Finally, I'm back. In case everyone's wondering, I'm talking about the AUN Educational Forum and Young Speakers' Contest held on the 20th to 27th of May 2008. I tell you it was a wonderful experience. I made new friends, had a great time, eat good food, yada-yada-yada...
Anyway, can't get carried away writing about that experience when I still have something else to do. I'll probably write about it in the near future, orderly this time.
Anyway, I'm here to share with you something that binds us people of ASEAN-our ridiculously scary ghost stories. Yeah, I know. We share stories of ghosts coming out at night, accompanied by the sweet smell of jasmine and appearing in toilets or the streetside, or even in your bedroom. The Malaysians have their Pontianak, the Indonesians their Sundal Bolong, the Filipinos their Aswang and so forth.
Of course, these stories have such an effect on our mind compared to the Westerners, probably because of the affinity of the peoples of Southeast Asia with the mystic and our ghosts being powerful in nature, compared to the cutboard cliches of Western spooks. Just thinking about this topic would make anyone sully their trousers.
Not that I have been through it or anything...
Anyway, moving on. Here's an example of a story that is very famous in Malaysia. The names may change according to place, but the formula is pretty much the same.
Harun cursed as he stared at his watch. It's already 11.30. 'I'm late,' he said to himself. He was too busy playing Playstation 2 at his friend's house that he didn't notice the time.
'My dad is so going to kill me.' He stood at the bus stop, a dilapidated one, where every part of it is covered with rust. He didn't like the look of it, especially with the sinister full moon shining above them. He half-expected a werewolf to jump out of nowhere, but shuddered to think what would happen next.
Of course, he didn't have a choice and walked towards the bus stop. Harun stared at his watch. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes...but still, no bus in sight.
He almost gave up and pondered calling his dad when he saw a light glimmered from afar. He got to his feet. It came closer, to bus, slowly, bus moving closer and closer.
As the bus stopped in front of him, he immediately hopped in. He couldn't believe his luck! He probably got the last bus home. Of course, there are some things that concerned him as he took his seat. One, where is the bus conductor? Two, where is the driver? Three, why is the bus moving by itself?
He cried out, but then remembered something. He has heard of this story before. 'Yes,' he thought, laughing faintly. 'The driver and the conductor are behind this bus, pushing it. Well, I'd better go see what's going on.' He ran to the back, hoping to see two men pushing the bus. He saw nothing. There was no one pushing the bus, yet it moves by itself.
Harun knew he was in trouble, and ran towards the door. To his dismay, the door was shut. The windows were shut. Harun realised, as he slumped onto a chair, that he was going be on that ride for a very long time...
Phew! Finally I'm done with this. Now I'll definitely sleep with my night lights and radio on.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
The Trickster
Hello. Me again. I haven't been writing in for over a month now, so I have to work doubly hard to make sure this project works (stupid exams!) Anyway, I'm going to post some stories regarding Malaysian mythology, then I'll move on to my next section.
My plan is to write a weekly or bi-weekly serial about an amateur detective on this blog, in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe and Veronica Mars. I'm still trying to put some meat on this, so it'll not be on here any time soon. I'm hoping that some of you people out there should start writing your own weekly serials. Who knows, somewhere in Hollywood, some down-and-out director might steal our stories and make it his own, and earn millions of dollars while we bitch about it on our blogs.
Sorry, did I get carried away again? Here's a tale about Sang Kancil the mousedeer, a trickster character in Malaysian and Indonesian mythology, whose role is similar to that of Sun Wukong of the Chinese and Juan Tamad in Philippine lore.
One day, Kancil wandered around the forest and accidentally offended the elephant (how he offended the elephant we do not know), and so the elephant feels obligated to crush the little critter like scrambled eggs.
'I'm going to crush you,' said the elephant, who only says what the narrator tells him to.
'Oh, dear. Why do you wish to destroy God's beautiful creation such as little ol' me?' answered the Kancil. He's scared, but since he's the hero of this story, he's not supposed to show it. Instead, he thought of an idea. 'Tell you what. Why don't we play a game? Let's see who's tail is stronger, yours or mine?'
The elephant accepted, of course, since he has a long tail, and the Kancil barely has one. 'Fine, I'll accept your challenge. But if you lose, I get to crush you.'
The Kancil agreed, but lamented the violent nature of the grey beast and his limited vocabulary. He took a long piece of rope (where he got the rope was not mentioned, probably a nearby village) and tied it to the elephant's tail. Then he ran all the way to the beach, bringing with him the rope (don't ask me for details, I'm just the penglipur lara) and offended the whale. The whale also felt obligated to crush the Kancil, only he used harsher language than the elephant.
