Your possessions do not define you

I WAS born five years after Singapore’s independence. My late father came from Malacca in his teenage years to work for Singapore Traction Company which operated trams. It was a blue-collar job that required him to stand under the hot sun and in the rain to operate a system which decided the direction the trams would take.

When Singapore Bus Services started, he joined them as a bus conductor before being promoted to bus driver. Our first house was a rented one-room flat which meant that there were no bedrooms, just a living room and kitchen with a bathroom and toilet.

At night, we would take out the mattresses to sleep in the living room and when morning came, the mattresses would be folded up again. While my late mother, who was a homemaker, ensured that we never lacked anything, I knew at a young age that we did not have a lot of money.