Kindness is 15th Century's Vocabulary? I guess not.

If you see a stranger who looks very lost, will you bother to ask him "Hi, How can I help you?" or "Are you looking for a place?"

Everyone, this is Singapore; a place where you find people are not very comfortable talking to strangers, a place where people find it strange if someone asks for direction. Yes, I am sure some of you have experienced how difficult it is to be in one new place which you don't know, especially for someone with limited knowledge of Mandarin like me.

However, yesterday, I found one of some few exceptions. I went to NUS alone for the first time. I was supposed to be heading to Prince George's Park residences there. I took bus number 95 as suggested by the MRT passenger service officer, but the bus driver is not very familiar with places in NUS. So I basically was lost in the bus...

A lady approached me. From her accent, I can guess that she is an Indian national studying at NUS. She asked me where I will be heading, and told me the way to reach there.

I was totally impressed. I guess kindness is not 15th century's vocabulary. It still exists until now!

Today, I went to Jurong Point to eat. When I queued, I saw someone before me who looked very pale. He and his friend talked in Mandarin, and if I guessed correctly (I never say my Mandarin is up to standard), they didn't bring enough money to pay for the noodle. They asked the lady seller to reduce the serving size so it's worth $3.6 instead of $4 (as written there). However, the lady seller didn't want to and asked them to take money from ATM Machine which is at the first level (the kopitiam is at level 3). I was there, so I just told them "Hey, this is 40 cents for you."

They were sooo relieved, didn't expect there will be a kind samaritan there. I know 40 cents is nothing, but if I were in their situation, I would be quite panicked also.

Who says kindness only means giving million-dollar cheque to Charity organization? Sometimes, we can do kind act by asking people "hey, where are you going? you look lost" or just giving 40 cents to people. Yes, sometimes 40 cents is what it takes.... and some courage to help definitely.