Support The Underdogs!

While traversing under the long Raffles underground tunnel on my way to work for the past few days, I always see this man standing astride conspicuously in the middle of one of the many paths there. He boomed out loudly and somewhat inaudibly "Ba De Boa" *I dun know what* every other seconds and handed out squarish slips of paper with simple prints that read "Work From Home". You couldn't miss him unless you are deaf or walk with your head down all the time.

It is just very direct advertising, a common scenario and nothing out of sorts I must say. Just that this scene led me to this one time Mr. Gecko and I, during our church mice days in campus, took on one similar "handing-out-phamplets" job that came with an embarassingly huge signage covering our torsos and we had to walk around hippy-hip Raffles City. We had nothing to do and it was school holidays anyway. Thank goodness it was only for a day. We bore it all well and took comfort by flashing grins encouragingy to each other. Still, our egos took a beating especially when passer-bys blatantly ignored our presence and when we spotted amusing grins directed at us. After that stint, we swore no such jobs for us in the future even if we had to eat grass! :) From then on, I make it a point to take handed out phamplets even if I am in a rush.

I realised naively then that there is no such thing as a simple job. Simple, lowly paid and alternative job stints do come with social stigma. Coming back to the underground man, I had total admiration for him. You need an elephant hide to accomplish this job even for a day. No matter how the masses snubbed, this man continued his mission with an unwavering charge-ahead attitude. I do not know why but this is very aspirational to me.

Maybe I love supporting the underdogs. I make it a point to buy food from the hawker stall with no queue, I forge friendships with the unpopular girls, I buy otah from the man with a mobile, makeshift charcoal pit, I buy sweepstakes only from the blind or handicapped man outside the mall, I buy prawncrackers from the man who hawks from office to office. Maybe my actions are bourne out of a mixture of both support and pity. But won't you feel nice too if someone takes notice of your works or at least acknowledge that you are trying hard? However small my efforts, I hope my actions create chances for others to take similar steps for the society underdogs. My way to give back to the society, at the same time, note my life's little blessings.