Finally : The Creative Writing Class

It was a month ago that I finally did it.

It being an item on my “To Do Before Death” list – signing up for a creative writing class. I selected hers.

I remember hastily sending the cheque and emailing my confirmation before I could change my mind.

Because, really, half of me (the practical, working Mom half) was already telling the other half (the one who loves stories) that it would be a waste of time and money; that I was just going to tire myself out racing to get into the city at rush hour; that nothing good will come out of the class anyway because who has time to write?; that there was no future in creative writing in Malaysia – or anywhere else in the world – for me; that I would be better off staying back late at the office and working (at least that would get me kudos from the boss); that I should not be so selfish and self-indulgent; that I should instead go home early and spend time with the Mom-deprived kids; that I should wait until I am retired before I enroll in something so – frivolous.

Filed under: Personal Note, Writing

Women: From kitchen to cabinet. But not if you’re Muslim?

I read this article when it was first published (Malaysiakini, needs subscription), stuffed it into my drafts folder and wrote about other matters. The reason: I had no strong, immediate reaction and it worried the feminist in me. I should have been as outraged as the writer at Mr Yaacob’s comment but I wasn’t. And I needed time to figure out why.

After all, Mr Yaacob was essentially saying a female Prime Minister for Malaysia is an impossibility so women should not even aspire to be one. They should instead focus on other “rights” and leave the job of running the country to men (where it rightfully belongs, is his implied belief).

“That is the reality. Women should fight for their rights, but in doing so they should not at least for now, ask for things which do not make sense, such as wanting to be prime minister,” was (Mr Yaacob’s) so-called rationale. While quick to add that he supported gender equality, he said women’s organisations have to “be realistic” and not ask for unreasonable things.

From Kitchen to Cabinet, JJ, Malaysiakini, 16 August 2006

That he said this in front of 1,000 women at a seminar on the roles of women, families and civil society in strengthening integrity, of course, is an irony the writer very rightfully highlighted. “Does Adnan have any idea when he thinks a woman can assume leadership of Malaysia? Or was his statement merely a blanket assumption based on male bias?”

Filed under: Islam, Malaysiana, Newsprint, Women

I want to own a bookstore

Don’t you?

Being a bookstore owner has been a childhood fantasy of mine, one that has persisted into adulthood (albeit only in the moments when I feel I can relax for a bit and tuck away the corporate ambitions for awhile). There’s a calming and a stirring when I walk among shelves of books and dip into the tomes. And when I want to withdraw from the rat race, mentally, the imaginary bookstore is my respite.

But what is it really like to build your very own bookstore? And can you compete in this world with giant bookstores like Amazon and Borders and Times and MPH? I’d imagine that in this country where reading is not exactly a favourite habit, being a small bookstore owner even in an urban area is tough business, unless you can appeal to a niche like he does.

In England, things could be brighter. And so it is with great interest that I am following the blog of Mr Nic Bottomley, a disenchanted lawyer, who ditched legal practice to set up an independent bookstore in Bath, England. Now the proud owner of Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, Mr Bottomley’s blog will detail the journey of his new life as an independent bookseller.

The shop most certainly looks as charming as its name.

It make you want to visit, doesn’t it?

Filed under: At the Stores, Personal Note, Reads

Writing Again…Is Tough

I haven’t written for awhile now. It’s been months since I’ve fashioned personal essays, ink-spouted opinions and concocted fancy tales. I’m not a prolific writer by any measure (and no, I am not published and do not have concrete ambitions towards that) – there seems an equal amount of erasing as there is creating when I sit and write – but I used to at least regularly hammer out entries even if they were very ordinary summaries of daily events. There is a certain amount of satisfaction at filling up the pages of those notebooks I used to carry (the horror at some of its content aside).

There felt to be something missing when I wasn’t writing. But yet when I tried to write, nothing would appear.

This blog is a tool to jumpstart me again. And I’m finding it tough – I re-read the earlier posts and cringe at the unsophisticated, clumsy twirls of the words and the rough apparels of the sentences. It’s tougher to see your efforts on screen, nicely framed and presented, but not quite the gourmet dish you had in mind.

But still, I keep in mind that this is only a blog and not meant to be a masterpiece. Journalist Chip Scanlan of The Mechanic and The Muse puts it nicely:

When I blog, my standards are lowered, always a key element in producing writing that can be revised, even after it’s published. A blog, by its very nature, is more informal than a column and less freighted with the expectations that a metro or sports column can impose. Blogging hasn’t made me indifferent to revision or accuracy; it just makes the process of generating words less susceptible to the inner critic.

