FURTHER REACTIONS ON THE ST ARTICLE

There have not been many opportunities to play mahjong lately. Everyone seems to be rather busy, and coordination of schedules is a little off. If not for preparation in moving house and end-of-year shopping, I may be suffering from mahjong withdrawal even now.

It has been a few weeks since that ST article came out. My initial zest has waned and I am feeling a rather doubtful regarding whatever little attention I have gotten from people around me. I was rather glad no one mentioned seeing me in the papers the one or two days after the article was published, and I thought I could happily keep a low profile at work still.

Then a few colleagues started asking me about it and soon, a few of them were teasing me about being the “Queen of Gamblers” and joking about my preparing for an alternative career after the IR is completed. Ok…haha…..nice joke…..but didn’t any of them read the article and understand we wanted to move AWAY from the gambling element? I tried to explain about our rationale for choosing MCR, but they didn’t seem interested to know the details so I gave up and played along.

And it seems people were more interested in my photo being splashed across the pages than the reason for its being there in the first place. One colleague said “Getting into the papers for whatever reason is a good thing…” I didn’t know how to react, how about murder and mayhem?

Then of course I had to fend the usual questions from “concerned” relatives “That guy in the picture is your boyfriend ah???” (Are you, EP DARLING?)

The worst of it was when a “higher-up” came by and made smiling comments like “It seems we are not keeping our employees occupied if they have time for such gambling activities….” and “I need to discuss with X (another manager) about our employees appearing in the papers for such things (namely: gambling activities)….” I got rather confused, was he joking? While the article did not name my affiliation to my company, my duties do put me in the frontline and it is not inconceivable that image issues may arise for the company because of the publication of the article….if it was taken in the wrong context. It worried me for a while, but since there has been no other feedback from the “higher-ups” and other external parties, I guess I am safe.

I have to admit to being rather irked by the various comments on gambling. Did anyone read the article fully, or was it not clear? I thought the main emphasis was on the dissociation with the gambling element. I actually re-read the article a number of times after receiving the various comments, and I thought it read rather clearly. It makes me want to get these people to do a comprehension test on the article, like we used to do in Primary School.

Well, not all of it is bad. EP has had some people approach him regarding our sessions, so we may have new players at our table in the near future. Having new players and being able to make new friends is always a plus point.

There were funny moments too. A colleague from a foreign country saw the article. Since he had no earthly idea what mahjong was, he thought the title “Mahjong Magic” referred to the practice or performance of some kind of magic tricks. It was hard to keep a straight face when he kept asking me when I would perform magic tricks for him.

All in all, it wasn’t exactly a very comfortable experience being “famous”, and I swear to think twice if I am ever approached for an interview for any reason. At the very least, I know enough now to seek permission from my higher-ups at work to prevent potential repercussions should such situation arise in future.