I should never become rich and famous

I should never become rich and famous.

I am too much of a heartlander.

Let’s picture this.

Should I become rich and famous one day, I will not eat in a crowded hawker centre and jeopardize my image as a wealthy and distinguished lady, and certainly not at the risk of being caught by the paparazzi. I will go to a quiet French restaurant and enjoy the violin being played in the background. If I really crave for hawker food, I will send Maria to buy it for me. I will not go to the NTUC supermarket to buy groceries, and run the risk of having an auntie or uncle spot me queuing at the cashier with a pack of toilet rolls. If I really have to top up groceries, I will choose the Marketplace supermarket which is less crowded with budget shoppers and frequently patronized by expatriates. I will not take public transport and have people peer at me up and down, or have people pretend to sms but sneakily snapping my photo with their handphone. I will have a chauffeur drive me around the whole day. I will never allow myself to be caught shopping at neighbourhood stores, my shopping haunts should be high class boutiques in town.

So much for daydreaming. Whew! It was really a draining daydream!

There are so many things that I cannot do if I am rich and famous.

Can you imagine? Not being able to go to hawker centres for meals, not being able to wear a t-shirt, bermudas and slippers to the NTUC supermarket and carry big grocery bags home, and not being able to walk and shop at the neighbourhood stores and malls?

Frankly, who does not want to be rich and famous? To have all the money in the world to be spent at your whim and pleasure, and to have everyone know who you are and be everyone’s model and inspiration. Or simply to have people envy you, and say, “I wish I could be like him/her.”

I believe, no matter how humble a person is or how much a person does not like to be in the limelight or the centre of attention, there is always this tiny bubble of self-importance in you that make you yearn to become rich and famous. It could be a bursting bubble, or just a well concealed one, so well concealed that you do not even know it, and you will always proclaim, “I just want to be a normal person.”

But, being rich and famous is not easy.

I once saw this well known celebrity at a neighbourhood store near my house. She was holding up and scrutinizing a blouse at this store that is swarmed by uncles and aunties because there was a big sale going on. My friend said to me, “Look! It’s XXX! I didn’t know she comes here to buy clothes. I thought with her fame, she should be going to expensive boutiques!”

Rich and famous people are basically just like you and me. Why impose unnamed rules on where they should eat and shop? Does it not sound like they are in a living prison? (The irony is, sometimes they are the ones who impose the rules on themselves.)

Well, some people may feel that rich and famous people have both the wealth and the fame, so what does a little sacrifice mean to them Perhaps nothing. But, I guess sometimes the little daily sacrifices are the ones that people might appreciate most.

Just the other day, I was going to take the train to go for a badminton session. I wore a t-shirt and beach bermudas, and carried the racket in my hands. My mother’s jaw dropped when she saw me.

Mother: You are going to take the MRT in this?
Me: Hmm…yes, what’s wrong?
Mother: People will laugh at you!
Me: Aiyoh, nobody knows me lah!

We often marvel at millionaires or billionaires, celebrities whom everyone idolizes, but I guess the pressures and sacrifices of a rich and famous people are what I would probably never be able to handle. A rich and famous person’s hat is too big for me.

No doubt a little wealth and fame would not hurt, in fact it may also make some people happier. But, I think I will be contented with being just a heartlander.


(On a side note, could it be just sour grapes, because I am neither rich nor famous now?)