Again, the Kancil challenged the whale to the contest, and tied the rope to the whale's tail. Feeling a strong tug at the other end, the elephant and the whale started pulling the rope, and the earth shook. Eventually, the elephant and whale were exhausted, and admitted the strength of the Kancil.
The Kancil walked away happy, and thought of other ways to trick other animals in the forest.
Personally, I believe Kancil has a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War hidden somewhere.
My plan is to write a weekly or bi-weekly serial about an amateur detective on this blog, in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe and Veronica Mars. I'm still trying to put some meat on this, so it'll not be on here any time soon. I'm hoping that some of you people out there should start writing your own weekly serials. Who knows, somewhere in Hollywood, some down-and-out director might steal our stories and make it his own, and earn millions of dollars while we bitch about it on our blogs.
Sorry, did I get carried away again? Here's a tale about Sang Kancil the mousedeer, a trickster character in Malaysian and Indonesian mythology, whose role is similar to that of Sun Wukong of the Chinese and Juan Tamad in Philippine lore.
One day, Kancil wandered around the forest and accidentally offended the elephant (how he offended the elephant we do not know), and so the elephant feels obligated to crush the little critter like scrambled eggs.
'I'm going to crush you,' said the elephant, who only says what the narrator tells him to.
'Oh, dear. Why do you wish to destroy God's beautiful creation such as little ol' me?' answered the Kancil. He's scared, but since he's the hero of this story, he's not supposed to show it. Instead, he thought of an idea. 'Tell you what. Why don't we play a game? Let's see who's tail is stronger, yours or mine?'
The elephant accepted, of course, since he has a long tail, and the Kancil barely has one. 'Fine, I'll accept your challenge. But if you lose, I get to crush you.'
The Kancil agreed, but lamented the violent nature of the grey beast and his limited vocabulary. He took a long piece of rope (where he got the rope was not mentioned, probably a nearby village) and tied it to the elephant's tail. Then he ran all the way to the beach, bringing with him the rope (don't ask me for details, I'm just the penglipur lara) and offended the whale. The whale also felt obligated to crush the Kancil, only he used harsher language than the elephant.
Again, the Kancil challenged the whale to the contest, and tied the rope to the whale's tail. Feeling a strong tug at the other end, the elephant and the whale started pulling the rope, and the earth shook. Eventually, the elephant and whale were exhausted, and admitted the strength of the Kancil.
The Kancil walked away happy, and thought of other ways to trick other animals in the forest.
Personally, I believe Kancil has a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War hidden somewhere.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
God, this project is difficult.
I just figured out something very terrible. I can't let people write on my blog. That would be bad for me. I would have to give up my ID and password.
So, I thought of another way to get this project going. Instead of a blogsite, I suggest that we have a blog community. Youths from ASEAN nations could set up their own blogsites and link it with each other. You know what that means? Everybody can write!
Now, before anyone comes up here and say in a condescending tone, 'Really, Sherlock?', I would like to point out the positives of this idea. I write my stories, you write your stories, I write what I understand of ASEAN, vice versa...
What that means is that I don't need to play editor and pick-and-choose which stories to post. Everyone involved in this project could write what they want on their own blogs and no one will condemn them. Of course, it needs to be reiterated that we write fiction regarding ASEAN. So, if anyone thinks of writing any 18SX material, make sure that it's set in ASEAN countries.
Again, please ignore the Freudian slip at the end of the sentence.
I just figured out something very terrible. I can't let people write on my blog. That would be bad for me. I would have to give up my ID and password.
So, I thought of another way to get this project going. Instead of a blogsite, I suggest that we have a blog community. Youths from ASEAN nations could set up their own blogsites and link it with each other. You know what that means? Everybody can write!
Now, before anyone comes up here and say in a condescending tone, 'Really, Sherlock?', I would like to point out the positives of this idea. I write my stories, you write your stories, I write what I understand of ASEAN, vice versa...
What that means is that I don't need to play editor and pick-and-choose which stories to post. Everyone involved in this project could write what they want on their own blogs and no one will condemn them. Of course, it needs to be reiterated that we write fiction regarding ASEAN. So, if anyone thinks of writing any 18SX material, make sure that it's set in ASEAN countries.
