where thoughts materialise.

So we're into the sixth version of my blog after the last version hung around for a year or so.

Now, a bit of info on this image. This photo was taken one lovely spring afternoon, featuring the iconic Old Well from the UNC Chapel Hill campus. I would like to think of this image as a tribute to my time in UNC Chapel Hill, the awesome friends I made and the memories I now hold dear.

A milestone in my life indeed.

I've dropped the tagboard cos its useless and taking eons to load. But thanks to Angela who helped me set it up, I still do like and will miss the pink interface.

So yeah, it's the sixth one you fellas!

Yours.

27 April 2008

you know you miss my older entries

October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

We celebrated Ah Nae's birthday only once in her life. She never told us her birthday and not a single person in the family knew when it was.

I remember how she used to tell me that she would wake up early at dawn on her birthday, make a simple red hard boiled egg, pray to the gods, and spend a quiet birthday with only herself.

It was not until a trip to Beijing in 2001 when this perennial mystery was solved (for only myself at least). I noticed how she was beaming and exceptionally glad on the trip and asked her why. She refused to budge but eventually told me "I'm glad cos I spent my birthday with the emperor!," which baffled me at first but later realised we visited the Forbidden City on her birthday. What humour, but that sentence still remains one of the most vivid lines etched in my memory. And she made me promise that I told no one about it.

No one knew why she refused to let us know. I can only guess that she didn't want us to celebrate her birthday cos she felt it rather mafan and she would rather spend time, effort and money on us than the other way round.

So for the next 3 years up till 2004, Ah Nae's birthday was quietly celebrated by one more person - me. I would each year, buy her flowers - the simple pleasures which delighted her tremedously. I would try not to make it obvious but the happiness she felt was palpable - how the most incomplex things in life, if sincerely given, were things she treasured the most.

2005 was the year Ah Nae was diagnosed with cancer. When the tumour miraculously retarded growth mid that year, I decided that the whole family should celebrate her birthday proper. She deserved every bit of it, really. That year, I bought her the bestest flowers ever. She did not then, knew I had told everyone her birth date. We brought her out for dinner, which she thought totally normal, and when we came home we surprised her bringing a birthday cake out.

I was apprehensive cos I didn't want to upset her, since she wanted her birthday to be a secret and I was entrusted with that promise.

But I saw, as everyone else saw, happiness upon her face like never before. She was thoroughly moved, like a dream fulfilled.

It was the first, and the last time we celebrated her birthday. But the bliss we witnessed in her eyes, though in a single moment that was to be the only moment we ever knew, made it all worthwhile.

Image(431)

nimgnoy let the night fall at 7:10 PM

1 comments

1 Comments:

At 6:25 PM, Anonymous said...: u r like the SWEETEST grandson i noe. love u bist fren!!! enjoy ur trip!!! hugs!