Now I’ve got my little office space nicely settled beside the window, work begins at 9 am or 10 am  in the morning and it sometimes never end till 11pm. I love this newly created work space, with the sun shining on my face every morning. I will have some fresh flowers to brighten up the window ledge, which is also now lined up with my desk phone, an alarm clock, my piggy handphone holder, my water tumbler, a candle holder and a remote control holder…quite a bit indeed for a 60 cm window ledge. Sometimes the sun gets a little overbearing in the afternoon, i will draw the shades down slightly.
Looking out of the window is a totally different world out there.
The small slum houses with roofs that are covered with cardboards and some with broken tiles. Clothes are randomly hanged and fluttering in the dust. With the sun, people are hanging out all their bedsheets, pillows and boots.I wonder how cold it will be to stay during the winter and how do the people living inside get by the hot summer. I complain so much about the cold at home and hot air conditioning is readily available with the push of a button.
Who live in these slum houses? Are they happy? I hear fire crackers once in a while..what are they celebrating? Occasionally i hear quarrels too, really fierce at times and the voices will echo through the entire estate. Are they quarreling over life? I see children reading and playing along the small walk lanes. Do they have anything to care at all? H0w do they see children playing on the other side of their homes? Have they every played with any children from the other side? Do they know what’s on the other side of their house? Have they ever looked up and see the development i lived in? Do they hope they were staying in one of the units when they are in the cold?
And at the other side of these slum houses is a hotel service apartment filled with foreigners who have left their homes to work in Shanghai? Are they happy? Do they miss their homes miles away? How often do they come home ? or is it really call a home? Are they upset living as a mistress ? Is their life really happier living in a nice roof with all the comfort ? Are they living on the edge of life?
Nobody knows. Nobody will know.Just a window, just a different life.