Conversations for the Curious

I love engaging in conversation with Abang. He comes up with the most imaginative things to say.


Just the other day we were making up a story about a picture on my t-shirt. The picture showed 2 people sitting on an elephant and another 3 people walking alongside it. He pointed to the ones sitting on the elephant and identified, "That's Daddy's Daddy and that's Mummy's Daddy."

"Ok," I said, "and who are those walking?"

"That one is Daddy, the middle one is me and then the other one is Adik," he told me very decisively, "so ... that means there are 2 men and 3 boys."

"Eh? Really? Atok, Atok Bah and Daddy are men, right? So that's 3 men. Then you and Adik are boys, so that's 2 boys. So it should be 3 men and 2 boys, I think."

Abang thought about this for a long time, he scrunched up his face, wondering how to contradict me. Finally, he said, "It's ok, Mummy. It's just a story."


Sometimes he says things that make absolutely no sense but it's still so nice to listen to! He was telling me about Wan's house in the kampung, how there are many sawah padi there and other stuff.

"Wan's house at kampung has so many sawah padi, you know, Mummy? And then the monkeys all ate the rambutan at Wan's house. Kesian Wan, kan, no more rambutan to eat. Because they like to go to England, Malaysia, Chinese schools..."

Go figure!