Come end of August, I’ll be attending a creative writing course. We will see if the muse will delight in the attention and come out of hiding.

Filed under: Personal Note, Writing

Puteri Gunung Ledang, Alternate Cast

Courtesy of Hubby’s good friend, we got tickets to watch Puteri Gunung Ledang on Sunday night – Hubby, Uncle, Aunt, me. It was the night of the “alternate cast” of – and I hope I get this right – ‘Baby Erin’ as the Puteri, Aqasha (Akassha?) as Hang Tuah, and Jeffry Haikel as Sultan Mahmud (no, I did not know about it, and yes, I was disappointed that the glamourous Datin T and the rather dashing Stephen Rahman Hughes were not performing; the Datin did attend though with her other half).

The crowd must have consisted mostly of the alternate cast’s supporters because the applause and the cheers were racuous from start to finish.

I went with very little expectations, despite from the rave reviews some of my friends had given of the production. The mystique of Puteri Gunung Ledang had never particularly entranced me, even as a kid, and I lumped it together with other stories of incredibly beautiful women lusted over by half the world’s men, that end in unnecessary tragedy (yes, these include the Helen of Troy tale).

But I was prepared to be won over.

And PGL did that, sort of, despite the alternative cast, and the absence of SRH.

Filed under: Arts, Music, Personal Note

An RMK-9 Scam

It’s bound to happen sooner or later.

I received a telephone call tonight from a gentle-voiced chap who said he was calling on behalf of a company in Rawang, Selangor, which had received a “peruntukan” under the Ninth Malaysia Plan and wanted to distribute this allocation to customers or buyers of Malaysian-made goods. The company, he said, had selected my name from this roll of customers and, presumable to reward my custom, they wanted to “give” me a Toyota Avanza worth RM90,000.

All I had to do, this rather suave-sounding guy said, was to come over to their office in Rawang tonight at 10pm with a photocopy of my IC, my driver’s license, and at least twelve receipts of Malaysian goods I had purchased*. I was assured that the car was mine and that I did not have to pay money for it, that there were no strings attached, that all they wanted was to verify that I am who I am to claim the prize.

Maybe it’s the cold I am suffering from, but all I could think of saying was “I do not have the receipts” followed by ”I am so sorry but I cannot come over tonight. Thank you.” And then I hung up.

Under normal circumstances, I would have given smarter retorts or at least would have pretended to swallow the scam, you know, just for the fun of it. But it somehow gave me chills that these people know my address (he recited it) and my home phone number, whereas I did not have any clue who they were or where to find them.

I am very sure there would be Malaysians gullible enough to fall for the scam, as there are Malaysians who fall for the bomoh-sex-scam and the black money scam.

Hubby and I almost fell for a scam ourselves, five years back….

Filed under: Malaysiana, Personal Note

It’s About Time

Finally:

The country’s first comprehensive research on feminist movements to address the vacuum in academia on such issues has been completed. The Women’s Development Centre (WDC) spearheaded the project and this resulted in the comprehensive book entitled Feminism and the Women’s Movement in Malaysia: An Unsung (R)evolution which took authors Tan Beng Hui, Maznah Mohamad and Cecilia Ng six years to complete. (Malaysiakini, needs subscription)

Feminism is a taboo word still in Malaysia, and more commonly associated with man-hating tendencies than a movement that seeks to eliminate inequalities based on gender. In a society where women’s needs are still made subservient to men’s, fighting for the platform to be even (ie: equal pay for equal work, no penalisation for women who want to have families and a career) is seen as a very unfeminine thing to do.

This is a country where gender bigots like these still exist, who spout opinions like:

“…wives who do not provide proper care for their husbands, including not fulfilling their sexual needs, can be considered as being unjust and abusive towards their husbands…”

and who use the law, backed by religion: 

“Islamic laws does not only protect the women but also the men….These women can be charged under Section 128 (1) of the Kelantan Islamic Law Enactment 2002, which provides for a fine of RM1,000 or jail of up to six months or both upon conviction”

The women’s movement, particularly when it deals with the rights of Muslim women, face a mammoth task ahead.

Filed under: Malaysiana, Women