The Perceptive Foodie

Installing 7 fans in a tiny restaurant area with tables back-to-back. Logical? Necessary? Or ingenious? It may have a reputation of being one of the most delicious noodle places in town, having a line that never ceases to exist, a place that always seems crowded with the locals (university students, mostly, but also office workers from the surrounding area as well as families with small children), and makes you inevitably sweat in the heat every second that you are there, but I wondered why they couldn’t be bothered to install even a single air-conditioning unit like the other restaurants in the area. Then when I thought about it, I realized the genius behind this concept. Well, to be fair, it’s more in a totally business-minded and an “I don’t care about the customer experience” attitude kind of way but hey, a genius is a genius. In the sweltering heat and humidity of the constantly 27 to 30 degree Celcius Malaysian climate (but honestly, you would be really lucky if you

It’s true, I think, what they say about old people, that “those who have a will to live, as well as those who have a reason to keep living, have a higher probability of living a longer life”. While I was unfortunate to lose my previously ever-active and lively grandmother to cancer, here is a story of how the love of a son enables a man to go on far into his old life, despite the difficulties of a decreasing mobility that confines us human beings to what is called, “mortality”. Here I was, sitting at a big and spacious food court with several large fans blasting furiously and producing such a loud noise that you can barely hear the voices of those around you. Overhead, a blaring speaker sends out a somewhat out-of-place instrumental rendition of the kind of music you hear at posh hotels or high-class Chinese restaurants. Can’t blame them for trying, though. It was a quiet lunchtime, there were not many people. I was nonchalantly sipping my second glass of iced tea, which wa