Growing Up Nowadays

Just finished reading three of the four books on The Diary of Amos Lee by Singaporean Adeline Foo. The books are delightful insight into growing up in urban Singapore from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy. It reminded me of the Kampung Boy series by Datuk Lat about growing up in in Perak back in the early sixties.

I can very much identify with the surrounding described by Datuk Lat in his series of books. Walking to and from school with friends, taking our own sweet time. It was safe, most kids did that. Later on we learnt to ride a bicycle and we started cycling together to school. There were no school buses and who ever heard of anyone being taken to school in a car?
In The Diary of Amos Lee Book 1 the ten-year-old narrator Amos Lee was asked by his mother to write about what makes living in a flat unique? Amos Lee first and foremost said that because he could play along the corridor. I think there many children especially in the bigger cities in Malaysia and who also lived in flats or condominiums would say the same thing.