Why is it we can never tuck away our childhood and forget about it like old toys or even chuck it off like dreaded old school books? Well my childhood was in the 50’s and 60’s on rubber estates in peninsula Malaysia and those experiences had been hanging in the closets of my mind until I set them free with the book…The Rubber Estate Of The One-Eyed God…Oh if you’re thinking it’s a biography…Noooo…I can’t bare my soul like that. I even lied at confessionals at a young and tender age. What is this book about then? It is a story plucked from the lives of unforgettable characters and events on a rubber estate from way back in the 50’s and 60’s… folks from diverse cultures, British, Indian, Chinese and Malay, the simplicity of life, small things blown up to comical proportions and the music of the era to whisk up the tempo. But then again it is a work of fiction…threads of real events and personalities pulled and stretched by the imagination.
It didn’t take one year or two…but ten years and then…three more. I had told my friend Elina about it after those ten years and she said…` Let me read it’…So I worked feverishly revising chapter by chapter and presenting her with one, each Saturday night out with our two dashing men…the bright boys who talked politics and solved problems, local and across borders…and us the giddy girls, riding on the wave of some jazz music and talking about the characters in the book as if they were real…and they started popping out of the pages and after some time… the story wrote itself.
I must not forget Miu who kept me company those winter nights as I clicked away on the keyboard. She hid behind the curtain, only her two almond eyes, like the eyes of a harem girl, flashed behind the fine flimsy material…and she purred me through. When the last full stop was stamped in and the file closed, there were these wisps of nostalgia building up as I left my characters behind…and my childhood.
Finally after friends and family nudging me on….it took around three years…and even poor Miu died…probably fed up of waiting…before I decided to get it published. So there you go…The Rubber Estate Of The One-Eyed God… is finally available on Amazon.
A debt of thanks to family and friends…especially Elina.
Cheers.
11 Comments
Thank you for your kind words but i must admit that your book had all the magic. Each week after reading a chapter I craved for the next one to come. It’s a beautiful book and I can’t wait to read the printed version, all in one go!😂
Thank you once again Elina.
💕
Καλοτάξιδο 📖📚🩷
Ευχαριστώ πάρα πολύ!!!
i am so looking forward to reading it. There is hardly any fiction touching on this part of Malaysia’s historical and cultural scene, so few rubber plantation stories and finally here’s one from someone who grew up in a rubber estate, an author who writes so poignantly and beautifully. Wishing you much success. Congratulations!
Thank you so much my dear Kim. And thank you for telling me not to give up.
I’m waiting to read the book. Thank you so much for writing it. 🥰
Thank you for wanting to read it.😍
Oh that’s so nice! I am definately reading that one – I am very much looking forward to reading it too. Καλοτάξιδο!
Thank you!❤️