Eulogy for M. KanagaIingam at his funeral by M. SHANmughalingam on April 12, 2022.

I thank every one of you for taking the trouble to come here today to say goodbye to our dear Kana. This ceremony is as simple; as Kana always wanted things to be. Kana has just left the original 2nd generation of the family of Sangarapillai and Annapakiam Murugasu. I am now the only one left. They say that the good die young. This tells you about me. As schoolboys, when we came back later than 7 pm, K would rush in first and would get my Papa’s ‘welcome home slap’. Our Papa believed in ‘first come first served’. Kana got his own back. When our Amma, the master chef, made dodol, K was the first to massage her elbows. He then elbowed his way to so much dodol that there was little left for me. Kana made countless lifelong friends from his school days in the V.I. and our family’s happiest days in Thamby Abdullah Road, Brickfields. He continued to do so while working with SIA and ESSO in Spore & the Port Authority in Klang. My son Rohan, has been beside me from the time his Uncle Kana passed away. I am most grateful to my niece, Dr Bhavani Dato’ Dr Thillai, of Muar, KT and Seremban and to Jeyam Selliah for all the funeral arrangements for Kana. When my cousin, Justice Kulasekaram, Singapore stayed with us in Scott Road, he turned the names of my brothers Kana, Jay and me to initials, S, K and J. My daughter Shirene, has since named us the 'alphabet brothers'. Shirene’s sons, Noah, said 'Dearest Uncle K you were very nice and lovely and wonderful. We will miss you a lot.' Emile said, 'Uncle K sorry you passed away. You were the best. I will miss you. Love Emile.' Our sisters’ offspring, Vemala, Kamala, Indran and Rajeswaran in Melbourne, Shoba in Germany, our dear friend Felicity in Singapore and Santhirapalan in Brickfields were closest to Kana. As our niece, Federal Court Justice YA Datuk P. Nallini, granddaughter of our father’s brother, M.S. Kandiah of Ipoh said, 'he was a wonderful Uncle; so well read, witty, generous and kind. We are going to miss him dearly.' Vemala and Rajeswaran asked for a Eulogy from me and a video zoom recording of today’s proceedings. Our cousin, Jeyam Selliah has organised it. Kana was particular to never miss a funeral. His spirit will be very pleased to see all of you here today in person or via zoom. Thank you

