going on a road to singapore walk after a long time. as usual discovered many things.…
Browsing Tag
ww2
the house was beautiful. through the trees and the railings, beyond the shrubs and plants in the garden, i could see intricate white plaster work on grey. pillars, walls, portico… i couldn’t get a look at the entire house, but whatever was visible had such an air of a gracious time. it was so very pretty. i’d never seen something like it, the white work was fine and intricate, elegant on the grey background. looked like someone took great care…
have you ever stood at a beautiful spot, bright, calm, and scenic, feathery clouds drifting in a clear blue sky, waters rippling by, the green of the grass pure and lush, and then felt it all go absolutely eerie? can’t say exactly at what point it hit me, but as i looked at the lone man fishing out there, and my eyes followed the even waters of the johor straits all the way to malaysia on the other side, as…
a feeling i guess doesn’t lie. nor does grass gently rolling down the slope; nor do flowers by silent stones, nor stones standing in rows, saying things that i hope i heard. there was a watchfulness about the sky… as if it wanted to know something. for some reason, i wanted to go to the war cemetery at kranji around remembrance day this year. i say for some reason because i’ve never been too aware of the second world war…
there was a desolate air to it and yet, a grandeur. i looked at the squat structure and wondered what it could be, the lines were curved, reminded me of an art deco settee at my grandparents’ home. my conscious mind had no idea what it might be, but a part of me knew it was something to do with guns. aj was excited. he ran toward it, that odd thing sitting in the middle of manicured parks and kids…
“i thought it was a fight against insanity if you could really keep your mind occupied by having some form of intellectual activity. you weren’t sure what the long-term effect of imprisonment or malnutrition and disease would be. but at least i knew if i was going to survive, i was going to survive as a person, not as a vegetable.” ~~~ stanley warren, british pow ~~~ he was a prisoner of war, extremely sick, an inmate of changi prison…