Mei Ling and Arjun were sitting at a hawker centre in Singapore, halfway through their chicken rice.
Mei Ling: Eh, Arjun! Don’t waste the rice. Finish everything. You know the saying right? If you don’t finish your food, your future spouse will be ugly.
Arjun: (laughs) Mei Ling, by that logic, half the people in Singapore should look like movie villains.
Mei Ling: Don’t joke! My grandma always said this. Last time in kampung, if we left even one grain of rice, she would scold us. She’d say, “Later you marry someone very ugly, then you cry.”
Arjun: That sounds more like a creative parenting strategy than a prophecy.
Mei Ling: No okay, serious one. My cousin always waste food when young. Now her husband… not very handsome.
Arjun: Correlation is not causation, Mei Ling.
Mei Ling: Wah, you start your science lecture already.
Arjun: I’m just saying. There are millions of people who don’t finish their food. Their spouses look… normal. Some even very good-looking. If this superstition were true, we’d see a clear pattern. Like a scientific study: “Plate Finishing vs Spouse Attractiveness.” Controlled variables, large sample size.
Mei Ling: You and your studies. Not everything needs peer review okay.
Arjun: True. But extraordinary claims need evidence. Think about it — how would the universe even enforce this rule? Is there some cosmic matchmaking department checking CCTV footage at hawker centres?
Mei Ling: (laughs) Maybe got ah! You never know.
Arjun: Come on. The more reasonable explanation is that older generations didn’t want kids to waste food. Especially during times when food was scarce. So they created a scary consequence that children would understand.
Mei Ling: Hmm. My grandma did grow up during tough times. She always talk about rationing and how precious rice was.
Arjun: Exactly. It’s behavioural psychology. If you tell a kid, “Don’t waste food because of global agricultural economics,” they won’t care. But if you say, “Later your husband ugly,” suddenly very motivated.
Mei Ling: Okay lah, that part makes sense. But still… I feel uncomfortable leaving food. Like bad luck.
Arjun: That part I actually agree with — not the ugly spouse, but the wasting food part. There are environmental impacts. Food production uses water, land, energy. When we waste food, we waste resources. That’s real, measurable harm.
Mei Ling: So you’re saying finish food because of sustainability, not because of face beauty.
Arjun: Exactly. And also portion control. If you’re full, you’re full. Forcing yourself to overeat just to avoid superstition isn’t healthy either.
Mei Ling: Aiya, now you attacking both my superstition and my second serving.
Arjun: I’m attacking your logic, not your appetite.
Mei Ling: But sometimes superstition keeps culture alive, you know. It connects us to family. When I hear that phrase, I remember my grandma’s voice.
Arjun: That’s fair. Traditions have emotional value. I’m not saying throw them away. I’m just saying separate symbolic meaning from literal belief.
Mei Ling: So I can still say it for fun next time?
Arjun: Sure. Just don’t use it as scientific evidence.
Mei Ling: Wah, imagine if your future wife super pretty. Then what?
Arjun: Then we publish a paper: “Despite Incomplete Rice Consumption, Subject Achieved Aesthetically Favorable Marriage Outcome.”
Mei Ling: You’re impossible.
Arjun: Look, I respect that the saying teaches gratitude. That part is beautiful. But attractiveness is subjective anyway. What if someone thinks my spouse is ugly but I think she’s gorgeous?
Mei Ling: That one true. Beauty got no fixed standard.
Arjun: Exactly. So how to measure? Use some “Spouse Beauty Index”? Very unscientific.
Mei Ling: Okay okay, professor. I admit maybe the ugly spouse part is just… dramatic marketing.
Arjun: Now that I fully support.
Mei Ling: But I still finishing my plate.
Arjun: Good. Just don’t blame your rice if your future husband looks average.
Mei Ling: Deal. And if yours looks handsome, I’ll say it’s because you ate your vegetables.
They both laughed, clinking their plastic cups of kopi, the superstition softened into something lighter — less a rule of fate, more a story passed down with love, reshaped by reason but still part of who they were.
Science Vs Superstition 
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