SAD STORY
A few days ago, after a fairly good Aikido session at
Thai-Ippun Dojo in Din Daeng, I had dinner at one of my usual
restaurants. I was quite hungry but I didn’t want to eat too much as it
was already late, so I ordered just one plate of fried rice. As the
owners of the restaurant seem pretty nice people, I usually chitchat
with them in Thai.
But that day something made me regret my talkative
mood.
They have a son who is about 5 to 6 years old. He has to
stay in the restaurant with his parents until they close it at about 9
to 9.30 pm. As you can imagine, there’s nothing much for him to do
there. He has only a reclining chair in which he vegetates while
watching TV or playing with his few toys.
He had the flu. There must
be something in the air because many of my students have running noses
too. So, the boy took his medicine and went back to his chair. As soon
as his father finished administering the pills, we continued our
conversation. Soon the mother joined in and took over our conversation,
so I started to eat.
While I was eating the boy shouted at his parents
to be quiet because he was trying to sleep.
None of the parents
replied. They went on laughing and making noise.
As soon as I finished my meal, the boy told his parents that he
couldn’t breathe properly. At first the parents ignored him. read more.
The boy
started whining and shouted out that he couldn’t breathe. In the
meantime, the mother and the father started closing the restaurant. His
mother, annoyed that she was being interrupted by her own son, told him
that he could die if he felt like it.
Seeing that nobody cared about him, the boy started to cry.
At this
point the mother got really angry, picked up a stick and started
smacking the kid on his legs. The louder the kid cried, the angrier the
mother got and the harder the blows came down on the boy’s legs. After
about 5 to 6 blows, the poor boy was able to control his sobbing and
the mother stopped beating him.
I paid for the meal, got on my bike and went home feeling sorry for
the boy. I also thought about the huge difference between the life my
rich students have at home and this poor boy’s boring life in his
parents’ restaurant. Instead of PS2, iPhones and private tutors, the
poor boy in the restaurant chair had to make do with some old
cardboard, a spinning top and, most unfortunate of all, irresponsible
parents. read more