I sent out a few SMSes to some of friends, asking them about who is the person who has influenced them most in their lives and in what ways. I do not know how that thought came to be. But I recall wondering how different my life would be if I had not picked up philosophy through an introductory text on Nietzsche which I found just before my junior college days ended.

The love for knowledge was actually flamed to life by this rather strange GP teacher that I had during the first three months in junior college. He was Irish, had this huge beard which we wonder how much food bits actually nestled in and he had once, in a dramatic fit of passion, threw a chair out of the classroom.

There was a strange episode relating to this tutor of mine that happened years after I left college. I was waiting for bus 105 at this bus stop located between Toa Payoh and Bishan, slightly before Braddell. It was late and I was wondering if I had missed my last bus. There was but one other guy at the bus stop. As the wait continued, doubts set into both us about whether our buses would even arrive. And I cannot exactly remember how we started a conversation. It turned out that this Malay youth, about my age was on his way to sleep at the bus stop in the east, so as to be able to receive and distribute the papers when they arrive first thing in the morning.

And he knew my tutor. I suppose it is just another one of those strange encounters I get at night....

I found out that my tutor used to teach at Bartley Technical and all the students thought he used to be rugby player of sorts. I suppose that explains why he throws things around. Reflecting on the short three months that I spent under his tutelage, the most significant exercise he made us do was to ask the class to list the attributes of an educated person. The list was terribly long, it made an educated person seemed god-like.

And I was in despair, thinking that there is no chance of me ever been an educated person, not in this present life, anyway.

That brief session actually changed the course of my life, inspiring me to chase after an impossible dream.

My bus came.

And I guess that got me wondering, who or what actually changed my friends' lives, for better or for worse....

Newsflash

Letters From A Killer will be shown on Channel I on Tuesday at 10pm.

It is the worst show EVER made and I sat through it. The show is highly recommended for all those who want to feel my pain.