A heart of GOLD !

Photo taken in 2002 at owlet's graduation.

In my very 1st posting on this blog, I recounted the story of how I lost a Parker Pen which was a gift from my late father, while on my 1st train journey to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, in 1963. That story was aired on the programme 'Travellers Tales'on RSI 93.8 Live ,in August this year. Then three days ago, while retrieving the mail from my postbox, there was a little gift box mixed with all my mail. It was a Parker Pen gift box and with that a card was attached.

I was bewildered. The package was not even registered. It must have been delivered by hand. However, before I opened the card to read its content, I made a guess to myself that it could be from "owlet". Bingo! It was from "owlet". In his own writing, he opens up the thread of the story about the pen, in which he had so thoughtfully engraved these touching words ,"....in remembrance of Dad ". When I opened the box and saw as well as held the pen in my fingers, I could feel tears welling up in my misty eyes. For lo and behold it was so uncanny. This pen is almost a carbon-copy of the one I had lost! In size, colour and shape almost identical. Lost for a moment, my mind travelled back 44 years. How proud I was that I had a top quality pen tucked safely in my shirt pocket. The other equally well-known pen name then was Sheaffers. It was always between these two in my younger days.

Owlet is a former student of mine who was unlike most students. He was never content to simply learn things from the syllabus or between the books. He much preferred the experiential aspects of education, active learning and absorbing bits and pieces of acquired wisdom rather than chunks and more chunks of book knowledge. He always asked lots of questions of me. He is still asking lots of questions today.

All I can say for now is that I am most touched by owlet's thoughtfulness and maturity. And if owlet happens to read this, I can assure him that THIS Parker Pen is going on no train or plane journey or anywhere. Neither will I ever clip it on my shirt pocket.

Instead, I will put it together with my other treasured memorabila, in a nice display corner of my home, where

it will always have a story to tell.

And the story begins with....." A heart of Gold ".