Jo Kukatas spoke well on writing to empathise
Dato Shan and His Excellency Tirumurti, High Commissioner
of India in Kuala Lumpur
Panelists Uthaya Sankar and Sharon Bakar
The crowd was good
food was good too
berbuka di sini
mingling
can order online
Dipika signing books for her readers
India, off the wall
must visit one day
My Chicago-based writer friend, Dipika Mukherjee is in town as guest writer to an event hosted by the Indian High Comm in KL.She has kindly invited me to attend, perhaps say a few words too about Msian literary scene.
The event started with dinner.Met a few people (writers) I know..met new friends too.Sharon Bakar and Uthaya read their fav excerpts and gave commentaries.Uthaya started with an extract yg mmg menimbulkan kontroversi even with Dipika's editor or potential editors.I thought Dipika was surprised too over the choice but we addressed wht could have been a difficult topic to discuss.Then a few of us were invited to say a few words: me, Jo Kukatas, Dato Shan, and someone yg I tak ingat namanya (she's with a newspaper).
Yang bonus was listening to the High Commissioner - a published creative writer in India.I like what he said about banyan tree...the branches grow roots and in the end sustain the tree.He sees diasporic writers as such too.Must google and buy his book online altho he said he'd try look if he still has a copy or two on him. He said he appreciated wht I said about the need to move fwd and not be stuck with the race thingy...to go beyond our own community and feel wht others feel outside our circle.And while I may not agree with writers projecting the 'other', we should just accept writing the 'other' with an open mind...sama juga if Malays writing about the 'other'...jgnlah marah.Or stg like thatlah.I pun lupa apa I cakap. Yang nyata we discussed things openly and we were mature enough to listen well.
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