My mother grew up in a kampong in a family of eight. She had an elder brother, an elder sister, two younger brothers and a younger sister. Her father died young due to illness, shortly after her youngest sister was born.
Since young, my mother had always been the "big" sister of the family, caring for the rest of her siblings. Her elder brother and sister often helped their mother, peddling food on the local street. She was the obedient one who was often tasked to look after the rest of her siblings. At a young age of ten, she already knew how to cook meals for her siblings while her mother went out to work. Despite having to do chores and look after her siblings, my mother excelled in her studies as well, often topping her class. (I really wonder how she managed to find time with her homework and revision)
However, being born into a traditional family did not help. My mother did not have the chance to complete her PSLE as she was soon forced to give up her studies when she was in Primary 6. My grandmother thought that males should study more in order to have a better future. Females on the other hand, should not study so much, since they would be married off sometime soon. In addition, my mother's elder brother and sister had found work with some companies and my mother was to help my grandmother with her peddling.
My mother helped my grandmother for a few years before she found work as a production worker in a factory. She would give her entire paycheck to my grandmother who in return would give her pocket money sufficient for her meals only. No extra money for entertainment and such. And this went on until my mother eventually got married.
On the other hand, my uncles who were schooling, got much more pocket money than my mother. And they had the luxury of buying titbits and toys for themselves.
Despite the stark differences in treatment, my mother remained fillial to my grandmother, taking care of her needs even after she got married. On the contrary, none of my uncles visited my grandmother regularly eventually.
Next Chapter: My Childhood
Tags: Story of a Singaporean Son, Chapter 3, My Mother
Thursday 23 April 2015
Friday 13 February 2015
Chapter 2: My Father
My father was born and bred in Singapore with both parents from hailing from China. Like me, he is also a Singaporean Son. He served his national service and completed his Nsmen liability. If I remembered correctly, he was one of the pioneer batches of Singaporeans who served the early version of National Service.
He was the 4th son in the family with 3 elder brothers, 2 elder sisters and 4 younger brothers. Big family isn't it? But this was very common in the olden days especially post-war when infant mortality was high.
My father was very lucky to be given the chance to be English educated as he was deemed to the one of the smarter children my grandparents had. However, he blew the chance away because he was playful and mischievous. All he wanted to do all day long was fishing, catching fishes and spiders and playing with marbles. Hence, he dropped out halfway in Secondary School without obtaining his O levels certificate.
Armed with spoken and written English and Chinese, he could find desk-bound jobs fairly easy because not many people were English educated at that time. During that time in the 1970s, import and export was at its peak. Hence, my father landed himself a job in a logistic company, dealing with imports and exports from the other end of the world. This led my father to think that learning a skill was not important at all. After all, he had a job!
When the economy continued to boom, more and more people are getting better education and most importantly, education in English medium. There were more graduates with diplomas and degrees and soon, my father found himself competing with graduates who had better and more impressive resumes. He could not find another better paying job with his sub-par resume and was stuck in his job for the longest time.
Though he lacked certificates, my father managed to rise through the ranks and was soon made the Assistant General Manager of the company. The General Manager was the boss himself, and he was succeeded by his son in the early 90s before he went into retirement. Impressive his designation may sound, my father was still drawing salary that was lower than the national median income. While our family stayed in a rented 2 room flat till I was 5 years old, his boss's family stayed in a bungalow with a small swimming pool and garden. Capitalism at work.
Despite being paid pittance, my father was a loyal man. During his stint in the now defunct company, he had many opportunities to jump ship because in the small industry then, all the other bosses knew my father's capabilities very well. They were particularly impressed by his foresight and business acumen which was crucial in the industry. My father would always come home and discuss these opportunities with my mother during dinner and asked for her opinion. As you can imagine, my mother had always encouraged him to take up the offer and switch company. I recalled vividly when I was about 5 years old, one boss had even wanted to rope my father in as a partner without having to contribute any money and we were all so excited and started talking about buying flat in the near future and finally having our own home etc. I even said I wanted to go Disneyland. However, little did we know, even before my father came home to discuss these opportunities with her, he had in fact already made up his mind and rejected all the offers despite being offered higher salaries and better career prospects. My father was that loyal to his boss and company. In fact, he stayed on with the same small logistics company for more than 20 years before the company went bust during the Asian Financial crisis in the 90s.
