When I was just a small rugrat in primary school, The Matriarch did not like the idea of her son running around and getting into trouble with the local 'pai kias' outside. As a result I was imprisoned indoors most of the time and spent endless hours in solitude, which in retrospect probably contributed to my present introverted nature. Furniture is not a good conversation partner and talking to myself would have caused me to become a permanent resident at Woodbridge.


I did not just spend all those hours sitting around staring at blank walls though. On the contrary, my small world was filled with a lot of stuff which, to a small rugrat like myself, always seemed to provide ample distractions. For instance, I had a full set of encyclopedia called Childcraft which covered almost every topic under the sun. Filled with interesting pictures and diagrams, the heavy books were a regular fixture. In fact, they became mandatory reading later on. Reading about far away places and people, amazing scientific gadgetry and thought-provoking philosophies was mind-blowing for a small kid who seldom even ventured from his neighbourhood and showed him that there was a larger world out there that existed far beyond his eyes could see.


Not every hour was spent with the books though. I had many other treasured stuff too. Wonderful stuff like the Sega Genesis which my dad brought home one day. Within its world, I could be a brave knight rescuing my kingdom from monsters today and a dashing space hero battlling invading aliens the next. It was another form of escape. An escape to worlds without school, endless homework and tuition, boring violin/computer lessons and other harsh responsibilites of life that plague a young mind. For a few hours I had control. Control over where to go, what to do and how to do it. There was no guiding hand. The decisions I made and their consequences were mine to bear alone.


Apart from my beloved Genesis, I shared my tiny world with a bunch of cool toys too. Zoids, GI Joe, Gundam, Robotech, Patlabor, Lego, Mechwarrior, Star Trek and Star Wars were the favorites. There was a small collection of model aircraft, race cars, tanks, battleships, movie replicas and military figurines too. While other kids my age were having fun kicking ball on the courts outside, I was in my room assembling motors, wiring battery compartments and LEDs and joining assorted parts with superglue and modeling cement. Certainly not the idea of fun to some but I like to think that fun is what you make of it. I may be trapped physically in my room but my mind was not and with these toys, I could manifest my imaginations.


Till this day, those toys, books and the music that I have come to collect later on have all served as comfort zones that I retreat to in times of stress and depression. You can call me a dreamer maybe. Or an escapist even. But in this harsh reality where a lot of things aren't really within our control and you feel lost sometimes, having something that you can always count on to prep you up isn't such a bad idea at all.


A world of our own maybe?