Wrap in Red

Ever wonder why the sliced papaya we buy from the fruit stalls are usually wrapped in red plastic bag instead of transparent plastic?


My burning curiosity had led me into scorching through the websites for answer, but the initial Google search had come up with some irrelevant results  until I tried searching with Malay keywords instead.

http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=1998&dt=0421&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Rencana&pg=ot_05.htm

To summarise the above Malay article and answer to my own question, the red plastic bag is used by most fruit sellers to make the papaya aesthetically more attractive to the consumer. Since the plastic beg is red in colour, it can also hide the dull orange/red colours of papayas which are yet to ripe.

Hence, it is true to say that the red plastic bag is used as a tactic to get more business rather than for any health benefits.

Apom

On a  one fine morning when I was diligently working in the office, calling from clients to clients to collect the magazine materials, at a quick peep of my Facebook,  a picture posted by my friend had instantly grabbed my attention.

This is not the exact picture posted by my friend, but it is definitely the food he was having.
(picture courtesy to GOOGLE image)

You may start thinking is this Apom (the food in the above picture) is my favourite food or I have some kind of addiction towards it.
No, the answer is no. It is not my favourite food.
However, there's a Manis (sweet) connection of this food to my childhood.

The food reminds me of when my sisters and I were still children and had our overnight stays at my grandmother's house during school holidays. It was like a customary thing in our family that my cousins and us would visit our grandma and stay there for a few days, a few times a year. My cousins, my sisters and I would play, fight, chat together from day to night. Sometimes we also eavesdropped on the topics being discussed by the adults after we were exhausted chasing each other in the big old house of my grandma.

Every morning when we woke up in a fully crammed gradma's small room, (imagine a small room with one single bed and one queen size bed but being crammed with  9 people), my mom would wait for the moving Apom stall to pass by her used-to be house. The Apom stall was run by an Indian woman/ man ( I can't really remember the gender, but it was definitely an Indian). My mom would order for 50/ 100 pieces of Apom for the few families in the house. Since it is not easy to make such many apoms instantly by a small stall, it could take up to an hour to complete our order. The young mischievous us would then bring batch by batch of Apom into the house, eat the sweet crispy breakfast and started our new day with more games and fun activities!

A Dog & Its Owner

A reliable dog, loyally guarding his wheel-chair bound owner.
A boy who happened to walk behind them, saw him near himself to the flower pots, grass patches, lamp posts on the road side; by raising its hind leg in order to relieve himself. But before he could let out the water, when he returned his watchful eyes to his owner, the owner had already moved well ahead of him. Worrying that his vulnerable owner might get harmed, the anxious dog dashed towards its owner again.

The boy serenely watched the loyal dog carrying out its duty, failing to ease itself, repeatedly, until their paths diverted.