In the city

It's a fact! I haven't been blogging much lately. Don't even know what to write. And blogging just to appease my fans' incessant calls to update my blog. Ok ok so here i am again.

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to work near the city or in the city? I used to think about that before i started working. Smart, Professional and Diginified were the words that came to mind. We see photos and videos of how Manhattan or Tokyo looks like and you had people brisk walking to destination who-knows-where. Those people seem to have a purpose in life. However, add in the audio and you'll hear only the sound of vehicles and footsteps. Where are the voices of people?

You don't need to look so far to take in such an experience. The Singapore MRT is a good example. In the MRT, packed with people around the peak hours of 8-9, some are sitting. Imagine a row of people where some are reading the newspaper or reading a book. Some others are trying to catch some more minutes into their sleep while the rest are staring blankly, patiently waiting to arrive at their destination. Now that's just a row of people. Multiply that with the many rows of seats an MRT train has. As with the people standing, they're doing the same thing, just that they're standing and occasionally have to "move-in" to give more space. To me, it takes about 20 minutes to get to Tanjong Pagar and i feel it's a waste of time if you don't do anything useful. So sometimes if i'm alone, i grab out a book to read once i'm on the train but at other times, situations just make it impossible to hold a book in front of me. Another thing i could do is listen to audio mp3s but not music coz it's under the category of time-wasting-on-the-train. Besides, i can listen to music in the office the whole day. In fact, that's what i'm doing now. Ok back to the topic. Once you exit the train at Tanjong Pagar, you have hordes of people queuing to go up the escalator or stair case and you wonder where did all these people come from. Once up, it's another queuing session at the gantry and the loudest noise you hear are the sound of footsteps. Once you reach ground level, it's the same thing as Manhattan and Tokyo, just less people.

That's what's like to be in the city. You see and hear but don't really communicate.