PART-TIME tutor Daniel Cheng is a familiar face at fast-food outlets in Bishan's Junction 8 mall.
The 46-year-old is the man seated at one end of the restaurant, be it KFC or McDonald's, for hours on end. His reverie is broken occasionally when he picks up his camera phone and appears to train it on the restaurant patrons.
His antics have not gone unnoticed. Marcus Lin, 17, from the nearby technical institute, who hangs out at the mall, said: "We try to avoid him. Everyone here knows him. He's always there, listening to his CD player and taking pictures with his (mobile) phone."
Mr Cheng has attracted no small measure of Internet infamy as well, with numerous blogs giving details of his eccentric behaviour. There are even videos posted on YouTube of him in action, which attracted close to 1,000 eyeballs.
The comments are hardly flattering, with netizens, mostly students, giving him the moniker "Bishan gay" because of his odd behaviour.
When The Straits Times caught up with him late last month, the stocky man covered his mouth with his hands and chortled when told about the blogs.
"I'm not aware of these at all, I'm not a celebrity. I never read blogs because they are not examples of true objective journalism," he said. Not once did he ask about what was written about him online. Nor was he curious to find out who the bloggers were.
Even when told of what had been said about him and his anointed nickname, Mr Cheng, who is single, did not bat an eyelid.
Dismissing it with a wave of his hand, he said he was not bothered by the accusations because they were all "untrue".
"I'm not a celebrity or anyone famous. What can I do about them anyway?
A lawsuit costs a lot of money and it takes a few years before it can be completed. By the end of it, I will be so drained."
He was told that people could be discomfited by his behaviour of snapping pictures and recording videos of strangers.
No, that could not be the case, Mr Cheng insisted. "I am taking pictures of only Bishan's scenery. I love Bishan and I feel very attached to the place, which is why I still come back here after moving to Ang Mo Kio," he said.
Another reason: He said he is attached to his alma mater, Raffles Institution (RI), which moved from Grange Road to its present Bishan campus in 1990.
When contacted, RI deputy headmaster Kenneth Kwok said the school was aware that the boys knew of Mr Cheng.
"We do not encourage our boys to engage in any name calling. We also emphasise to our boys the need for personal safety when they interact with any strangers," he said.
Mr Cheng claimed to know many RI boys, attending alumni functions and fund-raising fun fairs. He is often seen wearing T-shirts linked to the school.
"I feel responsible for these boys, and I just want to guide and help them if they need it," he said, when asked why he was still so involved with the school after so many years.
No one, he said, had ever told him off to his face.
That might be the case, but talking behind his back is a favourite pastime of those in the area.
The Straits Times observed him for nearly six hours on a Tuesday starting from 10am till about 4pm, at a fast-food outlet at Junction 8 mall and on bus service 156.
He seemed oblivious to the attention he attracted.
Some teenagers gave him a wide berth at the restaurant.
Others pointed him out to their friends and spoke in hushed voices about how he was always hanging around in the area. Some even chided their friends for sitting near him.
Andrew Chan, 16, was one of the students who spotted him at Bishan and told the two friends he was with to sit far away from the man.
If Mr Cheng was aware of the students' discomfort, he did not show it.
That Tuesday, he snapped pictures with his camera phone while in the restaurant - where he sat for four hours nursing two cups of tea.
He then headed to the nearby coffee shop, for about 20 minutes, where he had lunch and carried on taking more photos.
He boarded bus service 156 outside Bishan MRT, got off three stops later near Mount Alvernia Hospital and crossed the road to the bus stop by MacRitchie Reservoir.
Here he spent half an hour before taking the same bus service again, this time, in the opposite direction, taking snapshots both at the bus stop and on the packed bus full of students from RI and Hwa Chong Institution.
After alighting in Ang Mo Kio, he was last seen crossing the road once more for the opposite bus stop.
Altogether, The Straits Times saw him take at least 19 photos during the day.
He certainly got an eyeful of Bishan.
Source: http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/...811-81738.html
--- E. Fermi (1901-1954)
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