Thursday 26 September 2013

A Dialogue Between Two Generations


A Dialogue Between Two Generations
(a duet co-written by Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf and M. SHANmughalingam)

Faridah:

Thatha
The day you told us of your journey to the new land
I half listened in between MTV and instant noodles
You spoke of the early days' hardship and how lucky we were
You collected empty bottles, sold used newspapers
to pay for Dad's school and his six other siblings

I heard your stories too often
that I could tell you which line you'd forgotten.

Shan:

Your Thatha was pioneer Paper Lama man.
I did not even dream of a van.
I walked everywhere
Saving on trishaw fare
When the sun was at it's hottest
I thought of our daughters.

Then our sons, my wife and our family
What I had to do just to live simply

Faridah:

Pak Mat thinks you are a tough man
Despite confined to your wheel chair
Auntie Mei Lin serves you nice, warm Chinese tea
It looks very Malaysian to me.

You spoke, saw, heard no evil
in this land of opportunities
one wise way to survive, you say.

But Thatha, 
explain to me
the divide and rule I face at school
Indians do what Indians have to do
Malays see what Malays want to see
Chinese hear what Chinese want to hear

Thatha, teach me how to stay cool like you.

Shan:

I only look - cool
Don't judge a look by its cover
The Colonials started the divide and fool
But do we need to perpetuate it as a rule?

Must a Malaysian fear and 
face loneliness in his own homeland?
Almost every one else here
Is First a Malay, a Chinese, an Indian,
an Iban or a Kadazan.

And now first a Muslim, Buddhist,
Christian, Hindu, or a Holier
Than thou even within his
own community.

Must a Malaysian be relegated
Down to the "Others" category
For being none of the above racial
or religious categories first?

A Malaysian lost in Malaysia
Will he be found?
By whom?
When?


 - Published in Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi's Bi-Monthly Journal, No. 267: January/February 2012 Vol. LVI No. 1, pg 114-116.


Thursday 12 September 2013

Shan's Poetry Publications



Journal:  Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi's Bi-Monthly Journal
No. 267: January/February 2012 Vol. LVI No. 1
Poem: A Dialogue Between Two Generations 
Publisher: Sahitya Akademi, 2012
NFS

2. Book Title: Wellversed, Thankfully Good Poetry Live in KL
Poem: Mami's Daugther Goes to England
Publisher: British Council Malaysia, 2007
NFS


3. Book Title: In-Sights, Malaysia Poems
Poem: Heir Conditioning
Publisher: Maya Press Sdn Bhd, Petaling Jaya, 2003
Price: RM15.00
To order, please email drshantri@gmail.com or tel: 603-2283 5795 / fax: 603-2283 4859


4. Book Title: Antologi, Puisi dalam Kehidupan Masa Kini / Poetry in Our Lives Today
World Poetry Reading 2002
Poems: Orang Macam Kita / People Just Like Us
           Pertemuan Rohani / Spiritual Encounter
Publisher: Dewan Bahasa san Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur, 2002
NFS

5. Journal / Magazine: News & Views
Poem: Jasmine Seller by Sungei Gombak
Publisher: HIID, Harvard University, USA, 1997


6. Book Title: An Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English with Malay Translations (Shan as Co-Editor)
Poems: Jasmine Seller by Sungei Gombak
                                                           At Beserah
Publisher: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, K/L/, 1988
NFS

7. Journal / Magazine: Focus
Poem: At Beserah
Publisher: University of Singapore


8. Book Title: Balliol College Annual Record
Title / Poems: Five Poems by M SHANmughalingam
Civil Scream, Auntie Climax, Understanding Us, At Home from Abroad, Unterludes
Publisher: University Press, Oxford, England, UK, 1977
NFS

9. Journal/Magazine: Envisage
Poem: Parties
Publisher: University Press, Oxford, England, UK, 1977


10. Book Title: New Voices of the Commonwealth, London
Poem: From a Lighthouse
Publisher: Evans Brothers Limited, London, 1968
NFS



