Market Friday:toy market and crazy childhood.

This is my not-so-late entry for #marketfriday hosted by our kind and compassionate @dswigle. I have been very busy and distracted by several incidents happening in my country. There’s so much tension and undercurrent in our socio-political situation; things could suddenly turn chaotic. But I hope and pray for the stretching of time and space continuum so that we would have more breathing space to get things organised before the tsunami of chaos would finally arrive one day. The best thing I could do to get myself outside my thoughts cease to go to Chinatown and surrounding areas to take photos of old places.

During my effort to find a special repair shop for torch lights, I stumbled onto a toy center at the old shopping center. I had no idea that the old building had been converted into a toys and games shopping center. I was quite overwhelmed by the fact that there were hundreds of shops selling all kinds of toys and computer games in the building. You could find any kind of toys, modern or old-fashion toys; incredible toys which were beyond my imagination. I walked around half dazed and hypnotised of all the surreal toys.

When we were young, our patents couldn’t afford to buy us any toys as most toys were imported and very expensive. So, whenever we visited our wealthy cousins, we would play with all his English and German toys. During that time, exports of toys from Japan and China were still not available. But the good thing about having no toys was that we had to invent our own games and made our own toys. My friends and I made our own kites, bows and arrows, wooden swords and some imaginary weapons for our conquests. Those were the good old days of innocent childhood.

Having no computer games to distract my attention allowed me to cultivate my imagination and solitary investigation into the realm of spirits and ghosts. In those days, grownups used to threaten us that if we were naughty, such and such a ghost would come to visit us at night! All my siblings became very fearful of darkness as a result of such threats! I was very afraid at first as I could see ghosts or spirits in the night from time to time. But then one day I wanted to challenge them to a duel or fight to the death as I wanted to see how much force they had on human.

Without telling anyone, I escaped from the house late at night. The streets and alleys were all pitched dark as there were no street lamps then. I slowly found my way to the darkest alley in front of an old temple. Thai people know that’s where most ghosts and spirits could be found. The gate was closed so I stood there all alone, luckily the stray dogs never barked at me or people would have thought I was a robber.

This temple had a small tunnel which we called a cave; people had seen a big and long boar constrictor (a ten feet long snake) living inside this cave. I was very afraid but I decided that I found no longer live with doubt. I challenged all the ghosts to come out to confront me and to fight fairly. That was my fight to the death as I wanted to know once and for all whether ghosts could hurt me and kill me.

I stood there quietly for fifteen minutes until my pounding heart started to calm down and my eyes slowly got used to the darkness. I looked around at the empty vendors’ stalls and empty card board boxes along the alley. I couldn’t believe that no ghosts accepted my challenge. I asked them to come to wring my neck and to show me their bloody dangling guts. But nothing happened except the stillness of the night. From then on, I was no longer afraid of adults’ threats and darkness. But I did continue to see the spirit of the house often.

So, I learn to communicate with these intangible beings with some success. They even followed us to our new house; some of my siblings also saw them visiting us a few times. I felt sorry for them, as they seemed rather lonely in the empty house. I did say goodbye to them and wish them a better reincarnation.

Had I been spoiled with toys and games, I would never have the time or opportunity to develop my sixth sense and psychic ability which seemed a bit like the ability to ride a bicycle. I forgot about it from time to time, but once I took hold of the ‘bicycle’ I could just ride it around the house. I don’t have the time to cycle very often as I was always too occupied with worldly matters. Younger generations use their mind with computer games so much that they didn’t have the opportunity to find out about the deep potentials of their brain. There’s so much more to experiment and explore with our hidden gifts. The sky is the limit. No! You could travel to other galaxy with your mind!

These modern toys just amazed me as people had out so much energy into designing and crafting these pieces to satisfy potential customers. I did see several children dressing in cross-play costumes with swords in their hands walking by. The vendor told me that kids liked to dress up as their favourite cartoon characters when shopping around. There were several shops selling costumes and accessories for transforming children into famous anime characters. I wish they would be mentally independent and use their brain in a more fruitful way. At least they should learn to meditate and get in touch with that deep silence inside their brain! It’s much better than an adventure into caves or mountains. I hope they won’t lose themselves in mataverse or lost their ‘brain’ one day. Some people do want these young brains.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.