Lifelong

 

On his old laptop among the kids at the table, well into his 50s. Doing his darnedest, it did appear. The occasional glances gave a little hints of the struggle, the posture as much as anything. It was wrong, the angle athwart the table, sitting a little far out, the line of shoulders. 

Once or twice the poor bugger had his head in his hands, or covering his face briefly.  It took a little while to put it all together and the proper picture did not really emerge until a pass was made behind going to the loo. 

One girl was working mathematical questions, the boy immediately beside some undefined. At that first pass there was no particular focus on the man alone. Sometimes passing by the screens could not be read with the angles & fonts. Here the heading was perfectly clear.

Learning Activity

Connect with a buyer’s personality

Home time 25mins later stuck on the same page.

That was mid-week at the National Library. On the Friday completely outta the blue, a young chap at one of the Wadi tables in fact was altogether wrong. Long wavy locks down onto the top of his shoulders, fashionable kinda black athletic gear, sandals. White. Not Russian or other Slav by the accent. None of the usual accoutrements otherwise—watch, rings, &etc. 

The request for cover reveal was taken in good part. Orangey-red; women’s volume seemed wrong.

On my lord! No one would believe.

Dale. Well-thumbed Dale C.

‘Twas the same. The headliner.

Garbled mumbo, but the lad got the drift. Not put out.

Flicking the pages, said he was more than half through.

A lad open to any word that might be given. It was impossible. Possibly some of the little contradiction provided something.

It had been years. Where was Dale being picked up now by the 3rd gen? On the Western front? Difficult to fathom. The resurgent techno-managerials? 

That same Friday morning, taken at Mr T T at the Pasar and Wadi en route on the return, a newspaper column had tickled. Or rather, the author’s tag at the end of the piece had done.

A doctoral candidate at a Paris biz school was defending young graduates in the workforce who sought a better work/life balance. Crits had the young all wrong; looking upon the new gen. as entitled or unambitious was a blinkered response.

The substance of the column aside, what did pique here were the last lines of the article, the very last lines of the Author tag.

The author’s credentials here included a prize at the Sing Book Awards , two years ago, – 2024. The category in which the author had taken the laurels, for a book presumably, was Best Professional Title. In this case Leaders People Love (sic. Not topping the charts everywhere).

Goo-ing immediately confirmed. Penguin Random House – SEA.

Readers can re-confirm.

The author pic holding the volume face-out, a match. Perfection.

It would have a place on one of the Highlights shelves at Kinokuniya, on Orchard Road.

Spoofs and satire were hard at present and contributing by some other means was proving exceedingly challenging. The rejection slips never slipped. Years ago an author was quoted as defiantly pasting the walls of his study with the same.

Oh! The note in the journal now reminded…

That same Friday of the same week, in the life section it must have been — the Leaders ❤️ must have been Opinion — a law prof at the flagship U here was showing off his collection of designer jackets. A clothes rack behind held 4-5, a manikin stand another, and the prof himself in a patterned B&W seated, hands on knees like the cat who got the cheese.

Truth. Simple reality. Living, ubiquitous examples. (To call it abundant was underestimation.)  

 

Singapore 2011-26