NFS - Not for Sale

Monday 2 September 2013

Heir Conditioning


Thur, July 5, 2012
New Straits Times / School  Times: Issue Thirty-Two

The Star, 18 July 2012

StarTwo, 8 July 2005



Literary Profile

Dato Dr M SHANmughalingam holds an Honours degree from the University of Malaya, a Masters from Harvard and a Doctorate from Oxford University.  At Harvard he graduated first in class with Grade A in all eight subjects and was admitted to the Ph.D. programme directly without formal application.  At Oxford he won the second prize in the Short Story competition judged by the famous novelist, Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, Prof. of Literature, sponsored by ISIS, Oxford University and The Observer, the Poetry prize at Balliol College and a graduate scholarship from Balliol College.
Shan's short stories and poems appear in international anthologies (London and Singapore), in universities (Harvard, Malaya, Oxford and Singapore) and in national literary journals (Dewan Bahasa).  He is co-editor of An Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English with Malay translation (Dewan Bahasa).  His work has been published in France, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, the US and read in Australia including one as the Editor’s First choice from 1, 450 entries for Ireland’s Fish International Short Story Prize, the Commonwealth Anthology of Poetry in London with Nobel Prizewinners, Derek Walcott, Wole Soyinka and Seamus Heaney and Asianist Asia in Paris.  He read from his own work at the Seminar on the Contemporary British Writer, Cambridge Univ., U.K.
Dramatised Performance Readings of short stories and poems:-An hour’s solo Performance Reading, Nat. Univ. S’pore (NUS), to 400 students Oxford Cambridge Society, Performance Poetry with Director Apples and Snakes, UK’s leading performance poetry organization, 11th Biennial Symposium on Literatures and Cultures of Asia-Pacific Region, NUS, Dome Literary Readings, NUS with Prof Edwin Thumboo, Taylor’s College, Creative Writing class (120pax), UKM , Voice and Place: Writers’ Forum, Substation Guinness Theatre, S’pore, Garden International School, KL, Lycee Francais de Singapour, Symposium Singapore-Malaysian Literature, UPM, Creativity and Poetry Classes, S’pore Management Univ, Malaysian Culture Group and Book Club, I I U M.,KL and Litfest UKM, Bookstores: Borders, London, S’pore, Kinokuniya , MPH, MV, KL, Subang,  World Poetry Reading K.L. at Planetarium, at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and at Univ. Malaya, KL.  He has just read one of his short stories at BFM Radio Station.

Producers from Australia and New Zealand have offered to make movies of two of his short stories. His work has been the subject of theses in universities in Malaysia and Germany. Peter Carey, twice winner of the Booker Prize and Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, in his ‘My Life As A Fake acknowledged “Malaysian writer, Dr M Shanmughalingam, not only offered advice and friendship but also allowed me to read his unfinished autobiography, which proved invaluable to my understanding of the Tamils..” and wrote that he ‘hugely enjoyed Victoria and Her Kimono and the humour in Shan’s other stories.”

Sunday 1 September 2013

Corporate Profile

SHAN is now Managing Director of Trilogic Sdn Bhd, an investment holding and consultancy company. He is a Director of Delloyd Ventures Bhd and an adviser to Hextar Holdings Bhd. He sits on the Board of Trustees, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) and the international/ national advisory panel to the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI).
He served at the Treasury, Ministry of Finance from 1962 to 1978 as Deputy Secretary (Economic), and at Petronas from 1979 to 1991 as General Manager. He is a Fellow of the Economic Development Institute, World Bank, Washington DC. He was Director of Mamee, PBA, EON (listed on Bursa Malaysia Main Board, CIMB Bhd (L), Securities/ and Discount House, MIMB, MIDF-Aberdeen Asset Management , GEC, Mahkota Technologies, and Sri Inderajaya.  He was on the Board of Selectors, Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, the Executive Committee of MIMB; the Committee of the Malaysia Administrative and Diplomatic Service(PTD) Alumni Association; and the Board of the VIOBA Foundation and chairman of its Scholarship Committee.  He was an interviewer/commentator on international and current affairs, and film critic on Malaysian television, and radio and a member of the advisory panels to the leading national literary and cultural journals in Dewan Bahasa and the informal advisory panel to TV3. He has read his short stories and poems at several national and international readings led by the then national poet laureate, Dato’ Dr Usman Awang. He was interviewed on Malaysian TV profiling Royal Prof. Ungku Aziz ex Vice Chancellor Univ of Malaya and Usman Awang.

Interview With Dr. Shan

In the Victorian 97 (The Magazine of The Victoria Institution XLI No. 1), pg 38-41

                                         


Happy Chinese New Year 2024