He smiled at me.
Put his plate down and shared my table.
A simple meal, of rice, a piece of fish and curried vegetables.
Using his hands, he expertly mixed up the curry gravy that covered his rice and slowly picked at the vegetables.
Leaning his head on one hand, picking up the vegetables and rice with the other.
He looked lost. His mind far far away from the meal that sat before him.
I tried to imagine what he was thinking about. His family maybe? A loved one? Home?
Halfway through his meal, he started humming. A tune that perhaps reminded him of home. A tune that perhaps reminded him of a loved one. Whatever tune it was, it helped to put a small smile on his face.
As quickly as the smile appeared, it disappeared. Probably from the reality that sat before him. He was here. In Singapore. Alone. Working to send money back home so that his family could have a slightly better life.
He probably works hard under the sun. Mending our roads, carrying bricks, moving sand, cleaning toilets, pruning the trees that make our lion city green.
People look down on them. People shun them. They pinch their noses when they walk past them.
Little do they know that these people are doing jobs that we wouldn’t even think twice about doing. They make our city beautiful. A city that we are proud of.
They are our unsung heroes.
I gave him a smile before I left the table. He was shocked. He was surprised. He probably didn’t expect it. But he smiled back. I wanted to thank him. But I didn’t. The smile was enough for him.
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