Sunday February 3, 2008
Local boy makes good (tales)
By DINA ZAMAN
As this tale shows, you can take the boy out of Terengganu but you can't take Terengganu out of the man.
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‘I wrote it because I wanted my children to know of my life’, says Wan Ahmad Hulaimi. |
TWO thousand and seven was indeed the year for Malaysian writers and literature, and ending the year with a roar all the way from Terengganu was Awang Goneng’s whimsical memoir, Growing Up In Terengganu. The book has hit a steady stride, gathering fans who love its gentle and humorous look at a life and a past that are almost invisible now in modern day Terengganu.
As a Malaysian from the same state, it was indeed exciting to find a book that has chronicled histories that I saw in bits and pieces when I was very young, and heard about from older relatives.
Awang Goneng's book has sparked nostalgia among older Terengganu-ians, such as my mother and her peers. For many, the book brought back memories of a “kampung” they had once known intimately, and seen it disappear amidst the rapid progress the state is currently experiencing.
Their children are not familiar with that particular history, and Growing Up In Terengganu has become almost an heirloom among Terengganu families now. Parents are passing the book to their children and grandchildren, and gatherings and meetings among the elders are being organised to discuss the book and forgotten childhoods.
It's no wonder. To quote Susan Abraham who wrote in her blog: “In this book, a concoction of blog posts lovingly cooks up the persuasive yarns that shapes old-fashioned storytelling with delicious spoonfuls of tastes and flavours laid out decoratively, for the mind and heart. All of which create an exotic mystery that serves up intrigue for a young boy in his childhood years.”
So it was with some trepidation when I met with Awang Goneng. My family wanted to know if he had known the Goneng they had known – an effeminate young man who wore a long batik sarong on his head, which acted as his “long hair”. Somehow I never got around to asking him that question.
Anyway, Awang Goneng, which means “mischievous local boy”, is the non de plume of former journalist Wan Ahmad Hulaimi, 60.
As it turns out, he is a shy man. Accompanied by his somewhat more gregarious wife, Zaharah Othman (or Kak Teh as the veteran journalist is more popularly known), the writer came across as diminutive and retiring. Not withdrawn, mind you.
But when he spoke, you knew that this was a man of letters and books, who loved language and its idiosyncrasies, who enjoyed humour but not frivolity. As a former journalist who wrote about politics and current affairs, Growing Up in Terengganu was a huge departure from his previous work.
“I wrote it because I wanted my children to know of my life. My childhood,” he said. Having lived in Britain for over 20 years, his children had known no other life than the one in London. The sporadic trips back to Malaysia weren’t enough, and because of the rapid development in the state, there really wasn’t a true kampung for them to go back to.
It started with a simple blog, prompted by a friend and fellow blogger, Pak Adib. It then evolved into a germ of an idea: to get his children to know Terengganu. Initially, the blog, Kecek-Kecek, had no direction but gradually found its tempo, which is the mainstay of the book.
“I tried to capture the rhythm of the language, the lifestyle we had back then. Writing the blog liberated me from my rigid, structured background as a journalist. I was always neurotic about writing the first paragraph! But the blog was free-flow. I wasn’t writing for anyone; I was essentially writing for myself. I could write whenever I wanted.”
One comment he received was that he wrote “?like Dickens” and he was adamant that no one saw him in that light. “I’m no way near Charles Dickens. What mattered to me was that each sentence had a rhythm in it. Look at some of the Malay pantun in the book. They make no sense but the rhythm’s fantastic.
“I wouldn’t say that the book’s meant for a certain generation. It was meant for my children, but it seems to have struck a chord with many Terengganu people. Someone wrote to me, Long Ladang, and he said, 'You write about things long ago, but you write like a young man.' Another young blogger, Dr Bubbles, said that I wrote not about Terengganu but about kampung life. And he could relate to that.”
Would he change anything about his book?
“I may change or edit certain sentences, but in essence, no.”
If he had a grouse, it would be the distributorship of his book. He declined to elaborate except to say, “There are two sides to the story, of course, but things are getting better.”
What is it like to have two writers in the family? Hulaimi and Kak Teh laughed. The few months prior to publication, they were sitting back-to-back and communicating through chat programmes.
“He’d be facing the garden, and I’d be doing my work, and he’d email me messages,” shares Zaharah. .
Hulaimi is now a full-time writer, though he does get involved in other media projects as “?freelance work does not exactly pay the bills!”
And on how Terengganu seems to have given birth to quite a number of writers, what would he attribute that to?
“It’s probably in the water. Air jernih! This is what people have forgotten. Terengganu is not isolated. We have a long tradition of scholars, from Pattani, Yemen, and they wrote and wrote. You should have seen some of the old kitab (religious books) which were translated into Malay in the 17th century. My family came from a long line of such scholars.”
Since the book’s debut, many have been eager to be in touch with Hulaimi, to give their take on what the old Terengganu was like.
“I don’t find it offensive at all. The sad thing is, the latter generation do not appreciate literature, the past.”
Here's hoping Growing Up in Terengganu will change that.
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