Truth is stranger than fiction?

Prologue
Honestly I would rather write about something else. Today I went to two shops looking for cooking oil and there was none. With today's The Star headline that says " Supply Boost" with the flooding of 70,000 tonnes of cooking oil, I thought I would be able to buy at least a container. But I would have no luck. Last night my kids and I were at Jusco and I passed by empty shelf normally meant for (palm) cooking oil.

First it was sugar, then flour and now cooking oil.

But honestly we can - and should - live without it. Just don't fry any of our food. We can surely cook using other methods - boiling for example - and they should be healthier too.

So I am not really bothered about it.

Then there is this story about the school fees. Aah well, I hate politicians who thinks he runs the country.

Never mind, let's not talk about those depressing stories. Now back to the main story.

Stranger than fiction?

I thought it was a story Drama Minggu Ini would love to have a hand on the script.

I was browsing the online newspapers tonight while waiting for the magrib prayer. I don't buy newspaper nowadays. For one I don't have much time to go through them; so the free newspaper The Sun is sufficient.

Furthermore I prefer to get my news from alternatives sites and of course the ever dependable blogs.

I came across this story from a tabloid that the couple of the accident victims in the Pekan crash (six died) were supposed to get married. Nothing new with that, I supposed; only that he was married with seven children himself and that the first wife didn't know that he was getting a second wife.

In this case, it was fated that he didn't get the chance to marry her.

Stuff for the Cerekarama slot for TV3, I guess.

However the story I knew from years ago was even juicier.

I barely knew him since he was new to the company, and I was about to move on in my career. But I had taken a ride with him driving going back to KL myself since he was a weekly commuter. For him, it was a change in career and he had to leave behind his family behind. With him living a long distant life - separated from the family due to work commitment, he got to know another woman at the new workplace and eventually married her. He didn't declare it - his wife and family didn't know the double life he led.

Every weekend he would drive back to KL to be with his family.

I guess only his parents knew about the second marriage.

One day his parents came for a visit. They were supposed to return by flight. But they missed the flight. Being the filial son, he offered to drive them back on a 10-hour journey.

But fate would have it that he was killed in a road accident during that journey.

At the funeral, the (first) wife was wondering about the stranger who was giving him the last respect. The secret had to come out during the funeral, movie-style.

You know, I always thought this kind of story is unreal. You saw it in the Drama Minggu Ini slot and you would dismiss it as a figment on the writer's imagination; of someone living in their own world and out of touch with reality.

But many-a-times we forget that truth can be stranger than fiction.