Reviews

‘Dato’ Dr Shan is a master storyteller, as this collection amply demonstrates.’ HRH Sultan Nazrin Shah ‘I hugely enjoyed the humour in Shan’s stories.’ Peter Carey, twice winner of, Booker & Commonwealth Writers’ Prize‘. Dr Shan is in a class of his own, enriching the genre with subtlety and finesse.’ Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar, Ex-Cman, Media Prima, DBDP, NST group. ‘Shan’s special gift of vibrancy, wit, irreverence and playful use of language.’ Catherine Lim, author of five novels and ten short-story collections.‘A fresh, original, satirical eye with humour lightly deadly, I celebrate the collection.’ Shirley Geok-lin Lim, award-winning author of Among the White Moon Faces ‘Like R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi books and V.S. Naipaul’s Miguel Street, a portrait of a community.’ Gillian Dooley, Flinders University. ‘Shan’s humour full of irony; very humane and down-to-Malaysian-earth.’ Muhammad Haji Salleh, poet and recipient of the Malaysian National Laureate. ‘Like Irish lives stalled by stasis in James Joyce’s Dubliners, This one stands head and shoulders above them all – from East or West.’ Lawrence Pettener, The STAR ‘Dr Shan’s light touch disguises a sharp satirical bent and trenchant commentary.’ Preeta Samarasan, award-winning author, Evening Is the Whole Day. 'Riveting. Shan's fiction evokes the times, often much more so than many social or political histories, e.g Hilary Mantel.' Hugh Peyman, author, China's Change: The Greatest Show on Earth. ‘Shan’s focus on the Tamils in Malaya is the way to go, forming a very solid core.’ Tash Aw, award-winning writer of four bestselling novels. ‘Shan allows us to relish the differences and discover the similarities among minorities.’ Susan Philips, Assc. Prof. Univ. Mal. SARE: Vol 55, Issue 2, 2018, ‘The collection is engrossing and cannot be put down. It is an invaluable addition to Malaysian literature.’ Ravi P. Chittampalli, Prof English, Univ Mysore, India. ‘Malaya from the heart, to really understand Malaya/Malaysia, this is the book for you.’ Martin Bradley, Founding Editor, The Blue Lotus Mag. ‘I enjoyed the humour of Shan’s stories very much and his eye for irony; he is so pithy.’ Dipika Mukherjee, author, Thunder Demons etc. ‘It was wonderful that you read your stories with such Dickensian energy, verve and flair.’ Angus Whitehead, Lecturer Eng. Lang. & Lit (ELL), NIE, NTU, S’pore ‘The characters and situations in deserve to be dramatised on stage.’ Ronald D. Klein, Prof, Eng studies, Hiroshima Jogakuin Univ, Japan, ‘I understand the life of the Elite Indian Malaysians through these stories.’ Shanjey Perumal, Dir, award-winning movie Jagat, Netflix. ‘I have much enjoyed Dr M. Shan’s short and carefully observed stories of Malaysian life.’ Sir Drummond Bone, master, Balliol College, Oxford Univ. ‘Dr Shan, gave us the best reading on air I have heard in almost two decades.’ Michelle Martin "The Curve". Live at moneyfm893.sg SPH Radio Pte Ltd, Spore. Podcast:https://omny.fm/shows/money-fm-893/read-with-michelle-martin-marriage-mutton-curry ‘Shan is a national treasure of storytelling.’ Chen Cuifen, Asian Books Blog, 15 April 2019‘Shan’s stories offer very vivid socio-political ethnography of 1950s Malaysia.' Matsuura Hiroshi, Dep DG Min For Affairs, Tokyo, Japan. ‘HRH Sultan Nazrin Shah’s is an exceptional example of what a Foreword should be like’ Catalina Rembuyan, Teacher, School of Arts, Spore Absolutely loved this book. The short stories were perfect, entertaining, soothing, amusing and filled with love. Wendy Kendall. ‘Promotes women’s empowerment and this is awe-inspiring.’ Dato’ Dr Jessie Tang, Founder & CEO, East West One Group ‘I enjoyed particularly, the interweaving of the vignettes of history described through the ordinary lives of the participants.’ David Lindsay, Emer Prof. Univ.W.Aust.

Dramatised Performance Readings

Dramatised Performance Readings, excerpts from short stories and poems. Eng Language Teaching Centre, Min of Educ. Nilai, N.S., a 2½ hour’s solo Perf Reading to 200 lecturers, teachers, trainee teachers and students. UPM, Creativity and Poetry Classes, UM English Dept, Fac, Arts & Soc. Sciences UKM, Literary Festival, Int’nal Univ Mal-Wales, Reading Fiction Forum, PsychademiX IIUM, Asia Pacific Symposium on Literatures and Cultures. Univ Nottingham, Msia, TED-x Talk. Sunway Univ Coll, Taylor’s Coll, Creative Writing class, 120 students, Garden Int’l School K.L, Mt Kiara Int’l School, ELC, Australian Int’l School, Victoria Inst., Oxford/Cambridge Society to 400 students. English Speaking Union of Malaysia. Visiting students from, St Gallen Univ, Switzerland, San Beda, Philippines. World Poetry Reading K.L, Planetarium, Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka and several national and international readings led by ex-national poet laureate, Dato’ Dr Usman Awang. Bookstores: Borders, London, Spore, Kinokuniya, MPH, Popular, LitBooks. Featured poet, If Walls Could Talk, 1st Anniv, KL. Readings, Seksan, K.L., Georgetown LitFest, the Cooler Lumpur Writers Fest, BFM Radio Station, Malaysian Culture Group and Book Club. Participant and read own work, 26 Cambridge Seminar on Contemporary British Writer, Cambridge Univ., U.K. Participating British writers included Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark, David Lodge, Malcolm Bradbury. SE Asian virtual residency, Vermont Coll Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT USA, Radio Fremantle, W. Australia. Nat. Univ. S’pore, as solo performer, 11 Biennial Symposium on Literatures and Cultures Asia-Pacific Region, Dome Literary Readings with Prof Edwin Thumboo, Voice and Place: Writers’ Forum, Substation G’ness Theatre, S’pore, Lycee Francais de S’pour, Symp S’pore-Msian Lit, S’pore M’ment Univ, Pravasi Bharatiya Day Writers Festival (PBD) at ASEAN/India, Spore. Ex- interviewer, int’l and current affairs, film critic, Msian TV/ radio, member, advisory panels, leading national literary and cultural journals, Dewan Bahasa and advisory panel TV3.

