Miss Piggy, circa late 1970s.
My mother tried to abort me, not once but twice, when I was a one and a half month old foetus. There were just too many of us. I was the fifth child. Obviously, I clung on to dear life. (Maybe the herbal preparation my mom took was not "powderful" enough to get rid of me. She subsequently went for a jab at the Women's Clinic which didn't do its trick either.)
At age four, I got hit by a pickup truck at my kampong one evening. I had followed my brother across the road to the provision shop, without him knowing. On other days, I would have been too scaredy-cat to cross the road. But that night, I remembered vividly, the lights at the provision shop seemed especially inviting and bright, and it seemed to beckon me to walk over to the other side. BANG! The impact sent me flying some 20 metres across the road. Except for some bad grazes on my limbs and face, I had no other injuries. Amazing, no? But the pickup truck's bumper was badly dented, according to my mom. The poor driver, he must have been frightened out of his wits.
As the saying goes, 大难不死，必有后福. Maybe, as a friend said, good karma had ripen during both instances.
Whatever it is, it is great to have made it to this world. And while I am here, I shall make it a point to help others, to relieve others of their suffering wherever I can, and to not contribute to the suffering of others.
* * * * *
35 years ago on this very evening, a piggy was born to the household of Lee in a kampong called Lorong Halus, off old Tampines Road.
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