This morning has been unusually quiet and finds me the most serene I've felt in a long long time. I think it's a combination of the cool morning air, the quiet, as well as the smooth jazz I have playing in the background. I feel completely content and at peace with the world and with my life.

It is mornings like these that make me wish D wasn't halfway around the world. Sure, the internet makes it easy to keep in touch and most of the time, that's enough. But sometimes, like today, I wish he were here to share moments like these with me.

Also, the quiet morning reminds me of Sing to the Dawn, a book by Minfong Ho. It's one of my favourite books. The story starts on a quiet and cool morning (much like today) in a village in Thailand. I suppose the only difference being the lack of croaking frogs here. Heh.

The first time I read it was probably when I was 10 or 11. My aunt gave me her copy of it that had both an English and a Chinese version of the story. I remember sitting down and pouring through the English version page by page, front to back and refusing to put it down till I had finished it.Imagine my great surprise and delight to find that it was one of the texts I had to do for English Literature in Sec 1!

I think the book made a very deep impression on me in two ways: it was probably one of my earliest experiences of how cruel and unfair the world can be; but at the same time, it also showed me that anything was possible as long as I put my mind to it.

Aside from the issues of corrupt governance and bullying, the major underlying theme of the book is the lack of gender equality in many parts of the developing world, especially in education. Now, growing up in modern day Singapore and studying in one of the best schools (an all-girl school, no less) had really sheltered me from issues like these in the early years of my life. An interesting thing to note is that even though the book was first written and published in 1975, the problems discussed are still as applicable to today's world as they were more than three decades ago.

Come to think of it, I saw a trailer for an animated movie based on this book when I watched Kung Fu Panda quite a few weeks back. Excited as I am, I really really hope the movie does the book justice.