So here I was, browsing the net on my comp; when suddenly the screen went blank. Arghh! Hypotension leading to shock. Not to boast or anything, but since I got my comp; this would be the first time ever that it crashed. They say that:
‘only in a time of crisis that a man’s character is reflected’.
Such an ancient maxim! I think in the modern world, what this would translate into is:
‘only when one’s computer crashes will one’s character be reflected’.
I am not kidding with you. Haha!! I mean, it depends from person to person. Some might worry about that extra dough they have to spend getting it fixed, or how inconvenience it is, or the time lost fixing it.
For me, it was a nerve-racking two and a half minutes agonizing over …over… my pictures. The moment the screen went deathly black, my immediate thoughts were how utterly stupid I was for not making back-ups of my pictures.
Pictures are incredibly precious to me. It is a way to re-capture past moments, to reflect on what I have done, the impact my journey on life that has made me who I am now. When I look at a picture, I look past those artificial smiles, those synthetic pose, those forged humanity. I see, ladies and gentlemen; a chapter. I see the beginning of the picture, I see the end and I see the present. I see that each clothes, each charm and poise, each casual touch on someone screams a story that’s so alluringly ready to be heard.
What happens if a book were to ghastly lose a chapter? Doesn’t the story seem incomplete? Filled with promises that were brutally shattered? Empty?
Take this picture for example. I love this picture. What do you see?
I see my first time in KKB. I remember that I placed my camera on timer and placed it on top a wall in front of a two door toilet. I see Pui Fun, David and Sue Wen holding plants. I also bought a plant; it was not in the picture because I left it beside the camera. I remember that I had to run back for it because I left it camouflaged between the foliage. I remember that we bought those plants very cheaply at the local nursery in Fraser Hill. It was close to Chinese New Year then, everyone said that the plant resembled the traditional Chinese New Year flower. I remembered David telling me months later that the flower died because he forgot to water it.
I remember that this picture was taken just before we left, where we then headed to buy key chains as memento of this little excursion. I remember that Pui Fun looked like a little kid whilst she was riding the horse in the paddock. I remembered how terrible Kok Guan played during our first Mafia game-and how Aditya struggled to remember his name in the first round, always confusing him with Hon Keong. That was also the first time Lydia adopted the name Weng Chu for him. I remember that Raymond shared a house with William and Aditya. I remembered how much noise we made till wee hours of the morning. I remembered how much fun I had.
There are a million more things I can say. There are not enough papers to hold what I can say from a single photograph. Join two photographs, and there won’t be enough words to contain what I can say.
Losing one single photograph is a cataclysmic reaction that inevitable culminates in a catastrophe.
I love pictures. Full stop!