Some of the more valuable nuts in the woods are used as currency.

Jay The Squirrel and the other rodents in the Rodent Conservation Programme have insufficient valuable nuts to maintain the lifestyle that they were used to back in their own trees in other parts of the woods. This is because they are away from their families and they need to know how to control their nuts and use them wisely. They are learning.

One of the little luxuries in their furry lives that they can afford would be the daily tea leaves that are sent to their trees which would inform them about the latest happenings in the woods. From the start, Vinnie The Hedgehog said that she would not need the daily tea leaves as she goes back to her own tree in another part of the woods every weekend and can get access to the weekend's tea leaves and have no need to have a daily supply of it. So fine, the other rodents thought, if she doesn't want to chip in, they can still manage. Then, Nini The Hedgehog pulled out because she did not want to use her valuable nuts unnecessarily. Jay The Squirrel was abit peeved but she was okay about it after awhile.

Then today, Kiki The Squirrel kicked Jay The Squirrel and spoke in  Squirrel-dialect, "She's reading our daily tea leaves! Make her pay!" . Jay the Squirrel discreetly hinted to Vinnie The Hedgehog, "Eh, so you decided to join us for the daily tea leaves?" Then Vinnie The Hedgehog said, "Eh, no.. just swirling the leaves. Not really reading it."

It is unfair because how can you "swirl the leaves" and not read it? It's not fair that the other rodents fork out their own nuts to get a daily supply of tea leaves and from the start the rodents have made it clear that whoever who are sharing nuts would get to read the daily tea leaves.

It's fine if Vinnie The Hedgehog asked permission if she can read but she should stand firm against her own words and not read the daily tea leaves if she has said from the start that she "doesn't need it". But she did not even ask the other rodents if she can read it.

Another night when Jay The Squirrel was dilligently reviewing her materials from the day's activities on her crystal ball, Vinnie The Hedgehog prodded Jay The Squirrel for the umpteenth time and asked if she can borrow her multi-purpose tea leaves which contains the activities of the Rodent Convervation Programme in great detail. A little frazzled from being disturbed, Jay The Squirrel huffed, "Why can't you buy your own multi-purpose tea leaves?"

Vinnie The Hedgehog replied unashamedly, "No need lah, you all got what."

WAH LAU WEH! Jay the Squirrel was damn pissed and immediately spoke in Squirrel-dialect to the other squirrels before switching back to the Rodent Language and said calmly, "But don't you need to refer to it when you go back to your tree in that other
part of the woods?"

Vinnie The Hedgehog mumbled something but was eventually lost for words.

Nini The Hedgehog once told the other squirrels that Vinnie The Hedgehog has her own multi-purpose tea leaves in her own hole somewhere high up in the big oak tree but was too lazy to scurry up to get it. Cunning, cunning.

On another note, Jay The Squirrel is unhappy with the quality of the leaves that she has been given to sleep on and it gives her pityful squirrely back a backache. Jay The Squirrel is constantly in pain and she hopes to be able to go to a nice hot spring to ease the tensed muscles in her back. However, it's expensive for a nice session in a hot spring and she's saving her nuts for one of those magic prisms that captures the most beautiful images which she can keep in her crystal ball.

I've always been engrossed in the works of people who manage to despict the olden times of my lineage. The hardest moments in my life are not even close to the ones they tell in those early 20th century stories. Which is why I get so blown away by their story telling abilities and have always kow-towed to amazing writers like Catherine Lim, Amy Tan and Adeline Yen Mah.

Flipping through this month's MPH's The Quill, I stumbled upon an interview on Tash Aw. My first reaction: He's a Malaysian?!

Maybe it's because of his name which does not sound Malaysian at all. Besides, it's not often that I come across Malaysian-written best sellers.

It so happens that Xiong Khee has The Harmony Silk Factory sitting amidst her rows and rows of Anatomy and Physiology text book so I opened the first page and for the next two hours I was lost in his magic. The way he weaves his sentences together
and his great ability in description paints the most vivid pictures in my head is amazing.

