Sad Sight At Air Panas Market

In blissful slumber, well-sheltered from the harsh reality of life, even for a moment!

This is one sight which will make you wonder if you are of the same human race and are living in the same planet.

This trio was spotted blissfully in slumberland, with nary a care in the world, and totally shut off from the cacophony of the Air Panas market at 7:45am on a Sunday morning.

The central adult figure must be the father - or guardian - and the two youngsters were probably his charges, sons perhaps. One of them has a bandaged upper palm, not unlike that left by the intrusion of a needle (perhaps an intravenous drip or a diagnostic probe) made recently. A sick kid just recovering? Who knows?

Who are they is as good your guess as it is mine. What are they doing sleeping on the sidewalk of the busy market is a million dollar question that begs answering aloud although you and I know it already.

That they are begging for sympathy (perhaps having found none where they came from) at the open market is a possibility - this assumption awaiting confirmation by the presence of the pink red bin by their side.



Life must have been hard, especially so for the deprived and the handicapped. This picture does not need a thousand-word intro to tell a sad tale. And who is to question why the parents choose to bring their children (not one but two!) into this world, this way?

Perhaps procreation is one of the means this stranger (and his mate?) has hoped for to bring him out of the quagmire he has fallen into or even born with. It is not far-fetched, you know. Afterall how many of us place our dreams and pin our hopes on our children to take us out of our own little ghettoes?

Luckily for the trio (although they seem oblivious to it yet but will soon realise when they wake up from their slumber), they have been successful in their quest for sympathy.

Many kind hearts among morning shoppers at the market have been dropping ringgit upon ringgit into the plastic bin since early morning so much so that one is amazed by the outpouring of human generosity. Whether or not a parted dollar is to make up for not having done enough good previously or purely an automatic response to human suffering, only the giver know.

But certainly this is one sight one would not expect to see staring back at one's face on a busy Sunday in a nation as prosperous as Malaysia.

I will certainly hope - nay, pray - that our politicians will take a walk in the streets of their constituencies one of these Sundays and look at the reality of life for what they are. Maybe then they will stop bickering and start working together for a nation where sights like this will be but a page from a forgotten past...



Bless this man for he has a kind heart and for sharing what little he has.