Hüzün

I recently read with great pleasure Orhan Pamut's Istanbul - Memories and the City. Orhan is a true blue Turk, born and bred in Istanbul - what was once the majestic Constantinople, capital city of the glorious Ottoman empire.

In his book he introduces us to hüzün, an intense and intimate sentiment of communal melancholy that all Istabul people share. On one hand, a forlorn sigh for faded greatness. A mournful echo clinging onto the past. On the other, a tender and barely perceptible call to brotherhood, an enduring testament of Turkish unity and nostalgic pride. Altogether charming.

I believe this is what makes a city great. Its people, its souls, magically bonded together by a common history, quietly inspired by a common destiny, handfasted in a thick communal sentiment. I yearn to belong to such a place.

Wherein lies the hüzün of Singapore?