There was a forum letter that asked for an explanation for the strange and frequent sound of marbles dropping on the floor of the flat above them. A follow up article on page six had a quote from the letter I sent to ST. It read:
"I am quite sure that this "urban legend" is due to a real social phenomenon: the Singaporean's love of mahjong." - Mr ---, Chuan Terrace
Here is the letter I sent them in its entirety.
“I can hear marbles...or am I losing mine?", ST June 6 2005
Dear Editor,
As a curious child, I too used to wonder about this particular sound of something small and hard dropping on the floor of the flat above my grandma's house ("I can hear marbles...or am I losing mine?", ST June 6 2005). I figured that it must be some child playing with a toy because it seemed to happen so frequently that it could not be due to some especially careless neighbour dropping their pestle on the floor. Of course, I wondered too why my neighbour's kid liked throwing marbles so much.
I grew up, moved out, and forgot about that peculiar noise until one day when I heard that distinctive sound again. But this time, I had created that noise myself! As some readers might guess, this happened during game of mahjong, where an odd tile will inadvertently drop off the table during shuffling and make that "tok, tok, tok" sound as it bounced on the floor.
Although I do not have concrete proof, I am quite sure that this "urban legend" is due to a real social phenomenon: the Singaporean's love of mahjong. Perhaps people who have experienced this sound can get to know their upstairs neighbours better by venturing a visit and asking if they play mahjong. Or perhaps we should just keep it all a mystery and celebrate our own little HDB poltergeist!
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