Spectator Spot

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There is this elderly malay grandmother sitting alongside the steps leading to Tekka Market Food Centre.

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I have seen them many times over, sometimes inside the hawker centre, but always around the main staircase fronting Serangoon Road.

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She is there every afternoon, sometimes alone, sometimes with a little boy.

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People walked past her and many don't even noticed her small frame etching the wall.

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Nobody even stops for a second. Everyone is busy minding their own little private worlds.

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She watches the people go by. There are endless varieties of them for her to see.

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Sometimes she looks hungry. I can only see a mineral water bottle with her by her side.

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So I walked up to her this morning, and wanted to give some money I had in my pocket.

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When I realised that things aren't what they seemed to be.

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She wasn't a street beggar.

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There were no scattered coins around her.

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No cups and overturned caps.

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She is not looking for money.

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She is just a tired old grandmother who is watching the world go by - a careless purveyor waiting for hope to come around.