LITERARY PROFILE

Dato’ Dr M SHANmughalingam, author, Malaysian bestseller, Marriage and Mutton Curry with international prizewinning short stories, launched by HRH Sultan Dr Nazrin Shah, Sultan of Perak, and YDP Timb. Agung, M’sia, 4 Oct, 2018, KL. Sold 4,000+ copies and on its 5th reprint. UK edition, launched, London, 5 May, 2020. Sole winner, British Council Short Story Prize, Editor’s choice from 1,450 entries, Ireland’s Fish Int’l Short Story Prize. His poem, required reading for Form II students in M’sian schools. Short story, co-published, ku.lit:asian literature for the language classroom, ‘a model of humour in prose’, Pearson Educ. South Asia Pte Ltd and National Arts Council, launched, S’pore Writers festival. 2nd prize, Oxford Univ. Short Story competition judges Iris Murdoch and Lit Prof, John Bayley. Published with three Nobel prize-winners, New Voices of the Commonwealth, (ed) Howard Sergeant, Evans Bros Ltd, UK. Work published & broadcast in 37 anthologies in Australia, France, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, US, in universities (Harvard, Malaya, Oxford & S’pore) and in national literary journals. Producers from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand offered to make movies of his work. Subject of theses in universities in Malaysia and Germany.

CORPORATE PROFILE

MD, Trilogic Sdn Bhd, 1996 to date. Board, Msian Inst of Econ Research (MIER) & int’l/natl advisory panels, Asian Strategy & Leadership Inst (ASLI). Helped list 6 companies, Main Board, Bursa Malaysia, Ex-Dir, public listed & private companies. GM, PETRONAS 1978-92 and Dep Sec, the Treasury, MOF 1962-78. Fellow, Econ Dev Inst, World Bank, W’ton DC. Ex-C’tee, Msian Admin & Diplomatic Service (PTD), PTD, Alumni Assoc. Board, VIOBA Foundation C’man, S’ship C’tee, Selectors Board, Rhodes S’ship to Oxford Univ. On invitation by Harvard Univ. helped design a new Executive Program for Leaders in Development: Managing Economic and Political Reform developed jointly by Kennedy School of Govt & Harvard Inst for Int’l Dev, Harv Univ, BA Hons, Malaya, MA, Harvard, DPhil, Oxford Univ. At Harvard graduated first with 8 A’s and admitted to Ph.D. progm. Chap on Malaysia, Lasswell, (Yale) Lerner (MIT) and Montgomery (Harv) ed. Values and Development: Appraising Asian Experience MIT Press. Quoted in TIME Mag cover story on Tun Dr Mahathir, then Prime Minister, Msia, Dec 9 1996. e:drshantri@gmail.com www.drshantri.com blog: www.drshantri.blogspot.com.