True to my passions and true to my calling

Written: 21 Nov 2016

 

Pacing - Just finished reading Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami and got to learn new things and people like the following: Poet Seihaku Irako; Kappabashi; Sawanoi sake; Yudofu; Hyakken Uchida - Realm of the Dead; and Mashiko ware. Hiromi also got the pacing of an awkward love story just right. Certain parts of her book reminded me of Kawabata. Japanese authors write about the ordinary life in the most sensitive and tender of ways. They really get it. 

 

Touching - one of the panel sessions at the recent Singapore Writers' Festival moved me a lot not because of the content of the discussion (Indonesia’s Spectre of the Past) but rather the passion of one of the guests on that panel (Max Lane). You can read more about him here: http://www.asymptotejournal.com/int... He had a much younger picture in the SWF booklet and when he appeared, he was missing his right ear and the right side of his face was also sagging. He spoke using mainly the left side of his mouth. Despite all this, he spoke with much passion, conviction and weight about his relationship with one of Indonesian’s most acclaimed authors Pramoedya Ananta Toer (he was Pramoedya’s translator). I could sense that he had deep regard and admiration for Pramoedya. There is just too much in what he said for me to put it all down in words but one of his key comments was that we need to know about the history of a country because it is a way to explain the present and a means to change the future. After the session, I was in two minds about whether to get his autograph for Pramoedya’s first book - This Earth of Mankind - and one of my friends, William, kept encouraging me to get his autograph, saying that he was also involved in translating the book. I kept walking around the store but finally I decided to get his autograph. The warm smile he gave me when he saw me coming with Pramoedya’s book will stay with me for a long time. I thought to myself, he’s so old and yet he’s still so passionate about Pramoedya and Indonesia. A rare breed. I hope I am like him when I get really old. True to my passions and true to my calling. :-)