My neighbour was a medium

Years ago, when I lived in a village, I had a neighbour who earned extra income by being a medium.

Ah Tim built a shed near to his house and installed an altar in it. On the altar sat an idol whom he would offer jossticks day and night. When customers came to consult him, he would light extra jossticks, josscandles and burnt some josspaper.

As it happened very long ago, I have forgotten much of the details. I vaguely remember that he could have an average of 1 or 2 customers a day. They came to ask him about the predicament of deceased relatives, asked whether they had offended any spirits, and very often, to get 4-D numbers to 'buy lottery'.

Ah Tim would go into a semi-trance and conversed with his customers in a mumbly voice. At times he would grab some pomelo leaves and stuff them inside his mouth to chew while meting out advice and information to his customers.

Now and then, a customer would return to Ah Tim and announced that he had won a 4-D lottery and would now wish to offer the idol thanksgiving and respect. Ah Tim would receive a thanksgiving 'red-packet' of course. Some neighbours would laugh and reasoned that if Ah Tim gave out 100 4-D numbers, surely 1 would 'open' as a winner.

By and by, all the families in the village were re-settled, and the area was renamed Potong Pasir Housing Estate instead. Ah Tim was re-settled in Toa Payoh. The last I heard was that he was doing pretty well as a medium.

I am writing this in my blog just to show that there are still such activities in Singapore.