Meet Up with Uncle Saeed and Uncle Majid
As part of ActiveSG’s 10 year anniversary, you can enter their gym or pool for free on the 10th of the month. And that was how I spent my morning yesterday, working out at the gym for the first time in years.
By mid-morning, I have worked out quite an appetite. Uncle Saeed was having lunch at Dunlop Street and I thought I’d join him. I made the short walk from Little India MRT to Al-Haleem. By the time I reached, Uncle Saeed’s thosai had arrived. I opted for a some chapati. The stall ran out of chana masala so the waiter offered me dhal instead.
It’s been a while since I met Uncle Saeed, and even longer since I met Uncle Majid. It could very well be that the last time the three of us met was more than two years ago. (I wrote about it on this blog, fortunately.)
Uncle Saeed filled me in on an event he attended over the weekend, organised by Mr. Shamser Zaman, the Vice Chairman of Singapore Business Federation South Asia Group and also Singapore’s non-resident Ambassador to Jordan. A delegation of doctors from Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in Lahore gave a presentation which was well-received.
After lunch, we adjourned to Masjid Abdul Gafoor for Zuhur, and after prayers we made the short walk to RW Selmor to have tea and samosa with Uncle Majid. Knowing that I enjoyed the samosa there, Uncle Majid ordered two for me. They came with green mint chutney and a sweet brown sauce, which the internet informs me is tamarind chutney.
We were there for close to two hours. Uncle Majid asked about my family, and also about Haji Saab, who he has not met for a while. Over the course of samosas and cups of chai, we talked about people we knew, and about people from the past, and those who have passed on. And about people who got rich by swindling others of their money.
I thought it was somewhat serendipitous (given my recent post on Bidadari Cemetery) when Uncle Majid mentioned that Bidadari Mosque was popular among Pakistanis, who would go there for their Friday prayers and then visit the graves of deceased family members buried in the nearby Muslim cemetery. This nugget of information came about somewhat unexpectedly. Uncle Majid was talking about how someone within the community cheated money out of others, and the disgruntled parties came together to place a notice in Bidadari Mosque that the said person had cheated them of their money, and for him to pay them back.
I also shared with Uncle Saeed and Uncle Majid that I will be starting on a new career path soon, to which the latter, always one to impart philosophical pearls of wisdom, said, “When you have earned yourself through hard work, people will respect you.” I sure hope so.