Many businesses folded and many people became jobless overnight too.
My father's old boss came into the office one day and gathered all the staff. He then handed out cheques that was the last salary to each and everyone of them. Then he annouced that he will be closing the business due to the poor economy. Everyone was shocked. None had expect the company to close down just lke that. The boss then gave my father a pat on the back and thanked him for his hardwork and contributions for the past 20-odd years. And that was all.
No severance pay.
No gratuity.
That was it.
My father was dejected and lost.
Some of the smaller players in the industry knew my dad's plight and offered him a job. However, he had to suffer a pay cut to settle with a $1500 salary, 25% lesser than what he used to draw. This was in the late 1990's and beggars cannot be choosers. My father continued to work in the industry till today (2015), in his 2nd company of his life, earning $2800 today with a designation of Operations Manager.
P.S. The 1st old boss and his family continues to live in the big bungalow with swimming pool and garden till this day.
Next Chapter: My Mother
Tags: Story of a Singaporean Son, Chapter 2, My Father
He was the 4th son in the family with 3 elder brothers, 2 elder sisters and 4 younger brothers. Big family isn't it? But this was very common in the olden days especially post-war when infant mortality was high.
My father was very lucky to be given the chance to be English educated as he was deemed to the one of the smarter children my grandparents had. However, he blew the chance away because he was playful and mischievous. All he wanted to do all day long was fishing, catching fishes and spiders and playing with marbles. Hence, he dropped out halfway in Secondary School without obtaining his O levels certificate.
Armed with spoken and written English and Chinese, he could find desk-bound jobs fairly easy because not many people were English educated at that time. During that time in the 1970s, import and export was at its peak. Hence, my father landed himself a job in a logistic company, dealing with imports and exports from the other end of the world. This led my father to think that learning a skill was not important at all. After all, he had a job!
When the economy continued to boom, more and more people are getting better education and most importantly, education in English medium. There were more graduates with diplomas and degrees and soon, my father found himself competing with graduates who had better and more impressive resumes. He could not find another better paying job with his sub-par resume and was stuck in his job for the longest time.
Though he lacked certificates, my father managed to rise through the ranks and was soon made the Assistant General Manager of the company. The General Manager was the boss himself, and he was succeeded by his son in the early 90s before he went into retirement. Impressive his designation may sound, my father was still drawing salary that was lower than the national median income. While our family stayed in a rented 2 room flat till I was 5 years old, his boss's family stayed in a bungalow with a small swimming pool and garden. Capitalism at work.
Despite being paid pittance, my father was a loyal man. During his stint in the now defunct company, he had many opportunities to jump ship because in the small industry then, all the other bosses knew my father's capabilities very well. They were particularly impressed by his foresight and business acumen which was crucial in the industry. My father would always come home and discuss these opportunities with my mother during dinner and asked for her opinion. As you can imagine, my mother had always encouraged him to take up the offer and switch company. I recalled vividly when I was about 5 years old, one boss had even wanted to rope my father in as a partner without having to contribute any money and we were all so excited and started talking about buying flat in the near future and finally having our own home etc. I even said I wanted to go Disneyland. However, little did we know, even before my father came home to discuss these opportunities with her, he had in fact already made up his mind and rejected all the offers despite being offered higher salaries and better career prospects. My father was that loyal to his boss and company. In fact, he stayed on with the same small logistics company for more than 20 years before the company went bust during the Asian Financial crisis in the 90s.
Many businesses folded and many people became jobless overnight too.
My father's old boss came into the office one day and gathered all the staff. He then handed out cheques that was the last salary to each and everyone of them. Then he annouced that he will be closing the business due to the poor economy. Everyone was shocked. None had expect the company to close down just lke that. The boss then gave my father a pat on the back and thanked him for his hardwork and contributions for the past 20-odd years. And that was all.
No severance pay.
No gratuity.
That was it.
My father was dejected and lost.
Some of the smaller players in the industry knew my dad's plight and offered him a job. However, he had to suffer a pay cut to settle with a $1500 salary, 25% lesser than what he used to draw. This was in the late 1990's and beggars cannot be choosers. My father continued to work in the industry till today (2015), in his 2nd company of his life, earning $2800 today with a designation of Operations Manager.
