It is so touching to look at the picture of my kids, taken with my handphone and still in the memory.

For the picture, I gathered them all together at the back of the classroom, did the 'Cheese!' thing and consequently the picture has a number of them doing peace signs, rabbit ears, and putting their arms over their fellow classmates.

Children are narcissitic creatures apparently. They love it when someone is taking their picture, paying attention to them, and they get high on that attention, like someone getting intoxicated on good liquour.

I got 2 very good pictures out of that one session, the favourite one being the one where everyone went crazy and did rabbit ears and peace signs and screaming 'CHEESE!!!' at me. When I looked at the picture in the [relative] peace of the rushhour traffic, I realised how wonderful and natural their expressions were.

Each child, beaming their full grins at the camera. No sadness, no disappointment, just pure, unadulterated childish happiness.

It occurred to me then that these were 6year old kids. They were not yet old enough to experience all the bittersweetness of life. They had not yet loved, and lost. They had not experienced crushing disappointment. They had not failed, and felt utterly useless.

All they knew was how good life was to them, how loved they were, and how ready they were to rush into the future, with all their hope, promise and love. They did not yet have any concept of the unhappiness that lay before them, and they were ready to run in with their hearts full to bursting with love for anyone that was willing to accept it.

I felt tears threatening me then, and I did not know whether

They were for all the hardships that I knew they would face

They were for the innocence that would be lost

or whether

They were for all the pure joy and love that was bursting out of that photo.