Glacier

Saturday, Sep 5, 2009, 6pm Dempsey Hills, Singapore

THREE MYANMAR ELEPHANT TALES - PART 1

Black Magic Woman (BMW) who had arranged a meeting with the general trader (GT) from Myanmar sat opposite me in the alfresco corner of this Italian Restaurant said, "Do you notice that each dining tables here display a yellow rose?"
"Yes," I gazed at the long row of dining tables, each having a yellow rose in a cup prominently positioned in the middle of the snow white table cloth. "What's the significance?"

"Giving yellow roses mean that you want to break up your relationship with your girlfriend. Red roses mean you love her. Men will not know such matters."

Were the yellow roses eliciting unhappy memories for BMW who was in the generation where relationships were fragile as glass and where divorces amongst her circle of friends were common? Such that she was not interested in ordering dinner?

"There is a waiter who kept staring at me," she announced when GT asked whether she would order her food. My back was to the waiter while she was seated opposite me at this corner. "Do you notice that?" BMZ asked the GT who was her old friend. The GT nodded.

Visual harassment can be quite distressing. "Let's go elsewhere," I consoled BMW. "Be glad that you are not a wall flower. You must have animal magnetism. Maybe you reminded the waiter of his long lost love in India. Many Singapore women would want to trade places with you."

"I am a Muslim, not an Indian," BMW corrected me vehemently. No alcohol drinks for her as she practised the Ramadan fasting and cleansing of the body through one month of alcoholic abstinence. I kept the peace and said nothing as this would inflame the tensions of racism encountered by BMW in her work. From what I read in her body language, BMW just wanted me to get down to business with the GT within an hour and we would all go home after her introduction.

Business quotations took only 10 minutes. GT quoted for 25% broken rice and terms and conditions for export. Building a relationship of trust with the busy GT whom I met for the second time needed more time, but BMW was not in a good mood for dinner and small talk.

"How about Jumbo Seafood Restaurant?" I asked BMW who was not too keen on a Mexican Restaurant. "OK," she agreed.

As GT had a sprained back (leapt upon by his 7-year-old daughter) and was wearing a corset after some treatment by an acupuncturist, I tried getting him a low seat with back rest. The waitress apologised: "Only high chairs at the corner are available." GT should be resting at home if he was an employee but he could not waste time in Singapore as he had business dealings with numerous contacts. He climbed up onto the high and narrow chairs with evident pain and great difficulty. I shifted one more chair for him to sit. H had gained weight. "How come you put on so much weight?" BMW, my introducer, had enquired. "I ate 8 meals a day at home. When I woke up at 5 am. Then I ate breakfast with my daughter. Lunch, dinner and supper. Tea with friends." We settled down to have a seafood dinner. This would be one of those dinners that are boring like wedding or association annual dinners - polite talk, eat and go home.

To be continued in Part 2

I summarise the 3 elephant stories and other side stories as narrated by the General Trader (GT) from Myanmar during my dinner invitation to him and BMW (Black Magic Woman) last Saturday at Dempsey Hills. How the elephant stories came about could be due to my asking him about his encounter with Myanmar elephants. I observed he was wearing a shirt full of small blue and white paired elephants and used this to break the ice to connect with him. Otherwise it would be one of those boring dinner encounters such as those at Chinese weddings.

"You are a good story teller," I had said to this soft-spoken man in his 40s. He replied, "These were real events, not stories." The stories are as follows:

1. THE ELEPHANT WET BEHIND HIS EARS ENCOUNTERED THE SINGAPOREAN
The Singaporean businessman won a tender to supply fire-proof doors to the HDB (Housing Development Board) and asked the GT if he could source the wood from Myanmar. "I will take you to the jungles to inspect what you want if you pay for me expenses," GT said. It was getting dark at 5pm but the Singaporean was still busy marking out the tree logs he wanted to purchase. He could not be hurried. Tall jungle trees - much taller than any you would see at the Singapore Zoo, cast deep shadows. It was very dark now as the GT, the Singaporean, the Seller and the driver walked toward the truck. A full moon cast its light through the trees, providing some light for the group who had also come equipped with torch-lights.

Suddenly, they walked into the path of a large male elephant flapping his ears. Staring at the human.

"There is a male elephant released in the jungle because he had water dripping out behind his ears," the driver said. "When the male elephant is wet behind the ears, he will not work and is very temperamental. So, he is excused from work and left to wander in the jungle to look for a mate. This is the one in front of us!"

The elephant erected his ears and swung his trunk sideways. He lifted his massive left foreleg and glared at the intruders who had frightened away his mate. What to do now? The GT turned and sprinted in one direction while the other 3 men fled together in another path. It was every man for himself!

Who should the elephant attack for invading hid privacy? 3 men or one lone GT? "I ran for my life," GT recounted. "The elephant was running faster and gaining on me. Luckily it was a full moon and the moonlight lit the way for me to escape from death."

"Did you run zig-zag or in a straight line?" I asked.

"I just ran and climbed up a tree!" GT said. "The elephant hit the tree a few times to dislodge me. I held on."

"Are you supposed to stand still when you encounter an elephant?" I asked.
"That was what my grandmother taught me," GT said. But which normal man would do that in this encounter of a raging male elephant in heat. Definitely, standing your ground opposite a wild elephant is suicidal.

"What happened next?" BMZ asked.

"The elephant left," GT said. "The others came. I found that it was extremely difficult to climb down the tree." Adrenalin, the fear-flight hormone in his blood enabled him to climb high up. After the danger was over, GT had great difficulty coming down.

The Singaporean was safe. As we don't encounter wild animals in this sterile city, I doubt that the average modern-day Singaporean used to air-conditioned homes and indoor living in front of computers, Facebook, Black Berry and online slaying of demons would have the fitness to outrun a raging bull elephant. But I stand corrected as I had not met him. The GT recounted the episode to his wife when he came to Singapore. He told us in laughter, "Well, his wife now permanently bans him from going to Myanmar!"

Life as a general trader of commodities is really risky personally compared to a dog and cat vet. This is not the first time that the GT nearly got gored to death by an elephant. Another encounter with a female elephant and calf in Story No. 2 made him crash 8,000 feet down a ravine. He lived to tell his tale! He must have a guardian angel. But do you believe in guardian angels? I do. It was not just pure luck to survive in such a situation.

To be continued in Part 3