I could even hear the sounds that Gun The Communist's parang made upon the earth, clinking away the tiny pebbles on the soil. The way he described Tiger Tan's estranged wife living in the palace of the Prince Regeant of Perak as the prince's third wife, singing those chinese songs about lost love was enchanting.

"She sang with perfect pitch, her tongue capturing the words and releasing them across the valley like grass seeds in the wind."

I really like these type of novels because of their nostalgic use of the english language. It's all direct translation from their chinese descriptions. Stupid as it may sound, but the style always inspires me to write something as great as what I've read.

I want to write about olden day chinese-styled hardships but what do I know about such experiences? My only hardship is the quota system implied by our local universities and if I DO write a book on that, I might have to get a good lawyer to save my ass from landing in jail. Remember that rule about not questioning the Rights Of The Bumiputera Folks? Yeah.

With each page that I flipped, I started to imagine the movie version of this book. THIS BOOK IS MOVIE MATERIAL. Cantonese, Malay, English and even Hokkien can be incorporated into the dialogues. It's not too difficult a transition as Tash Aw probably had ambitions for this novel to be turned into a movie when he wrote the novel. Either that or he is just too fantastic a story teller for making it all unfold as if on a silver screen(or a colour tv).

What's really our taste? Should we go Malaysian all the way(Yasmin Ahmad's name comes to mind) or will this make it big in Hollywood? If Tash Aw can push boundaries and go international and sell 12 million copies(correct me if I'm wrong) then I
think even if it's a made-in-Malaysia movie, it'll be a hit! We need people like Yasmin Ahmad with that equally magical vision to do the novel to movie transition for Tash Aw.

Sometimes I want to be a copy cat writer and write about the olden times as well.

At times like these, I really want to ask my grandparents so many questions about their past. What did they teach you in school then? How come you went to school? What was your house like? What did the local boys and girls do during courtships?

They did. They did tell me all about their history but they can only remember so much and I can only remember so much from what they remember.

Maybe one about my paternal grandfather who lost his father at the age of one and who used to get beaten by his uncle as a child. About him being one of the oldest of his generation with a mother who was away working as a maid for another family, his short education stint in St.John's Boy's School and his battle with TB at the age of 36. I know these everyday olden stories will allow others to relate.

Perhaps the far fetched story about my paternal grandmother's wild goose chase with the Siam Queen after her father died might not be too easy to be written about but it would be of good use to groom my fictional writing abilities. If you must know, she was locked up in a room for two years by her mother because the Siam Queen wanted to capture her as she had her father's face, the man whom she allegedly had an affair with.

If I want to, I would have to write a letter to my granduncle Harry who is living on a pension in Perth. From the photos, I saw that he was my grandfather's play mate and that they were really close. I want to ask him questions that I never got to ask my
grandfather when he was alive. My grandmother's siblings can be contacted during chinese new year, weddings etc. But if my grandmother is notorious for adding salt and vinegar to her stories, then her sister Aunty Peggy will be adding special effects and CGI and all that. Yup. Maybe I'll ask Aunty Dolly and Uncle Johnny, they are more sensible.

What about the story about my maternal grandfather and his 5 mothers and 13 siblings? The struggle his father who came from China as a young boy had selling pork in Malaya and having families(note the plural) in China and families in Malaysia will make good novel material. Followed by all the complicated stories and family affairs that the Ho family managed to constitute over the decades. 13th Uncle once said, "With all these family affairs and conflicts, I can write a novel." How my grandfather travelled to Singapore to learn how to make soap(when soot was still used in the process) and his boy scout days in Malacca High School will probably make the novel akin to one of those nostalgic ones like Tash Aw's stories.

:) Just some fleeting thoughts.

As for now, I will be indulging in Tash Aw's The Harmony Silk Factory. I love a good book.