Progress for Our Nation - Episode One

That day Dr Og go Geylang. Not the even number  Lorong ok, but the odd number one. Last time younger time, will go Geylang eat frog leg porridge, beef kway teow etc etc etc. Nowadays Geylang half is like Chinatown, half is kennah gentrified. Wah no longer got the same feel liao.

Anyway Dr Og along the way visit an old friend who is a GP. Last time, his business very good one. People who stay around the area liked to go see him. So in morning he busy give the ah girl and ah boy MCs. At night, he busy giving the call girls penicillin. 

Those were a long time ago. Over the years, his business seemed to have dwindled. Dr Og also never really ask him la. Sensitive mah. 

That day, there were no patients when I was at his clinic and he brought up the issue himself. 

“Og ar, I think I got to move to a new location.” He said. 

“Wah, you here very long liao leh. I thought you last time like it here coz lunch can go karaoke for some quick fun???! Too many hostesses ask you for free consult isit??” I teased him. 

(In case, his wife happens to be reading , this is of course entirely fictional. Lunch time he usually eating some nice hawker food around the area which explains his current size)

“No la, now people so lazy, no more open at noon la. Actually I called a few ex patients and you won’t believe why they don’t come back!”

“Why??!!” I was curious to know.

“They tell me that they can’t stand having to climb the stairs up to my clinic!” He lamented.

So it seems that in the past, people were quite used to and were happy to climb stairs. But after HDB upgraded and added lifts to every floor, Singaporean lost the will to climb! No one was willing to climb stairs these days and his clinic was in a walk up building on level three with no elevator...

Sighing away, he told me that ironically, a 80 old lady who had OA knees still visited him regularly. She herself stayed in a walk up apartment and despite the pain, she had to climb stairs to get home and did not mind doing so to see her GP. We both agreed that had she not been made to climb stairs, she may not even be walking anymore!

Dr Og don’t know how to console this old friend. Singapore has progress but in the process there can be some people who kennah some collateral damage. 

Just like him, I too miss the good old times.