Mr Loh’s national song

As I rushed to find a wire­less hotspot to sit down at and email urgent work to a client, I heard a famil­iar tune in one of our great city’s many under­passes, and so decided to trace the source.

But when I got to it, the busker had just fin­ished his har­mon­ica ren­di­tion of one of the tune. I rum­maged through my pocket and pro­duced some money to put in his bas­ket, and said very nicely to him, “Uncle, can play that song one more time?“

“You like that song? OK, short one ah, I play one more time”, he smiled and said:

After he was done, he asked me why I liked that song, and so I explained that I lived in Aus­tralia for a period in the 90s.

“So did I”, he said, beam­ing, “but before you were born, probably”.

Mr Loh then went on to tell me that he went to Syd­ney in 1962, stud­ied Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing at Syd­ney Uni­ver­sity, and moved to Mel­bourne for a while before return­ing to Sin­ga­pore in 1972.

“Hmm… Lee ah? I don’t know any Lees there, but I have many rel­a­tives still in Mel­bourne”, added Mr Loh when I explained that my par­ents lived in Mel­bourne for a period dur­ing the 50s and 60s too.

“I would love to move there again, I can work there pick­ing fruit in the orchards”, said the lively 73 year old as he checked to make sure his mic and ampli­fier were turned off.

“But I love doing this. It’s not for the money. You don’t have to give me money, as long as you enjoy my music, and I will play for as long as I am hav­ing fun”, he said as he told me about busk­ing three hours a day, five days a week in the same underpass.

Before he packed his har­mon­ica wheeled his bas­ket and amp off home, Mr Loh and I stood in the under­pass for another few good min­utes, talk­ing about other stuff that I’d like to keep between him and myself because he deserves it.

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