An encounter at a supermarket, Singapore

Yesterday, I took a trip to the supermarket. A ordinary thing to do, you might think. Yet, suddenly, it is not ordinary.

As I waited by the check out counter, a young man approached me - of Malay origin.

"Are you the Father?" he said, with a capital letter.

I knew which "Father" he must mean.

His hand waved uncertainly in the air in front of him, searching for words: "...of the boy who passed his O level?"

"Yes, I am."

"I was shocked when I read that..." he began, clearly looking even more shocked to have met me, a living, walking Front Page of A Newspaper. "Only seven." He said, as if he was explaining some deep matter of the Universe by this number - or more likely, posing one of the Universes greater mysteries.

"Yes." I agreed, "I was pretty shocked myself.", I found myself saying - which wasn't true at all. I hadn't been shocked in the least - it was what I expected. However, something in me thought that that is what he would have expected from me and so I conformed to his expectation to make him feel better about the world. Perhaps I shouldn't have - but it was meant as a kindness - a kind of empathic reaching out.

He nodded to himself, and held himself in that way that told me he was slightly breathless, struggling against speechlessness.

"Who taught him?" He continued, getting the Key Question out.

"I did."

"You did science in the past?" He probed, making probable connections.

"Yes...I was a physicist."

"But you taught him Chemistry..." he probed further, seeing some inconsistency.

"Yes, I re-learnt Chemistry so that I could teach him it."

He seemed at a loss as to how to continue, so I reached out my hand and shook his: "Nice to meet you." I said.

He kind of nodded, not knowing, perhaps, what to say.

Then I stepped back one or two steps, but something stopped me, something prompted me to a kindness of sorts: "What's your name?" I asked.

"Ashraf," he began, "I work here..." He looked me in the eyes, and repeated: "I work here."

I looked at him. He was in "plain clothes" - ordinary civilian attire, there being no uniform in sight, so I had no way of knowing whether this was true. Yet, he said it, so I accepted it. He must just be getting off work, I thought.

"Good...bye Ashraf!"

I left the store. I didn't look back, but it seems likely that I would have found his eyes upon me, had I done so.

It was a pleasant introduction to public recognition...and, to me, a surprising one. People really do read newspapers here - and pay attention to what is in them.

I wonder what is going to happen after today, with our family's appearance in the largest circulation newspaper in Singapore - The Sunday Times (of The Straits Times).

I will soon learn.

Best wishes all.

(If you would like to learn of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, or his gifted siblings, Fintan, three and Tiarnan, fourteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)