Jan 30th UPDATE:
The date and venue for the book launch is postponed to a later date. Will keep you all posted. Thank you.
NBB
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| Rabiah's Hijrah evolved into Across the Causeway
Dear loyal blog readers,
I apologise for the sporadic postings. I really should make up for the long absence.
Since last Hari Raya Puasa, I've been busy rewriting and meeting illustrators, designers and printers to turn the scattered entries into a published memoir.
There were several revisions. Many characters were eliminated. Some scenes were sacrificed. The focus is on how the child makes sense of her reality and identity ... her father's absence, her mother's resilience, their disparate origins, their stark differences, the rapid social, economic and political changes that shaped her environment.
This is an independent publishing project.
It's the first part of a two part series on a child/girlhood in Singapore and Malaysia in the '60s and '70s.
Pre-orders are welcomed. Only when there are sufficient orders to make 'printing-on-demand' economically viable, will you be requested to make payments.
Or if there are Angel Investors, Compassionate Crowdfunders or Nostalgia Junkies looking to support a creative work on the theme of a truly United Nusantara Nations, please do contact me.
At any rate, a launch is scheduled for February 14, 2015.
Venue: Malaysian National Library, Jalan Tun Razak.
Time: 3-5PM
Programme:
* Very brief speeches
* '60s tunes by Young and Senior Artists
* Readings of passages
* Selfies/Wefies at Photo Booth
Dress Code: '60s Retro
See you all there!
BLURB
Bet’s wonder years were less than ordinary. Growing up in the turbulent ‘60s was like living on a proverbial minefield. Even before Bet was born, Bapak had been jailed for being a Radical. Mak was a Realist who found no job too small, and did whatever it took to put a roof over their heads and food on the table.
Mak and Bapak and all the other adults in her neighbourhood were too preoccupied with the big Merger, the Confrontation, the Riots, the Curfews and the Separation. All Bet could think of was the terrible haircut she was stuck with after her trip to the Barber’s, which made her face look rounder; and those hideous marks on her legs from climbing all those trees around her compound; and that horrible school uniform which made her self-conscious.
Bet had to learn early that the world did not owe her a living. She had to be beyond just resourceful to survive. She had to be tough and grow up quicker than the other girls and boys.
One day, Mak dropped the Bomb on the Big Move. They had to leave their homeland for good.
Genre: Coming-of-age in the Mid '60s |
