Here in Singapore we're celebrating Mr Subbiah--Construction site foreman Pitchai Udaiyappan Subbiah--because his quick thinking saved the woman whose car was caught when two lanes of Tanjong Katong Road South collapsed.
A sinkhole in Singapore?
Singapore is often seen as a model of safety, stability and predictability. We're an island with a granite core and government after all. So the sudden appearance of a sinkhole was all the more shocking.
Workers at a nearby site saw a woman in the vehicle that plunged into the hole (rapidly filling with water) that appeared. Luckily she was conscious and said there was no one else in the car with her. Mr Subbiah coordinated the rescue effort (involving a nylon rope harness) and they got her out in under five minutes.
I found it all the more striking because during a recent story writing workshop at the Naval Base Primary School, in response to suggesting 'bad' things happening, one of the students suggested "An earthquake?" but this was dismissed by her peers as "Something that would never happen in Singapore!"
And yet... this sinkhole (not quite an earthquake but quite as traumatic if you were in that car) happened!
I think that murder stories, whether for children or adults, are a kind of preparation for things beyond the comforting illusion that life is safe and stable.
And when lives are not safe and stable (as for so many right now) they may offer hope that 'this too shall pass'.
I was really surprised and impressed by the young student-writers. And a bit intimidated by them.
When creating characters we asked and answered questions like "What's their favourite food?" and "What's their greatest fear?"
I was expecting answers like "failing exams" or other school issues, but I got responses like, "My character's greatest fear is death," and "My character's greatest fear is his parents going on Haj and dying and him not knowing why they don't come back."
It made me realise that when we're writing with and for children, we can't dumb it down because they're living in the same world and facing the same issues as everyone else.
I'd always had the impression that when writing for children, you don't talk about death.
But even as I write that I know it's not true. One of my favourite children's books, Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage, features a murder or two (or three, if you count the one that happened years ago).
Why do we read and write stories and books? For entertainment, sure. But also because it's a way to learn and see how other people work things out--and sometimes because it helps us figure things out.
The children I was working with had all read my middle-grade book The Mudskipper, which has a sort of villain character, Aunt Mona (somebody dies in the book, but she doesn't murder him). And one child asked, when we talking about villains, "From Aunt Mona's point of view, she might have thought she was actually helping by being so strict. Sometimes my parents are very strict with me, but they mean well. Maybe she meant well too" and we talked about writing paired stories, where the 'villains' of a story are the main characters of the other.
Yes, I was surrounded by twenty five eleven year Rashomon creators! And it was wonderful, I was so impressed by them.
But even more I'm impressed by the schools and teachers who create creative spaces and are constantly stepping up and ploughing down to bring out the best in these students.
I got the thanks, but they are the ones who deserve the credit!
And big thanks, of course, to Mr Subbiah--who has been working here for 22 years and said it's his first time being involved in a rescue effort but was matter of fact about it.
In his words (translated from Tamil) “We saved a life… whatever happens, that is all that matters,”
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