The roti canai man

I realised this morning that I have come to appreciate the roti canai man. I was at my regular mamak (Indian Muslim) shop near my house to buy my breakfast of roti telur bawang (flat bread with egg and chopped onion) and Milo ais kaw (thick iced Milo). I actually noticed that the roti canai man is an integral part of the mamak shop establishment.

Without him, it is hard to imagine how the mamak shop can function. I think the roti canai man could be really an icon in its own right. The skills he acquire to make the different types of roti canai really boggles my mind. They may look easy to acquire but I think they are actually very difficult skills to learn and I am not surprised the roti canai man would have spent most of his working life perfecting those skills.

Not to mention, the roti canai man is also required to know how to cook various other dishes also found in the mamak shop menu. One of the items would be my favourite - Maggi goreng mamak (fried instant noodles). I seem to get addicted to mamak food these days although they are not the best food choices - roti canai, thosai, chapatti and Maggi goreng mamak with one piece of fried chicken; topping off with either Milo ais kaw or teh tarik ais (iced pulled milk tea).

This is one of the advantages of being a Malaysian. The food choices are HUMONGOUS and you would get lost simply just trying to decide what to eat. However, the ubiquitous mamak shop would often be my top choice where food is concerned because it is one of the very few eating shops that you still can get a filling meal for under RM 5, in view of the current economic challenges.   

How did you learn to read? by Tye Wuey Ping

How did you learn to read?
A few days ago, a friend of mine wrote an article in the column ParenThots in The Star newspaper about reading and young children. This article basically discussed about how young children acquire their reading skills, especially in the context of today's world where intense connectivity due to the emergence of the Internet related technology are playing a large part in the current generation of young children's life.

Although I am not a parent myself just yet, the article my friend wrote managed to provoke my thoughts about how I actually learned to read when I was young. Honestly, I don't remember how and when I first started learning to read. My response to her question would be similar to that of her husband's, “How would I know? I just did.”

Growing up in the 1980s meant that the generation of young children then never had the access to special reader's programmes and enrichment classes like the young children have today. I would say in fact, today's young children and their parents are spoiled for choice in choosing the method they want to use for the young children to learn how to read.

Those days, young children like me and my friend as well as her husband must have just picked any books or reading materials that caught our interest and we just learned how to read then. And yes, I did read most of the classic children tales like Three Little Pigs, The Little Red Riding Hood and The Sleeping Beauty, just to name a few.

Many of us then progressed to reading books that were the rage then, Enid Blyton, Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon, just to name a few. Mostly, the books those days were either borrowed from the school and public libraries or exchanged with friends. In fact, it was really fun exchanging the different storybooks with our friends and searching for them in the libraries then. As books those days were quite limited in terms of choices unlike today, I also read the newspapers and magazines that were the ubiquitous reading materials and available cheaply then.

These days, children get to choose what they want to read with many major bookstores mushrooming all over the country, especially in the Klang Valley. Yet you still get many children who are reluctant readers because they are more interested in the Internet and video and computer games, not to mention cable TV. The strange thing I find is that growing up in the 1980s, I was also exposed to playing video and computer games, also watching the TV but I did not get addicted to them like how some children are today. I would choose to read over video and computer games and even over TV shows too then. Books and interesting reading materials were better at holding me spellbound than video and computer games and TV shows then and they still do even now.

I guess reading is one of those simple activities I value immensely over many other material things in life, except for buying good and quality books and reading materials. Maybe because I realise that the value of the knowledge I would acquire is extremely immeasurable. And the knowledge I have acquired since young through reading can NEVER be measured against all the money found in this world. Not to mention, the excellent proficiency in language (in this case, the English Language) I have gained through reading.  I think for people who REALLY love reading like myself would probably agree with me.

Exorbitant prices of books in Malaysia

An article about the launching of a locally published book in The Star newspaper yesterday, a local English daily has prompted me to write this blog post. The book, entitled Legacy of Honour by Zainah Anwar tells the story of three prominent and pioneering politicians in Malaysia. It is only a 287-page book and it costs RM 100! As an ardent book lover and a voracious reader, also a book collector, I find it somewhat RIDICULOUS to pay RM 100 for such a thin book. Never mind if the writer took 16 years to do research and write this book.

It is a hard fact that books, be they imported or locally published, their prices in Malaysia are extremely exorbitant to encourage more Malaysians to pick up the reading habit. A normal-sized paperback would cost at least about RM 35 to RM 40, and is usually not within the reach of struggling working-class Malaysians, including yours truly. But, much of the money I have saved over the years have enabled me to invest in good and quality books, usually imported ones but I would also consider good and quality local publications in which I am glad to say I have a few in my collection and am planning to buy more of them if I find them worth doing so.

However, for the not so fortunate Malaysians, many public libraries in the country are doing them a disservice for not upgrading their respective collections, to be moving with the times. That is why I have made the decision to have my own home library. And it is DEFINITELY an EXTREMELY expensive passion to do, building a home library but it is worth every sen invested in doing it.

Maybe it is actually quite costly to publish a book. But published books must be justifiably priced so that they can be more affordable and reachable to a wider population in the country. My guess is that most of the money would go to the publishers, as writers, especially the local ones are actually making peanuts despite putting an indescribable amount of effort, blood, sweat and tears to publish a quality book to appeal readers across the board.

The government especially should put in extra effort to encourage more local writers to publish their literary works in their language(s) of choice to further enhance the publishing industry as well as allowing the masses more choices on which language(s) they would want to choose to read, not just only in the national language. Also focus on published good and quality literary works should be given due emphasis and recognition. This could be some of the ways to encourage a well-read, knowledgeable, critical and analytical thinking society, a crucial step of achieving the status of a developed nation.

Maybe the idea of books being controlled priced items for both locally and foreign published ones could be mooted by the powers-that-be. Thus, this step could make it more affordable to readers across the board to buy books when they desire to do so. And definitely the public libraries needed all the help they can get to update their respective collection so that readers who cannot afford to buy books are able to borrow them, thus, instilling the desire to read in reluctant readers.

Where books are concerned, sometimes focusing on the profits from their sales only would not do justice to people like me. The knowledge acquired from reading good and quality books and not to mention other reading materials as well goes well beyond any amount of profits made from selling them. I say this from my personal experience as the knowledge I have acquired from being an extremely voracious reader is ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS beyond description.