Last Sunday, we had a savoury sweet arrangement to spend our Sunday with Dato' Shanmughalingam Shan and The Classics Challengers' members at the quaint Riwayat, for the Marriage and Mutton Curry book.
Here are some notes I've taken down on last evening...
• The book shows Malaysia from three eras - British-Malaya, Japanese Occupation and Malaysia after 1957. As the collonial divides us by race, political wings has categorize us by religion and now by genders etc.
• The sectional loyalty which was cunningly done by the politicians on the sheepishly followers, it is so they can be the defender of the race by manipulating the emotion of fear and they use the religion as tool. The 1969 began this.
• The title is an allegory as it talks about many relationships and food. Not marriage per se or intrinsically, it can be married to work, and the mutton curry because mostly everyone eats the protein as traditional Hindus don't eat beef and Muslims/Jews don't eat pork. Surely, it can be an enjoyable entrapment.
• Genre of this book is historical fiction, as it happened within historical timeline but narrated in fictional way.
• The stories number 3, 7 & 10 talk about the Jaffna Tamil community which hailed from Sri Lanka but it still very much relatable to every other communities. The Jaffna came from the north of Sri Lanka and they are dubbed as 'work horses' as they were diligent at work. Came here as educational clerk, railway maker, etc, they emphasized on the education of the children as the ladder to increase their social status. Within one generation, their children would become professional. They are also very status conscious and doctors were looked up higher than a Prime Minister.
• The Barefoot Man from Malaya, Dato' Shan's father's inspired him to write it. Victoria and Her Kimono, the characters' names were taken from the British monarchy.
• Flowers for KK, "The world's best (dark) secret are usually kept within families." The dices were thrown to women even before they were born in some of the communities as with the men's non-chivalrousness.
• Out of all 15 stories, from which perspective you written it all from? It is from different perspectives for each, so we can learn from it and it wouldn't fall into "The Danger of One Story" by Chimamanda Aditchie.
Thank you again to Ms Naz Ghazali for organising and moderating this discussion, to Engku Roestam Alias for the place and to everyone who was a part of the unforgettable evening.
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