My maternal grandma is now living with me and my family. Having her along with us certainly made the house more "lively" or wat hokkiens call "lau juak". Grandma is a super sanguine who for most of the time, say something that she feels without much processing in the head. Im impressed that at her golden age(around 70+, dunno how old is she la), she has a very alert and observant mind. She has a sinistical laughter that can be contangious to all of us. At times i dun understand what she is laughing, yet listening to the way she laugh, i too follow her in her actions. One may wonder wats it like to be old? My grandma answers me wit wat she does everyday. Her life revolves around the complicated and sophisticated creativity of mankind…. the "SOAP OPERA".. Wat lau eh… She can do her doctorate(Ph.D) in Soup Operas. U name it she’s seen it all. Hong Kong, Korean, Taiwanese, Mandarin, and lately, the hotest item, Hokkien dramas from taiwan.

The thing i cannot tahan her is that… she will put the volume to the max( out of 10 she will put 9 ). And then she will get so emotional about the drama. At times I can then hear her shouting at the characters. At times cursing and condeming the villian of the drama. Eg., "Useless son, ur mother shouldnt give birth to u", useless this… useless tat… At times she will cry over the stupid drama.

There is this hokkien drama on ntv7 at 4pm-5pm every weekdays entitled "The Greater Love" a.k.a "Chun Thian Au Bu Sim" in hokkien. Theres this character called Boon Ping.. His mother worked hard to raise him. He finally became a famous doctor. Yet later despised his mother and is ashamed of his origins. He married a very pretty wife… who looks down on poor and uncivilised people. Very complicated one la. Seeing this drama, my sister accidently said to my mother… "wah… this gal quite pretty eh" refering to Boon Ping’s wife… my grandma overheard it and then she shouted… PRETTY FOR WAT?…her heart is so evil… Next time ur brothers musnt have this kind of wife…. kekeke… My grandma can get so aggitated by these dramas. Which I can only laugh over it.

The best part is we all can learn lots of her philosophies in life. Eg., she will speak about wat is heavens will and how man should live their life.

"our parent is like heaven, we are like the earth. u must always obey ur parents… dun be like this character in the drama".

Sometimes to convey a certain teaching on us, she will use the drama as a "case study" like wat we do in our business degree classes. This can be quite long winded or "Cheong Hei". She can give u so many comments over the story. Hence i call her the Sage.

All i can do is to laugh and laugh at her when she watches the drama. I cant believe that people can be so emotional over things. This is so FUNNY. Even my mother cant help it and laugh at her while she watches the drama.

Thanks to my grandma, now i get to know my hokkien origins better(im 100% hokkien). I learnt to appreciate soup operas. Yet… nah… not my kind of thing. But i guess its good to see how people live their life in a more different way from us, and accept them for who they are.