A quantitative measurement

( ancient time )

Shakespeare : Shall I compare thee to the summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate...

Robert Burns : My love is like a red, red rose.. That’s newly sprung in June..

My love is like the melody... That's sweetly played in tune...

( modern time )

Mr X : What the crap are you referring to?

Comparing one's love to a blooming rose would only be deemed romantic if you're a gallant knight in shining armor... In modern situation, this is NO longer applicable! It will only result in the most unladylike scorn ( if you are lucky ) or poof…. There she goes, to someone who lavishes her with one diamond ring, two pairs of Gucci and Jimmy Choo to adorn her legs, three pairs of Armani, Donna Karan and Zang Toi's suits, the list goes on....

Life is... a quantitative measurement, after all. It started from the day we were born to the very day we bid farewell to the world. It has always been a competition; the number of siblings you have, the number of As in your report card, the number of goals you score, the number of medals you collect on Sports Day, the number of ikan laga after a day out at the nearby paddy fields, the Piggie Bank money; a harmless, childish obsession - or so you thought.

You grew up and found that the whole thing did not stop there. More rat race! People no longer look for what used-to-be essential qualities such as compassion, thoughtfulness, tolerance, dignity in even the simplest basic task; instead, they quantify these qualities into number forms. If one is educated, how many degrees does he possess? Is he a Masters or even better, PhD holder? ( Be warned that first degrees are insufficient nowadays! Merely a Diploma holder is a major turn off. ) So, he is not that educated, but how many cars/ houses/ estates/ factories / acres of lands does he own? ( They seem oblivious to the fact that one who owns all those material possessions, often comes with excess baggage - kids!!!)

Anyway, so Kassim Selamat fails to impress his Ibu Mertuaku as he has neither the education nor the material wealth; that leaves him with one more option; he could learn a trick or two from Mundo Magic or that Fuiyoo-Magic guy who can turn the makcik's RM5 into RM50! Failure to do so will result in him being the object of ridicule among Sabariah's family - in particular that well-off and educated Dr Ismadi...

Reality bites, and today, just as I thought that everyone is created equal, I found that some are more equal than others. Is the moral of the story derived from The Animal Farm? ( All animals are created equal but some are more equal than others… Hence, majority of the animals try to walk, talk and act like human beings – on their two legs. ) Funny, someone once asked me to find someone from 'my own class', today I discovered that even if you are with 'your own class', that one piece of paper ( or is it two? ) still reigns. Qualities only governed in the ancient era.

Enough said. I surrender. I'm going to retreat to some dark corners and sing that Super califragilistic expialidocious while sweeping the chimney and what ever trash left by the others... After all, nobody wants to do the dirty work...

Super califragilistic expialidocious... Even though the sound of it is sometimes quite atrocious...If you sing loud enough you’ll always sound precocious...Super califragilistic expialidocious

( So, how many nursery rhymes do you know of? )