There is no place like home

Related article: Life is full of Surprises @ Real Estate.

Home is a crucial necessity; a shelter for a family for most of the people and where hearts lie. I always feel as happy, comfortable as in my own home as I stepped into the apartment. I had everything my heart desired, but the people here have different stories about it.

A nasty middle-age man, sloppily dressed, was normally seen riding with an aged motorbike to a street food stall here, someone we thought is a lowly class. Before one was certain of the surveillance, swollen with pride, deliberately he had opened his wallet, which stuck with stacks of notes. That conscious gesture raised eyebrows, the one who justified him by his slack appearance feeling uncomfortable with the earlier misjudge.

Inaudibly, he was checking on the new faces in the town, observing their motive. If there were a conversation with the new comer,  it would revolve around the topic of property. “You have house here?” he asked with that vague local accent. The new comer nodded pointing to the block across the street. “I got “One” nearby,” he told proudly while finger pointing to nearby where his “One” lie. Then, the conversation with the new comer continued realizing that they had something in common nearby. Home – call it a ticket to access the locals.

He could be someone who owned several properties and estates around the town, a wealthy landlord! Then, you thought he must be a terrifically frugal people, a penny-pinching, lonely, old man, saving all the money for properties. The next time you bumped into him again, still sloppily dressed, he was driving an S-class Mercedes with an attractive wife sitting next to him and two nice-looking daughters at the back seats. Your jaw dropped, and you puzzled for ages looking for a rational explanation.

If you think a property is a thing for someone to brag about one’s richness, you are wrong. It has other point in the job market.

A young lady, gaudily dressed – probably the garments from a flea market, with no makeup she was plainly pretty; she was an employee from a multinational corporate here. Without a higher education and exceptional skill, she probably worked as a lowly staff earning just enough for her. It was difficult to pursue her to deliver better performance in the workplace. One day she skipped the greeting, bypassed the “please and thank-you”, looked gloomy, and unwilling to follow the instruction. The other day, she spoke to the co-workers with a demeaning or demanding tone in an open office left the recipients, even the top officers, with a terrible feeling.

Checked on her, she probably would let slip what caused her annoyance – an expensive property she owned. Really, you wanted to make sure that she, a general worker, younger than you, earned much less than you and does not possess that type of education you have was complaining about a luxury property. She reinstated her earlier statement impatiently.

There was a time, probably ten years ago, when this kind of things mattered to me. These days, it is not nearly as weighty. Why? For the reason that, I have accepted it as the fact that it is just their set of attitudes when dealing with intellectual and economic growth here.

This is a major milestone for our companies and our industries. We are going to combine the best of our companies’ capabilities to give our customers what they expect and what they’ve been demanding.- Gary Forsee.

Wai Ping Lee/Feb 2011