The Beautifullest Game

When I was in school, my history teacher's daughter, Pupli (her nickname, or daak naam, to be precise) was around 8 years old and very mischievous. Our teacher, Ms G, would sometimes bring her along on school excursions and picnics, but Pupli needed an eye on her at all times. I got on well with her – I seem to get along with mischievous and hyperactive kids in general – so Ms G would often ask me to come along too, even in later years when I wasn't in her class. I didn't mind, as I got to go for excursions which I would have otherwise missed out on.

The photo below is from one such outing; Pupli and I are on the right. It was a school trip to see the Victoria Memorial, but when we were having lunch on the lawns, some people offered us (oversized) World Optometry Day t-shirts and asked if we could pose for a photo, which appeared in a newspaper the next day.

One time I was at Ms G's place, playing Ludo. Pupli won, and in a paroxysm of delight, exclaimed in English (we usually spoke in Bengali), "Ludo is the beautifullest game!"

I don't know about the beautifullest game, though I do have some opinions on the beautifullest sport. But that's a topic for another blogpost.

Singapore, 7:33 pm

We occasionally play pickleball at these very nice public courts at an HDB (social housing) estate in Ang Mo Kio. They're multi-purpose courts, so in the photo there are two sports being played in parallel: pickleball and sepak takraw.

The courts can also be used for badminton. I actually prefer badminton as a sport, but pickleball has contributed more to my social life – I've made some new friends and had fun experiences.

This is the first photo I'm posting which is taken on my new phone, a Google Pixel 6a, which has a 0.6× camera. I'll say a bit more about my new phone later, perhaps, and more on badminton too.