By: Pavle Radonić

K.V. two long weeks later, according to the Chief. (Magnificent gallantry from the time equivalent to the Troubadours.) Gone quarter past 3 on another hot afternoon, busted sandal strap making it hotter. Thiru couple of days ago reported back after a first visit, commenting on the typical middle-class South Indian form. The kind of place where the money-making imperative was not ruling and absolute, not entirely. The speechless head-loll of the waiters taking orders without pen or paper was noted by the man. (Better class places in India with those aids invariably got the order wrong, according to Thiru.) It was something of a surprise to hear that characterisation. Occasionally, one found working boys here from the construction industry; a couple of foremen had been struck & oil industry men. The gold, rings and watches ought to have indicated the matter more clearly. Eating with the fingers, manner and behaviour, had masked the reality. In Singapore, the construction workers cooked in the dorms or their illegal shelters—heavy 25kg. sacks of rice & tins of cooking oil lugged nightly in the gutters of Geylang Road. Even SG$3.50 meals & $1.80 masala chai definitely pitched the place into the middle bracket, it ought to have been clear. One recalled Yanasagaran complaining about the price of the latter and becoming abashed at being treated the former. Still, places like Woodlands around in Upper Dickson and Aravinds out behind the temple were something else with their epic wall paintings, cuckoo clocks & place mats. Butter-milk just the shot against the heat, the Chief had once complimented on the wise choice one other hot afternoon. Who would have thought green chilli & coriander leaf? Dark balding fellow opposite with dyed goatee and mullet, very much the aspect of one of our Aboriginal ex-football stars, dispensed with the physical regime; definite worker, as confirmed by the Ang Moh Kio Council tee when he went to wash his hands. Some of the older sari-wrapped widows and spoilt kids ought to have made the matter abundantly clear, together with the whitening creams. Almost entirely full-house, four vacant chairs across the room. Numerous hopefuls had turned on their heels after an initial survey from the corner.

NB. Komala Vilas, Buffalo Road, opp. Tekka Market, Singapore, since a Covid causality and the recourse has become the other pair on Serangoon Road, run by the same immediate branch of the founding family.

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An Australian writer of Montenegrin origin, Pavle Radonić spent ten years living in SE Asia. Recent work has appeared in QU Literary Magazine, Hobart, Airplane Reading, New World Writing & The Wrath-Bearing Tree.