Two Funerals and an Opposition Ward

Today, i chanced upon two funerals on the idyllic grounds of Potong Pasir.

Basically, one was large and one was small. The former was closer to the main body of Potong Pasir, otherwise known as 'the busy area', while the latter was embedded deep within the heart of the ward, aka the void deck of the flat which i stayed in.

For the uninitiated, overly wealthy species homo sapiens who have never visited the 'heartlands' of Singapore before (foreigners/expatriates/legal aliens are forgiven), a void deck is the empty space located at the foot of a HDB flat. Think 'void'.

Okay, so maybe i didn't 'chance' upon the smaller one. It was already in existence for about a week already, though i was surprised at the sudden appearance of the second, bigger funeral. The dexterity at which funeral parlours establish their temporal constructs - steel girdles and tarpaulin, altars draped with yellow cloth, plastic tables and chairs - really amazes me. Thereafter, a usually long, occasionally teary period of mourning ensues, but then that ends as well.

This is the small funeral. The big one is much, much more colourful. With a live band. Seriously. The garlands, i couldn't count them. They were lined up like a wall, keeping my eyes out and away. We had to walk around the whole thing just to avoid looking awkward. Some big shot maybe? I hope he spent his money wisely before he died... extravagant funerals are kind of pointless after all.

When my grandpa died, i can safely say that i didn't really miss him all too much. Not that i didn't care about him or anything; death really was an escape route for him after all, what with being tube-fed, having no privacy and suffering from bed sores just because his stroke prevented him from rolling over... agony.

From my room up on the 17th floor (quite high, ya?) the wails of the suo na resounds, a dramatically modest bemoaning of the death of a human i didn't know. Before that, the monotonous chanting of monks echoes, and a bell rings, a startling chime to revive the sullen minds of the living, a reminder that they haven't joined the dead.

Yet.