Steph's Friend

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Giving Your Seat In The Bus

I was in the bus 502 going towards Orchard when I saw this family of three boarding. There was a kid (around 4 years old), his mother and his grandmother. I was standing along the railings at the side of the bus, waiting to see if anyone in the bus would give their seat up for this senior lady.

They walked along the aisle towards the back. There was an empty seat. The mother told the grandmother to sit, however, she declined and asked for the kid to sit instead which he did. In the end the mother and grandmother stood up. Interestingly, or should I say sadly, no one gave their seat to the grandmother. The commuters around seemed busy staring in space.

Anyway, there was this stop where someone alighted. The grandmother sat on it. The mother sat on the kid's seat with the kid on her lap. Before the grandmother could warm the seat, there was an old lady, more senior than her who took the bus. Surprisingly, no one gave their seat. In the end, she (the grandmother) had to give her seat up for this old lady who was more senior than her. Sad huh? The only comforting thing was that both senior ladies were of different races. The act of giving her seat was both an act that displayed civic-mindedness and racial harmony in society.

So what was I doing? I was leaning against the railing looking at this whole event. I had no seats to offer.

A few stops passed. There was this stop where someone boarded the bus. What's interesting about that person is that he looks normal except for the fact that he was wearing a denim skirt. Upon closer look, I finally realised that "he" was a "she".

From today's bus trip, I can conclude that we live in a very interesting society where people doze off automatically when a senior citizen stands beside them, ladies who look like guys yet still wear a skirt and how far Orchard is from Jurong.


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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

well, a lurker here but i always read your blog =)

anyway, over here in london, some of these senior citizens will ask the young person closest to them to give up their seats if they do not.

2:26 AM, July 24, 2006  
Blogger Jerine said...

speaking from experience...once i had to go to north bridge road to get some documents from a law firm. on the way home i had 4 files of documents to be carried home all the way back to punggol. the thing pissed me off was... this man put his bag on the seat and refused to let me sit on it. he said the bus is dirty so he couldnt possibly put his bag on the floor. i wanted to throw all the files at him.

2:19 PM, July 24, 2006  
Blogger Steph said...

Thanks boringest. It's nice to know that there are people who are interested in your blog.
Hm...I guess that won't be the case here in Singapore as I've yet to see one elderly demand for a seat.

6:02 PM, July 24, 2006  
Blogger Steph said...

Lol...true there are people who act blur and act as if you are not there.
I wonder what will happen if you had really thrown your book at him...

6:03 PM, July 24, 2006  

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