P.S. The 1st old boss and his family continues to live in the big bungalow with swimming pool and garden till this day.
Next Chapter: My Mother
Tags: Story of a Singaporean Son, Chapter 2, My Father
Wednesday 11 February 2015
Chapter 1: Birth
It was still dark outside when my mother felt contractions. She knew that I was coming out soon with prior experience but she was still caught off-guard as it was still 3 weeks from the estimated date of delivery. She quickly woke my father up as the pain was getting unbearable.
My father was still in a daze but he managed to send my elder sister next door to my neighbour. Then he called my uncle who was a taxi driver to send us to the now defunct Toa Payoh Hospital.
As told by my mother, I was a rather big baby at almost 4kg and because of my sheer size, my mother had to undergo Caesarean section to deliver me. In the 70s, no one except the gynaecologist/nurses/mid-wives was allow in the operating theatre. Hence, my father waited anxiously outside the operating theatre while I took my time to come out.
It was about 10am when I was born and my mother told me that it was a sunny Monday. So I finally arrived on Earth in the late 1970s on a Monday at around 10am.
I was born into a low income family of four: father, mother, elder sister and I.
My father was the sole bread winner of the family and he was earning about S$180.00 monthly at that time. That was lower than median of S$286.00 at that time. With only Secondary 2 education under his belt, all he could do was menial administrative job. However, my father was a hardworking man. He would do laborious odd-jobs from time to time to supplement his income.
My mother was a simple and conscientious lady who only completed her primary school education. After she gave birth to my sister 5 years ago, she became a full time housewife to care for my sister. Prior to that, she was working at a factory as production worker, earning about S$150.00 a month. Before my mother was married to my father, she had to give her entire salary to my maternal grandmother who would then give her $50 monthly as allowance.
My sister was in kindergarten when I came to this world.
Next Chapter: My father
Tags: Story of a Singaporean son, Chapter 1, Birth
My father was still in a daze but he managed to send my elder sister next door to my neighbour. Then he called my uncle who was a taxi driver to send us to the now defunct Toa Payoh Hospital.
As told by my mother, I was a rather big baby at almost 4kg and because of my sheer size, my mother had to undergo Caesarean section to deliver me. In the 70s, no one except the gynaecologist/nurses/mid-wives was allow in the operating theatre. Hence, my father waited anxiously outside the operating theatre while I took my time to come out.
It was about 10am when I was born and my mother told me that it was a sunny Monday. So I finally arrived on Earth in the late 1970s on a Monday at around 10am.
I was born into a low income family of four: father, mother, elder sister and I.
My father was the sole bread winner of the family and he was earning about S$180.00 monthly at that time. That was lower than median of S$286.00 at that time. With only Secondary 2 education under his belt, all he could do was menial administrative job. However, my father was a hardworking man. He would do laborious odd-jobs from time to time to supplement his income.
My mother was a simple and conscientious lady who only completed her primary school education. After she gave birth to my sister 5 years ago, she became a full time housewife to care for my sister. Prior to that, she was working at a factory as production worker, earning about S$150.00 a month. Before my mother was married to my father, she had to give her entire salary to my maternal grandmother who would then give her $50 monthly as allowance.
My sister was in kindergarten when I came to this world.
Next Chapter: My father
Tags: Story of a Singaporean son, Chapter 1, Birth
Introduction
Somehow, I decided to write a true story about my life. Nope, I am not down with any terminal disease or illness. I also did not encounter any major set-back that prompted me to do this.
I just want to write about my life story, while I can still remember the details. A true life story of a Singaporean Son who was born and bred in Singapore.
I will try to make my life story interesting but I assure you 99.9% of what will be written are true encounters and happenings.
Stay tuned for the boring story.
Tags: Story of a Singaporean son, Introduction
I just want to write about my life story, while I can still remember the details. A true life story of a Singaporean Son who was born and bred in Singapore.
I will try to make my life story interesting but I assure you 99.9% of what will be written are true encounters and happenings.
Stay tuned for the boring story.
Tags: Story of a Singaporean son, Introduction
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