Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...
you write the sponsored posts very entertainingly and i hope you get paid well but i hate the whole idea of 'em
ReplyDeletewhat we really do need is proper paying sponsorship for book blogging. i have been talking to one proactive bookshop prepared to pay good money for a sidebar banner. hope the idea takes off.
More reason for me to quit those sponsored posts then. It was good money, but then Google punished me by ranking me back to 0, which affects sponsorship opportunities. :D
ReplyDeleteBookshops sponsoring blogs is a wonderful idea! But as far as I'm concerned MPH and Kinokuniya are already sponsoring me by giving me free books... maybe I should put up some banners to show them some love!