NTU. That was a long time ago.
As usual, we talked about the people we knew, and the topic somehow turned to Buddhism, as it always did. He's warp and odd and a philosopher, the few geeks I know whom I feel has some real depth, not your half plus six "I-say-I'm-a geek-because-it's-the-in-thing-to-be-a-geek-but-I-really-am-an-ah-lian" geek. (Think Xiaxue) I don't understand him most of the time 'cos I'm just not the kind of thinker that he is.
We also talked about Shanghai, which he visited 2 years ago, and the big Shanghai Bookstore along Fuzhou Road that was my favourite haunt. Suddenly he asked me, "Are you still reading as much as you used to?" For a moment, my mind went blank and I didn't know what to say. Then I tried very hard to search my memory bank for the time WHEN I was reading alot. "Erm, did I use to read alot?" I tested the waters. "Oh yes, you used to always tell me about this or that book that you were reading, don't you remember?" He sounded quite shock.
I don't. Except that my tiny collection of books tells vaguely of a passion a long time ago.
Work and exams must be getting to me. All I read these days are textbooks, law cases, contracts, competitor analyses and newspapers. The thing I want to do most, after my exams, is to gather a few girls and do a wild session of karaoke. (You know, where you croon and dance like there is no tomorrow) Reading Book 2 and Book 3 Mum and Sis got me from Taipei will come later, but they are comics anyway, so not real reading.
I don't crave for novels now, whatever dystopian shit, I don't. Not like 2 years, or even 2 months ago. No no, I haven't changed. I'm still the bouncy, chatty, gigglish and cheery me in front of everyone I don't know well enough. Also a very stressed up, insecure and tired me when I'm at home. I need sleep, I don't need dystopia.
Shunkun used to tell me, a long time ago, that I try too hard. I thought that was his way putting what the chinese commonly say, "Very cheap." 很贱.
So... many things have changed in our lives and we have gone through different experiences, in a matter of 3 or 4 years. (Like, when I last chit chatted with Shunkun, I was still too shy to hold the mike and carry a tune in kala) But you see, it takes a call from an old friend to remind you, that some things never change.
I still try too hard. And do myself in, all the time.
I am still very cheap.
很贱.
I confided in him because he had an uncanny ability to see through what I was thinking. Truth be told, I later discovered it was because it didn't take very much to read me, he just told me what he observed when some other people chose to keep quiet. His call was a pleasant surprise. I remember I last chatted with him when I was cramming for my 4th semester exams in NTU. That was a long time ago.
As usual, we talked about the people we knew, and the topic somehow turned to Buddhism, as it always did. He's warp and odd and a philosopher, the few geeks I know whom I feel has some real depth, not your half plus six "I-say-I'm-a geek-because-it's-the-in-thing-to-be-a-geek-but-I-really-am-an-ah-lian" geek. (Think Xiaxue) I don't understand him most of the time 'cos I'm just not the kind of thinker that he is.
We also talked about Shanghai, which he visited 2 years ago, and the big Shanghai Bookstore along Fuzhou Road that was my favourite haunt. Suddenly he asked me, "Are you still reading as much as you used to?" For a moment, my mind went blank and I didn't know what to say. Then I tried very hard to search my memory bank for the time WHEN I was reading alot. "Erm, did I use to read alot?" I tested the waters. "Oh yes, you used to always tell me about this or that book that you were reading, don't you remember?" He sounded quite shock.
I don't. Except that my tiny collection of books tells vaguely of a passion a long time ago.
Work and exams must be getting to me. All I read these days are textbooks, law cases, contracts, competitor analyses and newspapers. The thing I want to do most, after my exams, is to gather a few girls and do a wild session of karaoke. (You know, where you croon and dance like there is no tomorrow) Reading Book 2 and Book 3 Mum and Sis got me from Taipei will come later, but they are comics anyway, so not real reading.
I don't crave for novels now, whatever dystopian shit, I don't. Not like 2 years, or even 2 months ago. No no, I haven't changed. I'm still the bouncy, chatty, gigglish and cheery me in front of everyone I don't know well enough. Also a very stressed up, insecure and tired me when I'm at home. I need sleep, I don't need dystopia.
Shunkun used to tell me, a long time ago, that I try too hard. I thought that was his way putting what the chinese commonly say, "Very cheap." 很贱.
So... many things have changed in our lives and we have gone through different experiences, in a matter of 3 or 4 years. (Like, when I last chit chatted with Shunkun, I was still too shy to hold the mike and carry a tune in kala) But you see, it takes a call from an old friend to remind you, that some things never change.
I still try too hard. And do myself in, all the time.
I am still very cheap.
很贱.
posted by kite @ 11/18/2004 11:49:00 pm
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