Literary pursuit gone a little awry

I just won't let myself have the satisfaction to state I have been so busy lately that I couldn't find the time to blog. Busy is such an overrated excuse these days that I sternly remind myself not to succumb to its delusional madness so easily. The true excuse is, quite simply, the inspiration missing and the words wanting.

In my hopeful but miserable attempt to draw much-needed motivation from one of Time's 100 best novels, Brideshead Revisited, I fell embarrassingly flat on my face. Painfully, I plodded through the book and having not seen any sparks of light at the end of the tunnel, I yielded yet again to the sloth monster, without putting up much struggle.

Then occasions for some self-justification to a respite from the unceasing preoccupation with the hunt for new writing materials thankfully arose. The girlfriend was visiting with her little one and hubby. I didn't forget the promise I made to cook her beef rendang. So beef rendang it was, as a form of silent encouragement, acknowledgement and support in her long path of motherhood. It didn't matter at all if she understood my intention. One thing is for sure, she is coping exceedingly well with her little beauty and with all the new changes. I am extremely proud of her.

Days later, Chinese New Year was literally knocking on the door and of course, a violent storm was cooked up in the kitchen for the reunion dinner with enough food to feed this family of three for days on end. Plenty of favourite home-cooked food = full stomach = comforted happy soul!

Together with the brief break, it instantly added new vigour to my pursuit of literary inspirations. Which's how I discovered Poskod. Much time is spent reading, digesting and liking their beautiful albeit sometimes-too-lyrical articles. Then along the course, rather than focusing on the on-hand objective, I stumbled upon and got distracted by the controversial novel called Once a Jolly Hangman which is about the capital punishment in Singapore. Its author, Alan Shadrake was arrested and jailed after the publication of the book. Incidentally, the book is not available in Singapore. With so much controversy surrounding it, I simply had to get hold of a copy, don't I? My comment after reading it? Let's just say, where there's smoke, there's fire.

Through the book, I did a little research on people like, Singaporean film-maker, Martyn See (whose films such as Singapore Rebel and Zahari's 17 years are banned in Singapore), Francis Seow, JB Jeyaretnam, Chee Soon Juan etc. Countless related articles, books and videos turned up in my search. And I am glad to be able to read all these and watch these banned films, all of which I believe I wouldn't have the possibility to do so if I were still living in my beloved country.

It is indeed an eye-opener for me and to quote our former President Devan Nair, 'for those whose eyes still require to be opened.'