Left - Right - Left (Feb26)

Just a thought. Cheeky, naughty; trifle indecorous. An after-thought in fact.

         People here eating with their fingers of course. Indians, Malays the same. Takes a while to become accustomed; even 28 months insufficient. Sometimes the odd Chinese patron will ask for cutlery—no sticks at a place like this. Right hand in play. It is the hand collecting the rice & sops with the chapatti. The left might be used to help break up the chapatti; otherwise all the real work done exclusively right-side. As one would expect the world over: the domination of the right. My right hand, &etc... Which means the left exclusively for the other business. You do not use the right for that. Therefore the hose in the cubicles on the right. You could not hold them in your left hand if you tried. Some months ago in some particular context Omar had made the point of the specifically assigned hand. Not caught properly at the time; perfectly clear now in an eatery. Perfectly clear. Malays are wary of being caught out in a Chinese place. What if there was no hose? Paper. Parents in Malaysia & India would have been worse than the old schoolmasters with their rulers of a couple generations ago correcting Lefties.
         Komala Vilas Restaurant Buffalo Street off Serangoon Road, opposite Tekka Market; adjacent Kerbau Road (Bahasa for buffalo). One needed to squeeze the eyes tight to evoke the stockmen driving their herds there. Komala Vilas founded by an old Tamil in the late40s, naming the place after his "first daughter", as the chief waiter informed this afternoon. Marvelous largely untouched locale. And the backpackers mostly keep round in Dunlop Street, where all the Tapas bars, &etc. entice. No need fear.