Merepek

As I was window-shopping a couple of weeks ago, I saw a man carrying a small child sitting in one of the benches and probably waiting for the dear wife as she indulged herself in one of the stores. Placed next to him was a bulging bag which I assume contained the baby’s ‘essentials and supplies’ and a baby stroller was parked nearby. Another toddler aged about 3 years or so was playing with his robot toy on the cold floor a few feet away. This papa was bottle-feeding his young baby, probably not more than 2 months old and he was such a ‘natural’ with the way he held the child in his arm and the way he ‘positioned’ the bottle. After a while or so, he put the bottle down and burped the child before he proceeded to continue feeding. Ahh… such a heartwarming scene.

It’s not that I have not seen this type of new-age papas before, but that man looked familiar. Where have I seen him before. Hmmmm…Errrmmm….Try as I might, I just could not place him. Anyway, I walked into another store and something else caught my eyes and I just erased this image.

Then 2 days ago, I saw this man again at a funeral wake of a colleague. A quick referral with another colleague confirmed that this man is the Director of XXX Co. Oooohhh…..I see, I see. Now I remember. This is the same man I saw in action at his office many, many months ago. I was at XXX Co. to collect some documents. As the person in charge was in the midst of a short discussion, I was told to wait at the reception area. I was thumping through some of the old magazines when suddenly a very well-dressed man stormed out and yelled at the receptionist for putting through a call to his office. OMG, the look on his face would be good enough to frighten away a pit-bull. Then I guessed he realized that there was someone in the reception area and he just as quickly retreated to his office. That was rude. Didn’t know whether he felt embarrassed or not but the receptionist and I sure did.

Ya, this is the same man – the docile and loving father looking after the kids while his wife shopped. This is the same man who wore power suits and call all the shots at the office but is very ‘domesticated’ at the home front. This is the same man who was crass and rude at work but gentle and loving at home.

Men wear many masks too.