durians' intolerance

a friend, with her 2 sons, bought some durians from chinatown, packed them in a box, and went on board a bus to get home to the east.

while boarding, she had an embarassing encounter.

a caucasian with his family, apparently with acute sense of smell, started frowing, cursing and swearing,"what a shit smell! shit.." they did recognise that it was durians' odour, i reckoned.

they asked my friend,"is that durian that u r holding?"

she nodded feeling embarassed and not knowing where to bury her ostrich's head.

throughout, the caucasian and her family members kept turning their heads behind to her seat, and continuing to stare and curse about the smell. she apologised to them about the 'pungent' smell and was almost too stunned and afraid to say anything else.

well, she asked what i would have done?

to me, is it a law that durians are not allowed on the bus? i hv long forgotten about bus rules coz' i hardly go on this public transport.

she said,"yes, there's a signboard that prohibits durian on the bus. but, the sign doesn't mention that packing them in boxes isnt allowed too!"

well, her case brought me to the recent curry incident between a china family (plaintiff) and the local indian family (charged). indeed, tolerance limit for another person's culture is declining, but surely this is the first time that i heard a foreign immigrant griping about our indian culture food. i totally think that the china family must learn to live with our indian curry smell....or they can always close their doors or windows. but, what right have the chinese mainlanders to stop our indian fellow citizens from cooking their staple curry food.? 哎哟，天理何在？

on the same basis, i recalled a friend telling me that while she was living in australia, the asians who fried the garlic would receive complaints from the australian neighbours complaining about the smell....to the extent of involving a police case. can u even beat that?

so, what's the conclusion?

durian smell is heavenly to some, but pungent to another. so, it's better not to bring on board the public transport. especially nowadays, we have all kinds of weird nationalities in singapore, who are expressive, loud and bold (??)

tolerance level is becoming lower, so why get yourself into problem if u knw that we are no longer living in kampong village, where all neighbours love one another and 和睦相处！ 我还真怀念童年的日子，邻居都相亲相爱，从不为小事而闹别扭！