When Astella and I were kibbitzing recently about cellphone ringtones, I was aghast to discover that while she had her Star-Spangled Banner, there were websites offering Singapore's own Majulah Singapura. In fact, they even had different versions of ye olde Majulah, including a jaunty "country" one.
None of that prepared me for the outburst tonight, when the tinny and unmistakable notes of the Majulah struck up on the train on the way home from work. I had to simultaneously swallow a chortle and try to identify who belonged to that valiant ringtone. The answer: a tall, lanky Chinese boy, twenty or so years young, hair cropped close (but not in a cool way), nondescript T-shirt and jeans, snaking his way across the carriage. The really funny thing was that no one else on the train reacted. Is the Majulah a well-established marker on the local cellphone landscape? Did I miss the moment when national anthems became the ringtone of choice?
2 Comments:
Waaahhh!!!!! You are LUCKY!!!!! How come you didn't immediately go and make friends with him??? Cheh!
Also, if we had both been sitting on the train together, die, die, there would have been no chortles simply swallowed. And then while we were falling about laughing, he may have come up to us and said, "Why? Funny meh? Laugh for what?" and, oh, it's just too much. :-D
Are kids in Singapore still getting into gang fights over staring incidents? Or am I just reminiscing on those good ol' glue-sniffing days of the Eighties?
Yes, there are still staring incidents. They're just not in the news anymore because it's not news if they happen, y'know, all the time.
If it'd been you and me? We could've taken him, no problem. :)
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