Even mothers, some of them, cannot think straight.

The problem with my family was that my parents gave me the best possible education they could afford. Though they knew not a word in English, they sent me to an English Language medium school. I went from Wellesley Primary School to Hutchings School and then Penang Free School. Of course, I was lucky to have an uncle, the then headmaster of St. Xaviers Branch School who prevented my parents from requesting for a secondary school nearer to home than the Penang Free School. "What nonsense!" my uncle told my parents. "Everyone hopes for their children to get a place in Penang Free School. Not anyone can get a place there, you know?"

With a good education behind me and the urge to read everything there was to know from books and magazines from the nearby British Council in Bishop Street, the Penang Library and the United States Information Service, I could read and understand many things, particularly books on health as I was a weak and sickly child and I knew even as a boy of about ten years that I had to get out of my delicate constitution. So I read a lot and discover that I could reach the four corners of the world, improve my health with exercise, the right food and proper rest as well as a powerful immune system and peep into the world of the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison and others as they made discoveries that help us to gather more knowledge and understanding.

Knowledge and understanding is important is ensuring that truth and life is seen clearly and not through distorted mirrors; you know, those that are not well made and so can change how you look by giving your rounded face a fluted outline. So knowledge helps me to discern what could sometimes be not obvious to my parents.

And that can sometimes lead to problems. I remember a time when my mother was angry with someone. As a witness to what had happened, I could comprehend the matter well and from that could see that my own mother was clearly wrong. In my innocence I told her not to quarrel with the other woman as it was obvious that the mistake was hers. She turned on me, gave such a tongue-lashing that I regretted opening my mouth and uttering the truth. She told me I was no son of hers; my finger bending backwards rather than forward. From that i understood that as her child I was supposed to agree to whatever she did even when it was wrong. According to her that would be the natural behaviour just as our fingers can only bend forward into the palm but not outward.

But why take the fingers as examples of right or wrong. Why not the arms from the shoulder which can be so flexible and move in almost any direction according to its needs. At that instance, I certainly had to bend backwards to do what was right which was to point to the truth. According to me, the truth is always important even when the wrong is mine. For unless I realise where I have gone wrong, I cannot right the wrong or improve myself. But then, my mother did not agree to my view and every time I had to correct her, she would deny her mistake and told me I was the one who should change. Each time it happened, I wondered how parents who would give me the education to sharpen my mind could not see truth, why my mother and other mothers sometimes just cannot think straight.

"It could be just your mother who is like that," someone may point out. Well, that was what I thought until I had communication with other people. In fact, it was just two evenings ago that a lady told me it happened to her too. According to her mother, she was the rebel, the one that rebels against her way of thinking and pointing out her mistakes even when she was at odds with someone who is not a relative. It was like one of those times when I realise and confirm that I am no freak; just an ordinary human who just happens to see things clearly.