The Guardian is celebrating the Beijing Olympics by publishing short stories, and the first one is a hilarious one written by Hari Kunzru, and it features pandas. It also reminds me of Chet. :D
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 ...
haha i was just about to link it for chet on my blog too!!
ReplyDeleteThe pandas' way of talking is just what I imagine would be if pandas could talk. I don't trust those cute furballs...I know they're going to fling a little red book at me and spout Maoism when I least expect it!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat! Well count me disappointed Chet! Now I have to find a new purpose in life!
ReplyDelete