The Drama of Life

The Drama of Life

My errands today brought me to places I have not visited for a long time: Old Klang Road, Jalan Gasing, Jalan University--places that I used to frequent when I was staying in PJ during my student days. Every street corner brought back memories of yesteryears.

I had spent portions working life in Damansara Jaya, Damansara Utama and Section 13 PJ before. Those were the good old days before the dot-com boom. We worked hard but we also had fun. It was those years that built the foundation for my career now.

And now that I'm back for good, I have to get used to the life here again. My friends are all older now and most are saddled with family and kids. I as usual, remain a wanderer and a vampire--observing the passing of time, swooping in and out of everybody else's lives.

As I drove past rows of suburban middleclass houses, I saw how each home is like a stage for the enactment of human dramas--each family's unique play of happiness and suffering, hope and despair, birth and death.

Sometimes I think I approach life a bit like a Kundera novel: Kundera is fond of detaching the reader momentarily from the story to launch into a philosophical discourse about the characters and the plot. In coming back here, I will not have the luxury for such detachment and analysis. Events often happen far too swiftly for that. I'll be plunged into the thick of the action; I will be embroiled in my own unique drama. May I possess the instinct to conduct myself with courage, integrity and wisdom!