RIP

I just finished reading a book and my student spoiled my mood by sms-ing to complain about the amount of homework I gave him. .... He had ample time to do them, I bet he was playing the rest of Friday, dunno what he did today, and Monday is the very last paper of PSLE. Excuse me, you want to finish the work next year issit?

Anyway. I just finished reading The Five People You Meet In Heaven, by Mitch Albom. My student wanted to read the book after we did a close passage and I mentioned I know the book the passage was from. The passage was about a boy being abused, emotionally and physically, by his father. Apparently my student is as sadistic as ahem, wb. Ha.. This student is the other P6 girl. I keep telling her she wouldn't understand the book but she insists on reading it. The book isn't what she thinks it is, I'm guessing. I puke blood trying to explain to her what "metaphorical meaning" is, so I really don't know if she'll appreciate the book. Anyway the book isn't really that deep. The cynic in me wonders if there're so many coincidences in reality. But the coincidences weren't known to the people involved so maybe we don't realise there are that many coincidences around us. So at least she wants to read something. Kept telling her to read more because her English is really bad and erm, just not very bright. Reading smartens right? I'm going to dump a bunch of books at her place for her to read before we continue tuition next month...


Days ago, sorting through newspaper articles at work, I read about this little girl who altered her PSLE score of 152 to 252 to lie to her parents in 2001. (Or 2000.) When the posting came and she was put in Normal stream, her father called the school to ask how come she was put there and in the meantime, she jumped out of the window... Apparently she was very happy and not at all upset after she brought the results home. She must be really innocent to not think about it.. The creepy thing is that the father said, when the girl was younger, she used to cry a lot and the medium they consulted had told them that she would stop crying at 12. It was a month from her 13th birthday.

It reminded me of my primary school friend whose sister fell when climbing on their window grille and eventually passed away after being in coma for days. After that my friend told us that her mother had their fortunes told long time ago and the fortune-teller told the mum that the sister had a red dot on her head and was a goddess or something reincarnated and would return to heaven at a very young age. I think she was 6 or 5 at that time only.

And then there was my schoolmate who committed suicide after PSLE. It had nothing to do with PSLE I think, cos the results were not out yet. It was said to be because she played bi xian with some other girls. That's why there were 3 holes on her neck. Erm, we were only 12 so information not very accurate ba. My friend lived near the place where she jumped and she said the mother was wailing and crying very late into the night and the body was in a very awkward position. After that somebody said friend's mother's friend's neighbour or something or the other, said she saw somebody helping the girl jump. ... But her classmates said she had been contemplating suicide for a while. She burnt her autograph book weeks before she jumped. The day she jumped, my friend, her classmate was with her. The girl drank detergent to kill herself and my friend drank with her as well. Obviously they didn't die from it and then my friend just went home. The girl then went to a random flat, threw her bag down and jumped. That friend ah... (Wb, she's e one with the crush I told you about on your blog.)

Reading the book, I wondered if she'd thought about who would be thinking of her after her death. If she'd think that it would be me thinking of her 11 years later. She obviously didn't think of her family when she jumped. The family requested that the newspaper not run the story because they didn't want her grandmother, who doted on her, to find out. They lied to her that she went overseas to study. I wonder how they let her know eventually.