Again, please ignore the Freudian slip at the end of the sentence.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Hello, me again. I promised a story to get things started, right? Now, it took me all night trying to figure out what story is best to kick off this project. And since we're on the subject of creating something, I guess the best way to do so is to write a story regarding The Creation according to Malaysian mythology:
In the beginning there was Tuan Allah, who first created Light. Then Allah created a pearl, and seventy thousand years later, when He glanced at the pearl, it became too hot and melted, and thus Water was created. After seventy thousand years, Allah created a new element, such as Fire, the mainland emerged from beneath the waves, mountains as nails to hold down the floating earth. Then He, in all His wisdom, created the structure of the universe. The Earth He placed on top of one of the four thousand horns of the bull, Bakar, which was placed on top of four elephants that stood on a ruby, which was supported by a ruby angel, who stood on the back of Nun, the great fish, that floated on the primeval waters (by now you should realise the link between all the ASEAN members-their ancestors told long-winded stories. Where was I?) and beneath this primeval waters is a vacuum tht would take Jibril the Archangel seventy thousand years to descend before he reached the bottom: a mighty serpent called Falak, in whose jaws contain the seven levels of Hell, and if not for the fear of Allah, it would have swallowed all of creation.
OK, that wasn't too hard to read, was it now? Now, this is just one example of how you should write a story. Like I said yesterday, it doesn't matter what story you write: myth, legend, mystery, horror, detective fiction, or romance (like tell a story on how you started developing certain feelings towards a friend).
Please ignore the Freudian slip at the end of the sentence.
In the beginning there was Tuan Allah, who first created Light. Then Allah created a pearl, and seventy thousand years later, when He glanced at the pearl, it became too hot and melted, and thus Water was created. After seventy thousand years, Allah created a new element, such as Fire, the mainland emerged from beneath the waves, mountains as nails to hold down the floating earth. Then He, in all His wisdom, created the structure of the universe. The Earth He placed on top of one of the four thousand horns of the bull, Bakar, which was placed on top of four elephants that stood on a ruby, which was supported by a ruby angel, who stood on the back of Nun, the great fish, that floated on the primeval waters (by now you should realise the link between all the ASEAN members-their ancestors told long-winded stories. Where was I?) and beneath this primeval waters is a vacuum tht would take Jibril the Archangel seventy thousand years to descend before he reached the bottom: a mighty serpent called Falak, in whose jaws contain the seven levels of Hell, and if not for the fear of Allah, it would have swallowed all of creation.
OK, that wasn't too hard to read, was it now? Now, this is just one example of how you should write a story. Like I said yesterday, it doesn't matter what story you write: myth, legend, mystery, horror, detective fiction, or romance (like tell a story on how you started developing certain feelings towards a friend).
Please ignore the Freudian slip at the end of the sentence.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Prologue
Now, where do I start? Obviously, I have to start somewhere. Probably an introduction would do. Hi, I'm Fikri. you know enough already.
Just kidding.
No, really. I'm not setting up this blog for the sake of blogging. Rather, I'm doing an experiment, and I need help in making this experiment a success. From the 20th to the 27th of May, 2007, the 10th AUN Educational Forum and Young Speaker's Contest will be held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei to celebrate the 41st anniversary of ASEAN. The theme of this year is "How ASEAN can move forward towards a single ASEAN Community."
I'm suppose to present my paper on how I, a man (oklah, kid!) on the street could actually contribute to making this theme workable. I racked my brains trying to figure something out, and i think i got it after three gruelling hours.
An ASEAN story blogspot.
Amazing, isn't it? Now, before this blog receives a Nobel Prize for being a certifiable work of genius or something (dream on!), the aim of this blog is to attract people to write in, whether it be poem or prose, in the realm of myth or contemporary life in the cities and kampungs. The catch: it has to be about ASEAN, hence the setting up of this project.
Insha Allah, I'll try to post in one story tomorrow about Malaysian mythology, and we'll see how it goes from there.
...
Now, can anyone tell me how to let other people post their stories on my blog?
Just kidding.
No, really. I'm not setting up this blog for the sake of blogging. Rather, I'm doing an experiment, and I need help in making this experiment a success. From the 20th to the 27th of May, 2007, the 10th AUN Educational Forum and Young Speaker's Contest will be held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei to celebrate the 41st anniversary of ASEAN. The theme of this year is "How ASEAN can move forward towards a single ASEAN Community."
I'm suppose to present my paper on how I, a man (oklah, kid!) on the street could actually contribute to making this theme workable. I racked my brains trying to figure something out, and i think i got it after three gruelling hours.
An ASEAN story blogspot.
Amazing, isn't it? Now, before this blog receives a Nobel Prize for being a certifiable work of genius or something (dream on!), the aim of this blog is to attract people to write in, whether it be poem or prose, in the realm of myth or contemporary life in the cities and kampungs. The catch: it has to be about ASEAN, hence the setting up of this project.
Insha Allah, I'll try to post in one story tomorrow about Malaysian mythology, and we'll see how it goes from there.
...
Now, can anyone tell me how to let other people post their stories on my blog?
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